Honeymoon - Day 10 - the Na-Pali Coast

We were told by everyone that’s been to Kauai that we MUST see the Na-Pali Coast. The Na-Pali coast is the other side of the Waimea Canyon…at the end of the road, you can look out of some of the cliffs (at the highest point) and see the ocean and two protected beaches. Those beaches are only accessible after an 11 mile grueling hike, or if you swim in. They are not accessible by a boat landing, or car, or by air.

When we left home, we weren’t sure how we would choose to see the coast, but knew we wanted to. I have always wanted to see the coast from a helicopter, but it’s so dang expensive. As we flew into Kauai, I was hoping we’d at least get the chance to see it from the plane…better than nothing, right? The pilot didn’t grant me that wish.

At our hotel, we found two different boat options; a catamaran snorkeling tour or a rafting tour. We opt’d for the rafting tour because it seemed more exciting. Plus, the rafts get a lot closer to the coast, can go into the caves (weather permitting) and do a beach landing for lunch (again, weather permitting). Oh yeah…and it was less the half the cost of a helicopter tour.
We woke up at the crack of dawn and headed to Port Allen…about 45-50 minutes away from our hotel. After our two captains and the 10 tourists got into the raft, our adventure began. We had two awesome guides, both very experienced and natives to Kauai.

After only a few minutes, we saw a small pod of Bottle Nose Dolphins swimming by. It was very cool!! I was hoping for Humpback Whales, but they don’t usually arrive in large numbers until December and stay through March-May. A short time later, we saw a large school of Spinner Dolphins…there were hundreds of them!! I had never seen anything like this before!! They were smaller than the Bottle Nose, and jumped, spinning out of the water.


We ventured further up the coast, we passed a military base that is used for missile launching…they were preparing to do some sort of practice launch later in the afternoon. Our guides told us when the military has these training exercises, numerous boats will be staggered out to sea…playing a “game” of real life battleship/ The test the missile range, the radar, their ability to stop the missile, etc. (I wanted to stop and hang out with those guys!! That sounded FUN!!)

We passed a sugar mill, the last one in operation on Kauai. I guess it’s cheaper to get our sugar from other countries, so it will also be closing soon. We passed several beautiful beaches…and finally made it to the Na-Pali Coast.


The wind picked up and the ride was much rougher. (even though our guides said “rough is a dirty word on that boat, they prefer “exciting”) We were wind blown and wet from the splash, but having a great time. I expected it to be much, much rougher than it ever was…so I was pleasantly surprised by most of the trip.

We made our way to one of the many sea caves along the coast. The water was rough and other raft captains were not entering the cave. Our guide, however, waited for the right moment and we were lucky enough to see the inside of the sea cave. The ceiling had fallen through, creating a large “island” in the middle of the cave years and years ago, but it was quite big inside so it wasn’t even noticeable. We were only able to stay inside the cave for a few minutes, but were lucky enough to get some photos.

After the sea cave, we made our way up the remainder of the coast. There are two beaches, side by side (kind of) that are only accessible by hiking, or swimming. If you do decided to brave the 11 mile hike (which we heard is pure torture, complete with nearly 100 switchbacks), you have to have a permit from the state.

After seeing the entire coast and all of her majestic cliffs, we were able to swim ashore to a beach that allows the raft to anchor between certain times of the day. After lunch, Mike snorkeled and I read my book. The water was freezing, so I thought it best to stay wrapped in semi-dry towels for the 45 minutes of play time.

Mike did get to swim with two sea turtles…he said the turtles were only about two feet from him and just “stared” at him. He said he just stared back and then everyone went their own way. He said the three turtles he saw were pretty large, one was about 6 feet ong or larger. Mike told me the turtles reminded him of the turtles on “Finding Nemo”.

We finished our rafting trip with sore backs and arms and butts (all from bouncing and holding on for dear life). Almost all ailments were gone by the next morning…but we aren’t as young as we used to be, so they aren’t ALL gone. That rafting trip with well worth an ache or two…definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done. I am glad we got to see Na-Pali from both angles; up in Waimea Canyon and from the ocean in a dingy. Absolutely a MUST DO in Kauai...everyone should see the beauty of Na-Pali.