So I’m visiting two islands I’ve never visited before: Oahu and Kauai. There isn’t much to speak of about Oahu just yet…I spent the 4th of July there with my friends John and Chris who are getting married this weekend. More on that later this week. Let’s get right to nature shall we?

Note: click on the pic to see it full size!

So I’m staying in an Airbnb in the foothills outside of Kapa’a on Kauai. This is the view from my deck! By Kauai standards, that’s ordinary.

I spent the day driving the north shore, wondering what I would find. I drove the road as far around the island as I could, to the town of Haena. This marks the north edge of the Napali coast, the most famous stretch of shoreline in Kauai, one that can only be accessed by boat.

And when you get there, you’re stunned by the jagged peaks coming out of the earth, not even full mountains but pillars shooting out from nowhere, covered in lushness, overwhelming you with wet greenness.

Toward the end of the road, I came across an unexpected find: a wide mouthed cave across from Haena beach. This is the Maniniholo dry cave. Hopefully the trees and people give you a sense of scale.

I then drove back to Princeville to hike the Queen’s Bath trail. I didn’t make it to the actual Queen’s Bath, a tide pool fit for swimming, due to footwear issues. OK, I admit I hiked in flip flops. But it was worth it, and I didn’t rebreak my leg in the process.

Then there was this.

To get to the trailhead for Queen’s Bath, you have to drive through a manicured subdivision and golf community that seems more well suited for central Florida (where such development is a big improvement over scrub pine and swamps) than remote, rugged, mystical Kauai. The town, Princeville, aggressively polices people who do not park in the limited trailhead parking spaces. Have you ever seen a sign this obnoxious? That then has the gall to say “aloha and respect” at the end? I mean, there’s NIMBYism, and then there’s this story from The NY Times a couple of weeks ago about an anti housing advocate in Marin, but this takes the cake for radical exclusion.

Then I happened to notice the airport code for Princeville. HPV. I chuckled. So deserved. The wart of Hawaii.

There’s a play on words on “geniality” here, ya know.