Day 8: “A bird’s eye view of Kaua’i!”

This morning we woke up with the sun to prepare for our flight around the island in an awesome little GippsAero GA8 Airvan! We headed to Līhuʻe Airport to meet our pilot, JT before setting off. There are a ton of tours, mostly by helicopter, that will take you around the entire island, but we chose the GA8 Airvan because every seat is a window seat that provides spectacular view (most helicopters are 3, sometime 4-wide bench seats).

If you’re fine with small planes, there’s no better way to see this beautiful island. We had beautiful views of the Manawaiopuna Falls (famous from the original Jurassic Park movie), Waimea Canyon, Na Pali Coast, Hanalei Bay, Wailua Falls and even a few rainbows!

After our birds-eye-view tour, we met back up with Sam from Kamoa Ukulele for our free lesson with the family. We built upon our skills, learned some foundationally music theory, and even some new songs!

After brushing up on our Jack Johnson, we walked down the block to Scorpacciata Neapolitan Pizza, an awesome food truck that shares a lot with the equally awesome Wailua Shave Ice.

After filling up our tank, we headed down to the south shore town of Hanapepe. Hanapepe is a cool little town that’s been dubbed “Hawaii’s Biggest Little Town” and rightfully so. It has a small town feel, but seemed to have a consistent hustle and bustle. The town is full of cute little art shops, cafés, and local boutiques.

Hanapepe is also home to a neat swinging bridge that is open to foot traffic only. The bridge was originally built in the early 1900’s to allow residents to cross the river, but it now serves as a popular tourist stop.

After our south shore visit, we headed back to the Kapa’a area for our dinner and luau at the Smith Family Garden! I’m sure there are over a dozen different luaus on the island, but we’ve heard nothing but good things about this one. In our experience, most (if not all) luaus are pretty touristy, so let that be known first. The grounds were impressive, and the food was pretty good.

The entertainment however was top notch; they represented native island dances, but also incorporated the various cultures that have made their mark on what we now call Hawai’i (Tahitian, Japanese, Filipino, New Zealand,).

Tomorrow we have a big adventure ahead of us that involves kayaking and hiking to a place known as the “Secret Falls,” so make sure you stay posted!