We decided to drive through Waimea Canyon this morning despite the fact that we are going to do a down hill bike ride this afternoon. It was about an hours drive to the bottom of the Canyon and we had a few overlooks in the sat nav which should provide the best view points. This is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific and you can see why when you start driving into it. It is about 10 miles long and 3,600 feet deep. As it turned out there are a number of viewpoints as you climb up providing an ever more impressive view over the canyon. To start off with you get a view of the sea and across the plains, then as you climb you start to see the impressive colours of the rock formations. Although the whole area was created by a volcano, this canyon was created by erosion from the many rivers that seem to run across the bottom. It is 11 miles to the first view point but we stopped a number of times before that, it took us almost an hour to drive the 11 miles, then from then on we drove another five or so miles to the second lookout. The first provided spectacular views of a distant waterfall and a great view across the canyon, the second one we don’t really know what you could see from as it was in the clouds so you couldn’t actually see anything! By the time we got to the top it had taken almost 2 hours to drive 17 miles so we started to head down. It was a lot quicker coming down as most of the view points are on the way up. We drove round to where the mountain bike departs so that we could have some lunch before we started, we had a nice Pad Thai with spring rolls which was very filling then it was time to check in for the bike ride. After signing your life away the next thing you have to do is prove you know how to ride a bike. We all passed that test then it was time to set off up to the top of the canyon. The idea is that you are driven up then ride a bike all the way down. That was the plan but we only made it about five miles and the power steering on the van went as did the air conditioning so we had to pull over to the side of the road and wait for another van. Eventually we made it to the first lookout we had been to this morning where we had another look then a little further up the road it was time to get on the bikes. It pretty much is downhill all the way, you only have to peddle for two bits, the first was quite near the start and the second was at the very end. The van followed us down so basically we formed a rolling road block of 12 people on bikes and 1 very large van and trailer! We stopped a couple of times but we were both really glad that we had driven up this morning as we didn’t get to see much at all as we spent most of the time looking at the road in front and making sure we didn’t fall off! It was definitely an experience and we certainly reached speeds that I am not sure I will ever make on a bike again but I am not sure it is the best way to take in the views! Once we reached the bottom we were driven back to our cars then it was time to head back to the apartment and checkin ready for our next island tomorrow.
