…it’s time for flying again, Honolulu -> Lihue, everything went perfect, no luggage was lost, rental car picked up and i got another upgrade by one class. Sign up to the miles programme of Hawaiian Airlines was also an good idea because the price for a checked in luggage was now $15 instead of $25. Even this time i failed to make a plan for the island before arriving, again. So what todo? First i stopped at an Seafood Fast-food shop which only sells take-a-ways in Lihue, got some delicious Ahi in Mustard/Wasabi sauce. Now filled with energy it was easier to make a plan for the next days and i drove few meters to the next State Department for getting my camping and hiking permissions. First was the permission for the Kalalau Trail which goes 11miles along the Napali coast, but i already knowed that it would be difficult to get one, because the LP guide and some webpages said, that you should do this a half year before. It got declined and the next available would be on the 11th January, not too bad, but it didn’t want to stay so long on Kauai. Second permission was from today for the next days at the Koke’e State Park. Event this was declined, because “the parking lot will be new paved”. Last try was for the Polihale State Park, an miles long beach with nice spots to camp, directly on the beach or between trees and bushes. Yes, this was available and i choose to stay there for 4 nights till the 2nd January. Happy to got at least this permission, i bought my goods for the next days and tried to head direction to Koke’e to find a place for this night.
Sadly i got stuck in Wailua, a region where lots of high class Hotel parks are located and this was the first time that i wasted time waiting in traffic congestion on the Islands. Even the weather today was totally cloudy with some rain. It looked a while to got the South-West and i saw the mountain with the road to Koke’e in rain clouds covered. The lookout to the Waimea Canyon wasn’t worth to stop long, clouds, rain and to dark for getting a good picture, so i headed up, to the top where i hoped that this might be above the clouds. I was wrong! Arrived at the camping area at Koke’e i saw this brand new paved parking lot directly on the camping area and i started wondering, because there where an even bigger parking lot at the Koke’e Lodge which just was around 100m farer away from the camping area. I recognised that there still was people who camped there and i wondered. The Lodge and the Visitor Information closed at 4pm, so i got no chance to get informations if hiking is restricted or to get an hiking map. It was really cold up there, so i changed the unit for degrees from Fahrenheit to Celcius and was shocked about the 11°C. brrrrrrrrrr…i was so happy not to got that permission to camp up there in the wet- and coldness.
Never mind, i need an sleeping place, so i choose to stay and park at the Waimea Lookout on the parking lot for the first night. It was a little bit warmer at around 16°C and sleeping in the car was already a good and well chosen alternative…(2014/12/26)