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Kaua’i |
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Monday, August 25, 2008 Tubing Through The Caves |
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What a day! It’s as simple as that!
When we bought this trip package last year, it was a fairly straight-forward package with airfare and lodging. The one addition to this package was a tubing trip through one of Kaua’i’s old sugar cane plantations. We were excited about this going into the trip as we have always enjoyed the relaxation of tubing. This one turned out to be a wee bit different than we expected. But we loved it all the more so because of it!
Pretty easy to see why Kaua’i’ is the rainiest spot on earth! There’s supposed to be a mountain off in the distance! → |
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After breakfast, we made our way through Lihue’s “rush hour” traffic to the facilities of Kaua’i Backcountry Adventures. We knew something was up immediately after we checked in when we saw a table full of heavy gloves and hard helmets equipped with lamps! For Victoria and I, this merely heightened our excitement, but for Kathie, this meant some serious trepidation as she has a bit of claustrophobia and this equipment could ONLY mean that we were heading into some caves! Our principal tour guide didn’t help her (or Victoria) when he gleefully described how we would be going through tiny caves that were also filled with bats and large white-spotted leeches! Fortunately, these fore-told tales of our impending demise were greatly exaggerated! |
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What we were doing was tubing down through the 150-year old irrigation canals than had been hand-dug in the mid-nineteenth century to get water from the mountain streams into the sugar cane fields (today, the land is owned by AOL founder, Steve Case). What makes these canals particularly impressive is that in addition to being dug completely by hand, they went straight through the hills (hence our need for helmets and light), always at a 5% downgrade! At one point, they apparently had a team digging through a mountain in each direction. Unfortunately for them, they missed each other (the were digging next to each other instead of meeting each other), but this made our trip a bit neater as the tunnel does quite a bit of twisting and turning. |
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Finding out just how cold the water was—the hard way! |
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Relaxing before entering the caves! |
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You can almost hear the eerie theme music starting up! |
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The lack of ANY light was QUITE disconcerting at times! |
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In and out of the caves, through the trenches and to the sugarcane fields |
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Once Kathie saw the size of the tunnels (usually the height was about five feet ABOVE the water line), she relaxed and had a great time. Victoria could usually be heard screaming with Julia, a nine year old girl from New York City like little girls do (I think the only time she was truly nervous was when the guides had us turn out our helmet lights so we could get the full impact). In the end, we all had a great time and would have been more than happy if it had kept on going for another hour or so! |
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We spent the afternoon back at the Hyatt enjoying the pools and the water slide (the Pacific was too rough for any swimming there) before heading down the road for dinner at Plantation Gardens, a Victorian-era plantation house with a magnificent Hawai’ian garden. It was just our kind of evening with a beautiful setting, great service, creative menu, and DELICIOUS food (loved my Hoisin Pork Tenderloin) as well as an enjoyable conversation with a couple from Montana who were sitting next to us. Definitely put on your list of restaurants if you’re visiting he island! |
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Some of the Hyatt’s permanent residents |
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The Plantation House Restaurant offered a beautiful Eden-esque atmosphere with its fantastic cuisine! |
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TOMORROW: Hawai’i’s Tropical Gardens |