We saw super cheap flights to Kauai during the first week of the new semester. We decided to plan a spontaneous trip out there! We had Anela, Grace, Hannah, and Gavin. We were mostly wanting to go hike the Napali Coast. But leading up to the trip we didn't see any permits available. It wasn't till the night before that I saw 6 pop up! We booked them right then. Our plan was to land and go straight to the coast to start hiking. When we landed we picked up our Tesla and made our way to the North Shore. What we didn't know was that the road going up North is closed for half the day due to the landslide that happened. We couldn't get through till that afternoon around 1:30. So we relaxed at Queen's bath and watched Princess and the Frog thanks to our Tesla!
With all the traffic we started hiking at 3ish. We had 11 miles to go before sunset at 7:45pm. We were trying to go as fast as we could but it was hard when we had to stop and take so many pictures because of how beautiful it was. We also didn't pass anyone on the trail which was odd because all the permits were sold out online. We were caught in a little rainstorm as we walked. I threw on my pancho to keep myself and my backpack dry but I was getting so hot underneath the plastic. I could feel my sweat dripping down me. Nonetheless, we pushed on. We hit the 9-mile marker just as the sunset. We of course were not prepared to be hiking in the dark so we were sharing what flashlights we did have. We slid all over the trail because of how wet the ground was from the rain. It was dark, we were hungry and had no idea how much longer it was going to take. We almost called it quits a few times because we were so tired. But we knew we would sleep much better if we could take off our dirty clothes and eat our hot meal. There were also huge frogs jumping on the trail scaring us.
Around 11pm we made it to Kalalau beach! We quickly set up camp ate a warm Mountain House and showered off in the waterfall. We slept well that night. The next morning as we were making breakfast and getting ready to hike we met a guy our age from BYU Provo. He said his buddy took off for a morning swim about 2 hours ago and hadn't returned. He pointed to where his friend got in and we could only see huge waves smashing on the shore and rocks. We were worried he was gone at sea. We told him we were going to hike the valley and if he wasn't back by the time we were we would call for help. When we returned he was bawling his eyes out saying his friend still hadn't returned. We all sort of panicked and started writing SOS in the sand in hopes that someone from a helicopter would see. A huge storm started blowing in and were taking shelter from the storm by the ranger station. This was a depressing time for everyone.
We weren't sure what to do because non of our phones worked. The only way to get service would be to hike the 11-mile out and drive into town. We tried comforting him but he was losing it. Nobody was getting our message. We sat in the cold rain waiting for our boat that was coming that afternoon.
Around 4pm we saw a party boat off the coast with a bunch of college-age-looking kids singing to music and drinking their beer. We weren't sure what they were celebrating. It wasn't till we got a closer look we saw this young man's friend in the crowd of the partiers. I guess he couldn't swim back to the beach and was pushed down the ocean. He was holding onto some rocks when the party boat passed. We all cried tears of joy that this young man's life wasn't lost. The boys decided they would hop on the boat with us back to Hanalei. We walked with our backpacks in trash bags over our heads in the ocean to the boat. Once we were all in the clouds the rain immediately went away. We saw dolphins jumping and it was the most perfect afternoon! We shouted and screamed on the boat as Koa drove us in and out of caves and through the waterfalls. This was one of the most magical moments on the boat. That night we slept at the BYU boy's place.
The rest of our trip consisted of hiking in Waimea Canyon, Hoopii Falls, and Wailua Falls. We slept on Ship Wreck beach one night and took down camp just as a cop was walking by in the morning. We also rented a Tesla. We forgot that we would need to charge it. We didn't plan for that because we were camping every night. We almost ran out of miles on the top of Waimea Canyon. On our last night, we splurged on a hotel and bought a huge extension cord that was plugged into our hotel room to the parking lot where we charged the Tesla. We had the best time on Kauai and Gavin rocked it traveling with 4 girls. We passed the same special needs kid almost every day. Every time he saw us he would say four girls one guy. Wow. And that's exactly what we said too. Kauai thank you for the most magical time! A Hui Hou!
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