Movie Sites New and Old

We got up early to rendezvous at the Na Pali Catamaran office in Hanalei. Today is our boat trip out along the Napali Cliffs. Only two or three boats leave from the north side of the island, the rest leave from Port Allen on the south coast making for a much longer trip. We chose the Napali Catamarans power boat, a small powered catamaran (really a twin hulled power boat, you had to look close to see it had two keels) with a crew of two. We got canoed out to it from the mouth of the Hanalei river. Nick, the captain was notable in that every third word he said was "guys". "Hey guys if you guys look over here guys you guys will see...., OK guys?" No kidding.

Nick heads us into one of several caves.

The ride out was fast and had an excellent view of the cliffs, including backing into several caves. We went into dark caves, caves with waterfalls inside, waterfalls outside and a cave with no roof, which could be called an inlet through an arch, but whatever. Nick was an excellent boat handler, considering he was working around vertical rocky shoreline in three foot waves and a swell. As we headed out we could see parts of the 11 mile Kapalau trail along the cliffs. We have hiked the first two miles a couple of times, but this probably cured me of my desire to go the next 9 on foot. Even more daunting was watching the kayak tours paddling the 11 miles in three to four foot seas. That looks like a lot less fun than it sounds.

Enroute, we passed one of the last beaches on the Napali coast, accessible only by water, the walls around it are too steep for trails. It also has an arch leading to another beach. The motion picture industry has fallen in love with this beach and paid enough money to overcome the old native restrictions on landing on it. It was used in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Six days and Seven Nights, another Harrison Ford movie where he crash landed on an island, a James Bond movie and as we looked at it they were setting up for a shoot for the next (!) Pirates of the Caribbean (Jack Sparrow and the Treasures of Social Security). The give-away was the portable toilet on the beach. No doubt that had to be sling loaded in by helicopter and will undoubtedly have to be sling loaded out. Talk about expensive plumbing! We saw several helicopters pass over with sling loads of equipment for the operation (big$$!).

The far end of the trip included a stop for snorkeling. It is the first reef along the cliffs. The cliffs are the only portion of island with no reef because they are half of a volcano cone and the other half fell into the ocean during an earthquake (loooong time ago) so there is about a 12 mile stretch of no reef. This snorkeling session was unique because in addition to fish we saw a sea turtle. Not sure if we got a picture because he was cruising along and was hard to keep up with. Even more unusual was a Hawaiian Monk Seal, one of two species of mammals native to the islands. He swam around with us and was trying to eat algae off of one of the boat moorings. The seal was "a little aggressive, guys" in the words of Captain Nick, guys, acting a lot like a large dog who didn't want you to bother him. He was about six feet long and it was fun to watch him. I will insert a picture of the seal when we get the underwater camera film developed.

We were home after a quick 45 minute ride pounding into the wind and seas.

Later in the day we took a ride a couple of miles beyond Hanalei and explored Lumaha'i beach, again famous for being in a movie. Lumahai was used for the "Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" scene with Mitzi Gaynor in "South Pacific" in 1958. Lumaha'i is an enormous beach, but is not particularly safe for swimming and it is beyond Hanalei past three one lane bridges so there are not a lot of people on the beach. The mouth of the Lumaha'i River is on one end of the beach and when we saw it it was completely dammed up by the sand, so the river actually made a nice swimming area.

Here is Kathy on the volcanic rocks at the end of Lumaha'i beach, the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville is visible across the water on the left side of the picture. It is the only large hotel on the north side of the island.