Day 14 was our last day, which, for most vacationers, means a sad day. But not for us. We had saved a visit to the Napali Coast, aka the West Coast of the island, on a zodiac. I mentioned previously that the fourth side of the island was uninhabited, unspoiled. If you’ve seen any movie set on an island that is supposed to be lush and green and wild, it was likely set in the opening scenes by a visit towards the Napali Coast. Isla Nublar from Jurassic Park used the Napoli Coast for many of its scenes. As did many “monster” films like King Kong. Why? Well, look for yourself.

Here’s what it looks like when you’re in a Zodiac on a bright sunny day.

And a scene from a helicopter.

For OUR establishing shot, here we are on the Zodiac.

As you go along the coast, there are lots of views like the first one above. But if you go in closer, you see that there are some caves or overhangs where you can go “inside”. There are scenes from James Bond movies shot inside these caves, and they are pretty cool to see in person.

And then you come out, back into the sunshine, and forget what you’re seeing because your brain doesn’t want to comprehend the scale.

Way down at the left side of the picture below is the trail we were hiking. See how low it is compared to the REAL mountains closer to the middle? Mind-boggling.

There’s a small beach area which might look familiar from the Jurassic World movies, even if none of the compies are attacking little girls. But we did get to stop and go swimming/snorkelling off the zodiac. I would have preferred a shallower entry rather than just over you go, but snorkelers can’t be choosers! 🙂

While we were snorkelling, I was expecting to see lots of fish. Instead, I mainly followed a turtle around.

We only had a few hours for the tour, and that was probably a good thing. While we got to see wonderful things like the waterfall below and some dolphins around the Zodiac as we were driving around, we were a bit unprepared for sun care. We did have water proof sunblock, strong stuff, all good, right? We put it on as soon as we got on the boat. Every ounce of skin was covered, and we had hats, all good. Except we were wearing our shorts over our bathing suits. When we went swimming and then got back on the boat, we just stayed in our bathing gear. So the few inches between the hem of our shorts and the hem of our bathing suits were left exposed. Without sunblock. We both got sunburnt, with Andrea’s legs screaming for Aloe Vera later in the day. Still worth it. In the main gallery, I added a bunch of scanned postcards of the coast from our trip.

Now that alone would be enough for our last day on the island. Amazing, mind-blowing, incredible. Yet, every day that we were near the Canyon, we felt we had to go visit. We couldn’t resist, it just drew us up the road into the area…we wanted to go hiking again.

We got a little closer to the waterfalls and pond today.

And then it was time to return to Lihue and start packing to leave the next day.

It had been an amazing honeymoon, trip and vacation. We had seen incredible sites; knocked numerous “adventures” off my bucket list for submarines, volcanoes, helicopters, sea turtles, hiking up mountains; and enjoyed sunsets, food and each other’s company without the stress of planning for a wedding. It felt perfect.

We didn’t know yet that there was another surprise waiting for us. What started as a trip for 2 was ending as a trip for 3. Jacob was with us too, even if we hadn’t met or named him yet.