So the Poke was delicious. On to our afternoon adventure…

We headed up to the North coast. Before coming here I googled “Most beautiful parts of Kau’ai”. My searches all came up with different results…I am here to tell you that the North Shore is by far the most beautiful. Sarah would agree.

We first passed through a place we have wondered about since we were little kids. If you have ever sang “Puff the Magic Dragon” you know that he lived “in a land called Hanalei”…well Puff was no dummy…this place is amazing.

We drove through and located The Dolphin, the freshest fish mart/restaurant on the entire island. We noted for later that we needed to drive back through and have dinner here.

Then on we went, down the Napoli coast. We stopped on Hanalei beach and watched lots of surfers that all looked like professionals to us. Look closely at the guy in the far right of this photo. He caught air right when I took it.

Amazing. We could have sat there all day but onward we went. 

Next we drove up the narrow roads and one lane bridges that navigate the Napoli coast. We stopped at a pull off that beautifully highlighted the taro fields:

Not far from that was an awesome little farmers market where we stopped and sampled all the delicious local fruits alongside mostly locals. We grabbed and ice cold coconut for good measure:

Onward once again.

As we ventured further up the coast the vegetation became even more intense, and the coast became more harsh and more beautiful.

We came across the dry cave and then the entrance to the wet cave at the end of the Napoli Coast. We noted that we need to go back this week and hike that trail.

After the end of the road we turned around, we headed back toward Hanalei and The Dolphin. It was somewhere around 4:30pm when we pulled in to the restaurant. We had heard about how great the fresh fish was here, especially the poke…so for the second time that day we ordered a poke bowl and a bowl of the chowder along with 2 cold coconut porters.

The poke was indeed amazing. It was the Tahitian bowl – white fish, ahi tuna and shrimp over sweet sushi rice with red and green onions, topped with a sweet Tahitian sauce. So good. Get this if you go here. Just take our word for it, even if you think you don’t like raw fish…it will most likely change your mind. The chowder was also amazing – a mix of clams, calamari and shrimp maybe? I don’t totally remember but it was all good. If we go back I feel like we would be excited to order the exact same thing again.

We made our way back down to the east coast where we are staying. We stopped for ice cream quick at a shopping plaza somewhere near Anahola beach. After we were going to head straight home but Sarah wanted to take a random left turn and look for animals and the sunset. We ended up on Kilauea Rd. There are beautiful horses there that will come right to the fence and say hello.

 Just a bit further down the road before the lighthouse there is a section that is called “The Strip” by the locals. We found a whole bunch of cars pulled off the road with people sitting on top of their roofs looking out at the setting sun. We met a guy named Emilio there. He was a friendly local who worked down the street at The Bistro. He told us that they all park there on their nights off and stare down the coast at the cliff/rock formation that they call “The Chief” as the sun sets. It takes a little bit of imagination to see it but it is called this because it looks like a chief laying down.

It was a great day. Tomorrow we explore the South coast and venture towards Waimea.