Day 12 started as a sad day. We had come to the northern part of the island, climbed a mountain, saw a couple of beautiful sunsets, even laid out at night and stared at the stars a bit. But we had to pack up, as we only had a couple of days in the North scheduled, so we took a bunch of pics and videos around the condo area, and started the trek to the southern part of the island and our last couple of days in Hawaii.

East of Princeville, near the north-east corner of the island, there is a lighthouse next to a bird sanctuary area called Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.

We saw a lot of different birds, wandered around a bit, and then climbed back into the car for a gentle drive South to Lihue. The second time on the main road allowed us a bit of a chance to see more settlements, some golf courses, a few more villages going off to the inland area, etc.

We passed through Lihue, and in my mind, we stopped and checked into the hotel, but the other pictures suggest it was later in the day. We had learned from the guidebooks that there was an area called Waimea Valley, and it was pitched as the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. I was sure it was going to be more hype than reality, but some pretty vistas would be nice.

Whatever our minds were expecting, Waimea Canyon was way beyond that expectation. It was absolutely amazing. Stunning. No words seem strong enough. We were totally blown away. I was expecting the West Coast of the island to be spectacular in the coming days (we had an outing planned), but nothing had prepared me for the canyon. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We drove up the canyon road that runs between the Coast and the canyon, and almost all of the photos are taken along the road. We went to a couple of lookouts to see the ocean to the west, but it was too foggy to see much in that direction. Instead, we parked and went for a small hike. We didn’t really have a plan, it was just that the hills were calling to us. We had to be out of the car, in the hills themselves.

Afterwards, we saw some postcards like the one below. And while most postcards look like the “perfect” shot, one that some professional photographer got at just the right light at just the right time and then airbrushed and tweaked within an inch of its life, the photos don’t do the actual landscape justice.

We hadn’t had a strong plan for the day, we just went up the road to see if there was much to see. Apparently, there was. We didn’t want to leave. Afterwards, we drove back to Lihue, checked into our hotel, and visited a beach to walk along the sand a bit.

As I said, it started as a bit of a sad day. We were starting our wind-down, leaving behind the Northern part of the island and heading south. We were excited to see the Western and Southern parts of the island, but we liked where we were too. The sunset at Ke’e Beach was amazing, we did the hike and loved the views. But that same day, we saw Waimea for the first time. Mind-blowing. Maybe even life-altering. In my entire life, I have never had a view of nature affect me as much as the views of Waimea Canyon. It was calling and we wanted to be part of it.