Kipu Kai, Finally

Kipu Kai is a large cove on the south-east coast of Kauai, between Lihue and Poipu. It has about 2 miles of shoreline, more than half of it sandy beach. This area is nearly cut off from land access by two ridges that go down to the ocean at right angles from Mount Haupu. The wedge of land in between the ridges, as well as the only access road over them is private and closely guarded, but the beach up to the high wash of storm waves is public by law.

The combination of remoteness, seclusion, and sandy beach makes it one of those mythic “forbidden” places, coveted by modern-day explorers. Needless to say, I’ve always wanted to go there.

Few helicopter tours fly over Kipu Kai, but you sometimes get a glimpse of this coastline from commercial airlines landing or taking off at Lihue airport. This image shows the series of cliffs that reach down to the ocean, making access along the shoreline impossible.

This photo shows how Mount Haupu towers 2300 feet (700m) over Kipu Kai, and how the ridges wall it off from the rest of the island. Remember, all images can be clicked on for larger size.

You can also see Kipu Kai from some of the boat tours, as well as one of the ATV rides, but all of them from a distance. Fishing boats must go by here all the time, but to stand on the beach, you have to either jump from a boat or paddle in on a kayak.

With the calm seas we’ve been having recently, fellow adventurers and neighbors Randy and Ronnie proposed we do just that. It was so calm that my wife and I brought along our 2-year old daughter. We had two choices for which route to take, either from Nawiliwili harbor area or from Kawailoa bay at the end of the dirt road in Mahaulepu. It’s about 2 miles of paddling from Mahaulepu and 4 from Nawiliwili, but coming from Kapaa, we figured we’d rather spend the time in the kayak rather than in the car.

That was actually a fortunate decision because we were experiencing Kona weather, with the wind and the swell from the south. That meant that we went against them when they were mild in the morning, and they pushed us along when they both picked up in the afternoon. Here’s the map of our route, which you can download if you have Google Earth.

The easiest place to lauch a kayak at Nawiliwili is at the beach park on Niumalu road, behind the small boat harbor. We had a later start than planned, so to save a bit of time (about half a mile each way) we drove through the Marriott Resort, parked at the bottom and carried the boats onto Kalapaki beach. From there, we had a straight view of our intended route across of the shipping channel, behind the behind the breakwater, and beyond to the farthest point where we turn for Kipu Kai:

The ocean was perfect for kayaking and we were soon out of the harbor and going past the first point. High above us was Kalanipuu (780 ft, 240m), which has an aviation beacon because it’s so close to the airport. From here on, all the ridges and coastline were unseen terrain to us.

Before making the turn around the next point, there is this cove and small valley. The valley is somewhat of an oddity because it is nestled into what looks like a single ridge from either side, splitting it in two. The cove only has a rocky beach, which would make it hard to land and explore the valley.

When we rounded the “furthest” point we could finally see towards Kipu Kai. The waves and wind picked up a bit, now that we were more exposed to the southerly pattern. The coastline here consists of steep ridges, with rocky cliffs that face the sea. After passing the point of the next cliff, we caught good views of the beach already, looking like they were just beyond the next point.

But looks are deceiving from sea level, and we were barely more that half-way there. It took another hour of paddling into the wind and waves to finally reach the small bay at Kipu Kai itself. Mahaulepu is another 2 miles beyond the furthest point in the photo above.

The swells going into the little bay were almost surfable size, which is way too big for a kayak. You can see on the map we got pushed in and had to turn around to avoid getting swept up. Waiting for a lull between sets of waves, we then paddled straight through to the lee of the rocks in this photo.

As we paddled in, we got a good view of Mt Haupu looming over the private residence. I was a bit disappointed to paddle so far and have such and “intrusion” on my adventure, but I told myself it meant this was the more sheltered and more scenic of the three main beaches.

We land at last, after 2h15 of paddling it felt good to stretch our legs and rest our arms. We had a picnic lunch in the shade of the rocks of the picture above, since it’s forbidden to walk off the beach into the trees above. There is also a sign that says not to climb on the rocks—I don’t think steep rocky coasts have a public right-of-way like beaches. I have heard they keep a keen eye on visitors to make sure no one is tempted. We did see someone leave the house on an ATV, but I never saw whether they came to watch us or some other ranch business.

Speaking of ATVs, the private dirt road to Kipu Kai goes through the low notch in the ridge above the house. One of the ATV tours goes up to that col, but not down into Kipu Kai, click for the view from up there, and then tell me where you’d rather be.

Then we went to expolre all the beaches we could walk to from here, which included the main beach above, and some smaller ones we saw on the way in. You can see where we went in the yellow path on my Google Earth file. The people on the beach above retreated to the house after we landed, so we had the place to ourselves. They must have been members or guests of the family who own the land, but I’m not sure if anyone lives in the house permanently or wether it’s just a weekend retreat.

At the end of the first beach is a wide expanse of extremely shallow reef. It is very flat and had less than an inch of water, none in places so we walked carefully on it. In little pools that were deeper, there were intact pink coral, sea cucumbers, and in one, juvenile pennant butterflyfish.

After the shallow reef, we climbed through some short rocky stretches to access the further beaches. Here were some nice stretches of sand without footprints, at least until we arrived. These beaches are at the foot of steep slopes reaching up to the high ridges. In places where runoff usually flows down from theses slopes, it has carried the green olivine crystals from the volcanic rock down to color the beach. The reef still continues here, so there is no swimming, just laying on the warm sand and staring up at the cliffs, in a way that reminded me more of Kalalau than any other place.

On the way back to the kayaks, we stayed in the rocky areas instead of the reef and found the two large pieces of maritime trash—yet both very artistic in their own way. My first impulse was to want to take them home, then I realized that I could never carry them on a kayak, and secondly it was their contrast with the relatively pristine surroundings that gave them their character.

Back on the main beach, we could look back and see the other beaches we had walked to. We could also see that the waves were getting larger, so we had better not linger:

With over 4 miles of paddling ahead of us, we never even considered going to the two other main beaches to the south. Those would have to wait for another flat ocean day, and probably be wiser to attempt from Mahaulepu. The swells were noticebly larger than in the morning, perhaps the largest I’ve done in our little kayak. We pitched and rolled a little, but no waves were breaking on us and we were never in any danger of tipping over.

On the first leg of the return, the waves were coming mostly from behind, but at angle. The caused the kayak to turn, and since have a rudderless kayak that the rear paddler steers by changing the stroke, I was working extra hard. Now I understand why ocean kayaks usually have little rudders that can adjust for this. Still, the wind was at our backs and really helping us along the whole way. Plus, once we turned past the big point to head for the harbor, the waves were straight behind us and we could surf a little down each wave. In the end, it only took us 1h30 to paddle back, 1/3 less time than going.

But just because I’ve gotten into the habit of finishing with the bad news, here are two views of the development going on at the Marriott Lagoons, between the port and the airport. You can see the little detour we made on the return paddle in green on the map above.

What a pretty little waterfall I had never seen before, splashing down under the palm trees onto the rocks. Then I realized there is no stream here, and it must either be golf-course runoff or overflow from the artificial lagoons. Our friends thought they might be working on the Lagoons and draining them.

Manmade, yet nowhere near as pretty nor as ephemeral, we could also see one of the developments under construction. This used to be practically a blighted area. In the excess of the 80’s, there had been an ocean-front luxury shopping center for the resort guests. Later it was boarded up and the parking lot overgrown with weeds, only the brewpub survived but they no longer brewed their own beer.

So it was little surprise it was being redeveloped. And from one of their ads, it seemed they were offering low-rise condos, from an aestethic viewpoint better than 4-story boxes or spread-out luxury homes. But on the picture above, you can clearly see that they’ve created a huge artificial hill, to create more valuable real-estate overlooking the ocean. In my mind, that should not be permitted because it destroys the natural topography, crowds the shoreline, and runs the risk of eroding faster. I’ve never been to Ninini (running waters), the little beach you can see below the development, but I’d be willing to bet that many more buildings will now be visible from that beach. And now those visions of Kipu Kai seem even more precious.

Whales Offshore

We’ve had several periods of very calm seas recently, and some friends borrowed our kayak one weekend to go offshore at Kealia beach. They paddled out over two miles and had an incredible encounter with the whales. It is illegal to approach whales in any boat, and a friend on Maui was cited by a federal ranger for swimming out next to some whales. But if you paddle out and wait, they sometimes approach you.

Our friends saw them surface less than 100 feet (30 m) away, could hear them breathe, and even saw the eye of one that seemed to be looking at them. They also saw the whales wave their flippers and flukes (tails) out of the water, but not so close-up thankfully. Remember that a baby humpback whale is the size of a car, and an adult is the size of a school bus.

Hearing that, my wife and I wanted to go too. So late one afternoon, with ocean still increadibly flat, we put the kayak in the water at Wailua Beach, and then we paddled straight out to sea:

We got some nice views of the coast that we land-lubbers aren’t so used to seeing. Here is Nonou, the Sleeping Giant profile:

And then we saw the whales! First there were several blows, and then one of them was breaching several times in a row. They get far out of the water and come down with a huge splash—it looked like fun to me. I wonder if it was a male trying to impress a female or just someone with an itch. They were still a mile or more away, this is the best photograph I took of them:

Much as we wanted to go nearer, the sun was going down behind Kalepa Ridge, so we had to head back in:

According to the GPS, we were only 1.3 miles (2km) offshore, and whales probably don’t come that close. You can see in the map above that we never went beyond the imaginary line connecting the outermost points of the island.

Back on the beach, we met some other friends who had the same idea and had just landed their kayak as well. Except they had started earlier, went further out, and were approached by the whales, maybe the same ones we saw. They said they were close enough to hear their whalesong above the water.

For the rest of us unlucky whale watchers, we’ll have to be happy with the live broadcast of whalesongs from Maui by whalesong.net. You’ll need the RealPlayer plugin to hear it, but it’s worth installing if you don’t already have it.

Kapaa Stream Kayaking

It’s so hard to start blogging again, I got in the habit of just reading other people’s blogs. The lack of posts hasn’t been for lack of hikes, sunrises, events, or news-worthy items, I have lots of drafts to publish. However, I’m going on a real vacation starting next week, so I thought I’d post today’s outing before it fades away in my mind.

The Kapaa Stream is sometimes called the Kealia stream because it ends at the south end of Kealia Beach, just north of Kapaa. You can see it from the road bridge, and I’ve always wanted to explore it by kayak.

The best place to put the boat in the water is on the southern (right) bank, between the road and the stream. Down a little dirt road, you can park right next to the bridge at the stream. There’s a little makeshift ramp there for launching, even a little home-made pier. The following picture also shows the new bike path bridge being built in place of the plantation train bridge that had nearly rusted away.

It looks like that center piling was half-sunk at one point, I wonder if it was from the tsunamis of 1946 or 1957. It looks like it was reused and topped off level, but I think the new bridge does not rest on it (those are wooden spacers in the picture above).

But what about the kayaking? Well, this is one of the prettiest rivers I’ve kayaked on Kauai. It’s doesn’t have the size or waterfall hiking of the Wailua River, nor the mountain backdrop of the Hanalei River, but it’s a charming stream through Kauai’s rural landscape.

The first leg is a wide lagoon, although several patches of pretty water hyacinth are trying to reduce it. The tradewinds blow straight up this part, so save some energy to paddle against them on the way back. The stream then winds back in a big S curve (so you paddle against the wind, both ways), past some cows and horses to the prettiest part inland.

As the stream straightens out, it ducks under some large monkeypod trees for some shade. There’s a big logjam that you can fortunately get by on the right, and then you just admire the bananas and coconut trees lining the bank until you reach the swinging bridge.

After going under the bridge, you reach shallower water, but it is possible to scrape by until you see the road crossing the stream on a small dam. Total distance measured in Google Earth is almost exactly 2 miles each way.

You can also reach the swinging bridge by car: take Hauaala Rd. from the main highway up across Kawaihau Rd and back down into the stream valley. As it turns into a one-lane road, it parallels the stream and almost a mile further you’ll see the bridge.

I’m fascinated by the swinging bridges on Kauai. In my mind they’re associated with more adventurous crossings in the jungles of South America or the gorges of the Himalayas. I know of 5 on Kauai (2 in Waimea—3 actually but the uppermost one is private and in very bad shape, Hanapepe, Kapaia—between Lihue and Hanamaulu, and this one). Up until only 25 years ago, swinging bridges probably still outnumbered stop-lights on Kauai.

Most of these pedestrian bridges still serve residents in the river valleys, either as shortcuts to the fields or sometimes the main access to some houses. This one in Kapaa serves a half-dozen houses as an easier alternative to vehicle access on a long dirt road. In the photo above, there is actually one of the residents on the bridge near the right-hand cable support (click the photo to see it in higher resolution).

Ocean Kayaking

This past weekend, we finally had the chance to take our kayak out in the ocean, although we didn’t go very far.

The ocean is much rougher in the winter, although the south shore only had 0-2′ (0-60cm) waves predicted, which our kayak can handle. But we weren’t counting on the wind blowing 10-20 knots with stronger gusts. This made the water choppy and paddling even harder.

We launched from the beach next to Kukui’ula harbor near the Spouting Horn, paddled around a small wave-break and then headed back towards Poipu about half a mile (1 km). I don’t think we were ever more than a quarter-mile (400 m) from shore. The goal was to see some whales from a bit closer, but we were too busy negociating the weather to see any. We didn’t see any from shore either, so I don’t think they were around that area.

In the picture you can see our friends Becky and Julian riding on our old blue Cobra Tandem. I was paddling Julian’ one-person kayak to take the picture, while Sonja waited her turn on shore with the baby. It’s fun to see the island from off-shore and get a new perspective on the mountains. I think that is Haupu Mountain in the clouds above Julian. The Kauaian saying goes “The mists of Haupu foretell the rain,” but we only had wind and sunshine.

As a side note, the empty green fields behind the ocean-front houses is going to be developed soon as part of the 1500+ units of the new Kukuiula subdivision. Looking at their site plan, it is even larger than I thought. It goes beyond the Spouting Horn, all the way to the edge of the McBryde and Allerton National Tropical Botanical Gardens that are inland of Lawai beach in the foreground of this photo from their website:

Source: kukuiula.com

Up the Wailua River

Over the weekend, we went exploring with our Kayak on the Wailua river. We launced from the beach, right between the bridges. First, we paddled upstream on the really wide part of the river. At the branch, we took the left side, which is the South Fork. A little ways futher we landed at the Fern Grotto, about 2.2 miles (3.5 km) upstream from the beach. Although the entire river is a State Park, the only way to see the Fern Grotto is with a paid tour on Smith’s Boats or by private kayak. Rental kayaks are not supposed to land there so that Smith’s has the monopoly, and they don’t make it easy for private kayaks to land either.

I don’t think I’d ever pay money to ride a boat with a bunch of tourists to see the Fern Grotto, but it makes an interesting side trip to kayaking. And since it was late Sunday afternoon, we had the place to ourselves. There used to be more ferns and a tropical garden along the paved path to the Grotto, but I hear they were all damanged in hurricane Iniki and poorly maintained since. Right now, they are doing some major work on the structures, and it looks even worse in the meantime. However, the ferns are growing back and the grotto itself looks nice with water dripping down in front, as long as you can ignore the metal railaing and cement path.

We then paddled another half-mile (1km) up the South Fork, nearly halfway to Wailua Falls from the Grotto. We went through another narrow spot in the river, and then the scenery opened up with some pastures and house at the bottom of a wide river valley. The river got shallower and faster, so we had to work to paddle upstream. At the point where we had to turn around, some cows were watching us curiously.

These pastures are inholdings in the state park, incidentally where the powerhouse is being proposed for the Wailua Falls Hydroelectic Project that I argued against previously. You can see the distance we paddled on the map at that link.