Hanalei and Hideaway

On Saturday mornings there is a sweet little farmer and crafts market in Hanalei. Fresh organic produce in season and nice bakery items and fresh juices. Feels like a real healthy start into the day! Around lunch time we went to Hanalei beach, a nice place to swim, but the weather was not too good and there is a more beautiful beach to see...

So we were off to Hideaway, where one has to climb down quite a steep hill (rope along the dirt path to hold onto...), but it is totally worth it. Blue water, white sand, colorful fish and also colorful free range roosters (...the ubiquitous bird on the island). Gregory and the girls then left a bit earlier so Cherie could go pack for her flight home to Fort Worth.

After the beach, I was heading to Kilauea light house, but they close at 4pm already, so I only got to see it from a distance... well, I will have to come back one day then if I want to get up close to it.

Na Pali Coast by helicopter: breathtaking!

If you are on Kauai, you absolutely must do a helicopter flight to the Na Pali Coast. Even better with a helicopter that has the doors off, so there will be no glare and reflection when taking pictures. As I waited on the weather being good this morning and booked only last minute, I had a helicopter with the doors on, but at least I got the window seat in front with the pilot :)

Too beautiful... flying into the canyons, over waterfalls, ridges... and and and. No wonder they take so many movies here.

Paloma and I ready for take-off 

A down-hill par 4 on Kauai Lagoons

The "Jurassic Park" waterfall

Waimea Canyon

Na Pali Coast

Na Pali Coast

The beach between Wainiha and Hanalei Bay

Green so green!

Golf at Kauai Lagoons and spicy Ahi Poke at Kapaa beach

We had sunshine and rain, red and white bunkers (front nine different from the back nine), beautiful views of the sea and a lot of fun.  With Gregory I got to play for a local rate (half the price of what they charge visitors) at Kauai Lagoons. This Jack Nicklaus designed course has nice and wide fairways. With the tradewinds it still needs good course management though. Greens are big and were in good condition - a joy to to be out on a lovely day with great company.

For our late lunch we just went to Foodland and bought fresh spicy Ahi Poke, some vegetarian sushi and a couple beers to take to the beach in Kapaa. Wow, life is good when it is filled with the simple things.

Wailua Golf Club: Golfing with the 20+ Golf Club

standing from left to right are my flight partners:
Eric, Al, (myself) and Bob

10:00 am is a friendly tee time for a social round of golf. I tried to hit the fairways, my flight partners played a game of skins. Very nice course here and long. Playing into the wind means 2-3 clubs more at times... Some scenic holes and a challenging layout that is fair though to the game. 5974 yards from the ladies front tees (and wind, did I already mention the wind?!). Not to unhappy then with my 102 and only 33 putts today. My chips were good and I did have quite a number of 10 footers that sank in 1 putt (and no 3 putts today!). Definitely recommend to play it when on Kauai (weekdays at USD 48 for visitors is a steal).

The Garden Island is very green...
even this tree goes all green to fit in ;)

Lunch at Tikibar after our game!
Would go again if I was still here next Wednesday.

After the game I went to the hotel to shower and then took of on sunset road trip to Waimea on the west coast to meet up with Gregory, his wife Melissa and their visiting friends Liz and Cherie to see Pirates of the Carribean 4. The movie was shot here on Kauai and Greg was an extra and can be seen in a number of scenes. Such a beautiful place this island. Cannot wait for my helicopter ride of the Na Pali Coast.

Waterfalls, rain falls, rainbows on beautiful Garden island

First stop Wailua falls: so green so nice. Wow, this island promises to be a treat. Every road I drive on has spectacular views. They warn tourists here not to take stops just by the roadside and take pictures as this can be dangerous and is the cause for many accidents. Yes, I can see that, I want to have my camera on all the time and take pictures (out of a driving car if need be and they don't let me stop for it...)

Second stop Poipu beach: and taking my golf umbrella against the sun turned out to be a good idea. Within minutes of finding a nice sunny spot on the beach, the rain started, and then went away and started again...




The lifeguard at the beach saw me reading a golf magazine and told me to go check out a local 9 hole course with nice views and cheap rates. Cheap indeed. Kukuiolono only charges USD 9 for 9 holes (USD with a cart). It has very nice views, fairways that let your ball roll and roll and roll, decent greens and free range chicken on the tee boxes... all being topped off by waiting 15 minutes for the heavy rain to stop between hole 6 and 7 and be compensated for the soaked clothes with a beautiful rainbow.

... off to Kaua'i: the Garden island

Nice surprise at the airport: my golf bag travels for free with Hawaian Airlines as I am an international passenger. This is the first and probably last time that a non-Hawaian gets a discount on the islands. Golf courses usually charge about half the fee for locals (kama'aina) ... or is it the other way around, they charge double for non-locals :) Also, I got a window seat on the plane and had great views of the Kaua'i flying in.

The Courtyard Marriott in Kapaa is a good location to stay on the island's east coast, with easy access to the south and north shores. While not a resort, the pool area is actually quite nice and they light a fire by the pool in the evenings. The beach is not for swimming, but the blue sea is pretty to look at. The room wasn't ready when I arrived, so I browsed through the tourist guides while waiting for my late lunch salad by the pool (a loooong wait of 45 mins).

It was already getting late, when I headed off to the driving range at Wailua Golf Club. A bit of chipping and lots of putting practice and doing my new "keep a short swing drill" for two buckets :) This is a very long public course with a nice setting right on the ocean. I am looking forward to play this course on Wednesday with Eric (the most friendly guy who helped me get my clubs into my rental car at Alamo and invited me along to play with his Wednesday club).

Ko'Olani Golf Club: one of the top 75 resorts in the US according to Golf Digest

Today I played wtih John from Sacramento who I met at the Hyatt's breakfast bar. The wind was blowing again, but the sun was out and "ladybug" Ko'Olani is such a quaint resort course that we did not much care about it. With the right frame of mind, the wind felt like a nice breeze on a hot and sunny day.

The round was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of playing and scoring today. Kept my score below triple digit and had a very close call to a hole in one on the short 4th par 3 uphill, where my ball touched the hole and then bounced past it... But I also had quite a slice going today (fade + wind) and thus some of the holes played quite long. Hole 18 is a particularly difficult par 4 where one is tempted to drive to a narrow landing area past the water, which runs along the left side and in front of the green. Tempted I was too... and lost a ball (OB,) hit one into the water and ended up having to add a triple bogey to finish.