The Adventures of Rent-A-Wreck

Kaua’i definitely has a couple friendly locals, but much less so than the big island. We don’t feel quite as welcome as we did in Hilo or in Kona. However, this is totally understandable; if there were nonstop swarms of tourists invading my privacy, I would probably be holding back from strangers I will never see again. One such character is the owner of the local “rent-a-wreck.” Their motto: If you don’t need to be driving around in something fancy, come rent a rust bucket for a fraction of the cost!

The owner looks like Vin Diesel, and is about as intimidating at first. Yet as we talked about the terms of the rental, it became apparent that he was a bit of a joker. As he pointed out at the black, beat up mid-nineties sedan in the lot, he said “Well, she’s out of gas, so bring her back empty. And ignore all the ‘check engine’ lights on the dash. And the AC doesn’t work…you guys aren’t air conditioning people, are you?” We laughed and asked what his hours of operation were, so we would know when to return the car. His response was, “Whenever I get here. Don’t worry too much about it.”

We later visited him to extend the rental, and he was actually pretty happy to see us. It seems around here that you have to be a return customer or a regular to get a smile and the shaka!

Well, we put that poor car to good use. Many beaches around here can only be accessed via four-wheel drive roads. We didn’t let that little detail stop us! I’m surprised that the car is still running, with minimal clunks and quirky noises.

One such beach was the western end of the Na Pali coast, called Polihale. It stretches for miles and miles, soft golden sand as far as you can see. It ends abruptly at the steep, imposing cliffs of Na Pali, which is an area I can best describe as a tropical version of the Big Sur coastline in California. I can’t fully describe the beauty of this place, as words just don’t do it justice. Please check out the pictures in the gallery, which shows our hike from the northern end of Na Pali on the Kalalau trail. The humidity was intense, the red mud thick and slick, and the mosquitoes ravenous, but I will never forget how perfect and pristine this wild coastline was.

My favorite part was Hanakapi’ai beach, about two miles into the hike. It was surrounded on all sides by steep black lava cliffs, covered with greenery. The breaking 3-4 foot waves were completely translucent; you could see the sand clearly below, and whoever was swimming around could be easily observed as they were swallowed whole and spat out by the sea. Further up the trail was Hanakapi’ai falls, another amazing spot. From there, the trail continued another 9 miles or so, which was a tad bit more than what we were willing to attempt that day.

It was pretty amusing to go see the new pirates movie the next night, and fully recognize the Na Pali silhouette, trails, and same exact plant life shown in 90% of the movie. Most of the locations shot for the film were right in our backyard!

We are counting down the days until we return home. I will be flying back to California on the 23^rd, and Jon will depart on his sail back to the mainland on the 24^th or 25^th. Shenanigans’ crew will include our buddy Matt, who I mentioned in an earlier post, and Sean, who has never sailed before but is really interested in such a grand adventure. So far it looks like the Pacific high pressure system is up near 38 N latitude, so they will definitely have some northing to do. Nonetheless, Shenanigans will get home safely and our little journey will be over for now. Where we will go after all this is still up in the air!