We set off for our second island today, it seems strange that we had to allow 1.5 hours for security and check-in for what turned out to be a 20 minute flight. Despite the many traffic issues of Honolulu we made quite good time to the airport and the car drop off was painless which is a good thing as this is the first flight this holiday where we are not flying business! Somehow we managed to be at the front of the queue to get boarded which was a good thing as on Hawaiian you have to pay for hold luggage so everyone tries to take the maximum amount of hand baggage of the largest size possible meaning that the overhead lockers fill up very quickly. We had seats at the back of the plane which meant that we were almost the last people off, this was only a problem when it came to the car hire as there was a long queue but we were able to go straight to the front as we were with Europcar and they had a separate line. We finally left the airport about 12.30 so we decided to go to the Wailua waterfall, this was used in the opening scenes of Fantasy Island but I assume it wasn’t quite so crowded then! The first thing you notice about this Island is how green it is, the second is how many chickens are running about the place and the waterfall is no different, we eventually managed to find somewhere to park the car then walked down to have a look at the waterfall. Some people had walked to the bottom of the falls and were swimming in the pool but all the signs said it was dangerous and illegal so we decided against doing this. Our next stop had planned to be Old Koloa Town but on the way we saw a signpost for Spouting Horn which is a blow hole that I had seen listed on the map while we were on the plane so we decided to drive round to it, I must admit with quite low expectations as we are not very successful with blow holes but it was well worth the detour. After dodging more chickens, this time with chicks, on route we wandered down to the water and I am not sure if we just managed to arrive at the right time or it is a very spectacular one but we didn’t have to wait long before it was spraying water into the air. We stood watching that for a while then decided to go to Historic Koloa. It turns out that this was the site of the first productive sugar plantation in Hawaii. It started in 1835 and the town was built over a number of years, although all the buildings now house modern businesses, each has a plaque outside stating what the original use was, there are also a number of photo’s from the early years on the walls of some of the shops which are interesting to look at. We walked round then decided to stop for something to eat there are actually only two restaurants so we had a pizza which was really nice, followed in another shop by an ice cream – such decadence, I am loving this island already. We decided to head round to the hotel, as we are in a condo we stopped at the supermarket on route to pick up some beer and breakfast provisions then finally got into the room about 5:30. Our room has a balcony that overlooks the sea but is significantly lower than the last one but it was quite nice to sit with a drink watching the sun go down before going to bed in preparation of our early start tomorrow.
