Today we did something that I've wanted to do for a while, we went on the "Movie Tour" with Polynesian Adventure Tours. The movie tours' concept is simple, they have a TV screen in the bus that plays a movie they edited together. The movie contains scenes from many different movies that have been filmed on Kauai. Our driver TC stopped and started the movie between his narrations to coincide with our location throughout the tour. It was a pretty cool concept, the first place we pulled up to was the dock at Ahukini Landing. All of a sudden John Wayne came on the screen and in the backdrop of the film was the exact same lighthouse that we were looking at.

I had no idea how many films have been filmed on Kauai. The list TC showed us was gigantic. We only drove along half of the island and were able to see these movie set locations:

"Pagan" was filmed in the bay of Auhikini
"Donovans Reef" was filmed at the Auhukini Lighthouse
"Six Days, Seven Nights" was filmed at Hanama'ulu Beach
"Wackiest Ship in the Navy" was filmed in many places we stopped
"Outbreak" Was filmed Kamokila Village
"Blue Hawaii" a classic starring Elvis, was filmed at many locations we saw.
"Honeymoon In Vegas" various locations
"Jurassic Park" various locations
"Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark" Kong Mountain
"Lord of the Flies" Kong Mountain
"Lilo & Stitch" Anini Beach
"South Pacific" various locations
"Dragonfly" Princeville Airport.
"Soul Surfer" was filmed in Hanalei
"Beachhead" Hanalei Pier
"Valor" Hanalei Taro Fields
and more....

Our guide, TC is a longtime resident of the islands and had some fantastic Hollywood related knowledge to share with us along the way. He has been a movie buff for a long time, no one was able to ask him a question that he couldn't answer. He pointed out the houses of different movie stars as well as some of his favorite beaches as he drove. The powerful air conditioning system in the bus kept the van cool as we moved from location to location.


We stopped for lunch in Hanalei on the North Shore of Kauai, at the edge of the picturesque Hanalei Bay. Here TC recommended some locations to eat and shop and then let us wander on our own for about an hour. I found a local plate lunch place that TC recommended in the Ching Young Village and tried out their signature "Chili Pepper Chicken" plate lunch. It was a very large portion and was extremely delicious!

After I was done with lunch, I still had some time to wander around and look in some of the surrounding stores. There was a surf store that was having a fifty percent off sale, and there was also a surf board exchange that was happening on the grass across the street that kept me occupied until it was time to get back on the bus.

On the ride back we stopped at some more movie scene locations and watched a very interesting segment about the making of Jurassic Park. As we pulled up to my drop off point, I said good bye to the friends that I had made on the bus during the day as well as our guide TC.

Since I went on the tour I have not been able to look at the places that we drove by in the same way. I have always been a fan of history, especially the local history of the islands. Some of my favorite books to look through over the years have been the ones that have old pictures of areas that I have been to. I love to be able to see how things were captured in a picture that I can compare to how they are now. Throughout this tour we saw many clips from older movies that did a great job documenting the changes that have occurred on Kauai. The classic Elvis film "Blue Hawaii" was filmed at many locations that we saw. To illustrate my point of what I'm saying further, there's a beach in Wailua that Elvis rode horses down in "Blue Hawaii" that I've passed many times before without even really giving it a second glance. Now I think about that beach as the Elvis beach every time I drive by.

My favorite location that we passed was the Coco Palms. This historic hotel was a cornerstone in the hotel industry for over 30 years. On September 11th, 1991 the island of Kauai was hit with one of the most powerful hurricanes on record; the grounds were devastated. The historic hotel was never rebuilt and has laid in ruins ever since. This was where the scene was filmed in "Blue Hawaii" where Elvis meets some visiting girls as they're checking in to their hotel. In the movie it had manicured grounds and looked amazing. Now the hotel lies in ruins, condemned after it was torn apart by the hurricane "Aniki". To be able to witness history in this sort of way was definitively my favorite part of the trip.


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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

Today we did something very unique, that I have never done before in the Hawaiian Islands (or anywhere else for that matter). We went fishing for Peacock Bass. We fished in the Waita reservoir above Koloa town, which is the largest reservoir in the state of Hawaii. Peacock Bass are a type of bass that are from South America that live in very warm water. Because of the Peacock Bass’ preference for a warm climate they are not found in the United States except for a few places in Florida and Hawaii. Being a longtime saltwater fisherman I was eager to try something a little different was pretty excited for this bass fishing excursion.

We checked in at the Kauai ATV Tours office in Koloa town where we met our guide for the day. Our guides name was Brian. He greeted us with a large grin and directed us to follow him in our car up to the reservoir. The reservoir was less then a five-minute drive from the main ATV office through the forest. As we came around the last corner and out of the trees, I was startled to see how big the Waita Reservoir actually is. It was constructed to irrigate the cane fields that used to cover this side of the island and is the largest freshwater reservoir in the entire state of Hawaii.

When we got there the boat was already in the water ready to go. This boat was ideal for the shallow waters of the lake. Its shallow draft design enabled it to float in very shallow water. Brian said it could float in water as shallow as ten inches. Brian explained that we were going to try a couple different fishing spots during the afternoon. The first place we were going to go was an area on the far side of the reservoir that had a rock wall submerged in shallow water. This area is known for finding the Peacock Bass because they like to use the rocks as their spawning grounds.

We tried many different kinds of bait and lures. I started out with a lure that resembled a minnow, it didn’t do so well so I switched to a silver spinning lure. When the spinner didn’t work I decided to try the live bait. Brian had a bait well full of live Tilapia. He rigged it on a fairly short leader that was floated by a red and white bobber. My girlfriend Simone had been using this setup the whole time and had already pulled in three different Peacock Bass onto the boat. I had a couple strikes that robbed my hook of the bait, but unfortunately I was not as lucky as Simone and did not catch any Peacocks.

As we started the motor to move on to the next spot I was curious if I was going to get a fish. The next spot we went to was a much shallower fishing spot called the “inlet”. This was a beautiful area that had much calmer water then the previous area we fished. As we came under the bridge into the shallow lagoon I was pleased to see some splashes and circular ripples extending out from where the fish were striking the surface to feed.

Brian explained that this area was a little more advanced because of the shallow water and the large amount of weeds growing out of the water. Here, casting accuracy was going to play a much larger part of the success rate. After a couple casts with a crawdad shaped lure I began to get a good feeling for the tip of the pole and started landing the lure right where I wanted it to go. A couple of times it seemed as if I dropped the lure right on top of the fish and scared it (evidenced by splashing in the water and no bite). Then finally I was able to find a clear line of sight over the reeds and drop the lure right past the fish and drag it backwards over the top of it. Instantaneously the fish struck and I fought it back to the boat. Fighting small fish with light tackle line in a river full of obstacles is a completely different feeling then fighting a larger saltwater fish in the open ocean. It was a much quicker fight that had to be carried out with much more finesse and I really enjoyed the challenge of reeling the fish back over the reeds.

I think in retrospect I might have used the live bait more. Brian had been collecting Tilapia in the live bait tank he had near the dock and we had a plentiful supply throughout the trip. Regardless of how much or how little I caught, the joy for me is the strategy of fishing and I had a great time learning some new things on a lake with one of the most beautiful backdrops I've ever seen.


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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that it was an absolutely classic sunny Hawaiian day outside. I put on my long pants, socks and shoes, then made a quick breakfast before I left to go on the waterfall ride with Princeville Ranch Stables. I knew that there was going to be some sort of mountaineering that was involved in the days trip, so I was pretty excited.

We checked in at the Princeville Ranch headquarters on the makai (ocean) side of the highway. This was the same place where our zipline tour departed from. Getting there was very straightforward and clearly marked, there were signs that were easily visible from the main highway. After filling out some waivers and packing our saddle bags, we got back in our truck and headed to the stable (about a mile down the road from the headquarters). When we got there, our guides were waiting out front. The horses were lined up along the hitching post, already saddled up and ready to ride.

Before the ride began, our guides went over some the basics of how to get on and ride the horses. The ranch had small platforms called “mounting blocks” that made it very easy for the smaller riders in the group to get on their horses. As I was waiting my turn to get on my horse, I began talking with some of the other people in our group that were also going on the ride. These people were very friendly, their group was made up of a mother, a father and two kids. They had flown in from California earlier in the week and both the children were eager to try the “mountaineering section”. I was curious what that part of the trip was going to entail.

After we all got on our horses our guides opened the gate of the arena and we made our way into the pastures of the ranch. We couldn’t have had better weather for the ride. It remained sunny with clear skies throughout the whole trip. All the mountains behind the ranch were fully illuminated from the days bright sun. As we were riding, I was pleased to find out that this was not a “nose to tail” ride. Because the ranch was so open, the group was able to spread out quite a bit. As we all rode our horses in a big pack through the pasture I couldn’t help but to think about how it must have been on Kauai in the Paniolo (cowboy) days. Many people don’t know it, but Hawaii has a rich cattle ranching history dating as far back as the 1830’s.

The Princeville Ranch is a working cattle ranch that covers over two thousand acres and has a herd of hundreds of cattle. As we were riding through, we got to see quite a few of the cows and even a few baby calves. We passed through the different gates that divided various pastures on the ranch before we entered a more dense forest. As we got deeper into the forest and closer to the waterfall, the trail began to narrow and we fell into a single file line. Eventually we reached a hitching post where we dismounted our horses and emptied our saddle bags of the items that we wanted to bring down to the waterfall. I grabbed our towels as well as my cameras and made my way to the top of the trail.

The trail down to the waterfall was very steep. It zigzagged its way down the hill through some very dense jungle to the waterfall below. Along the way there were stairs that were dug in the ground. All the people in our group were in good shape and made it down the trail without any problems. However, I think that most elderly people, or anyone with health issues that negatively effects their personal mobility would have a great deal of difficulty with the hike. Once we got to the bottom of the trail the canopy opened up and we were greeted by a picturesque waterfall that was flowing into a pool. The pool had a gentle current and was large enough for us to swim in.

For some reason, I was expecting the pool to be much colder then it was. There was a changing station off to the side where I switched my long pants for my board shorts before I made my way to the pool. When I jumped in it was actually quite refreshing and I felt quite comfortable as I floated around in the water for about ten or fifteen minutes. Some members of the group climbed up the rocks and walked underneath the waterfall. While we were all swimming and playing, the guides emptied out their bags and unpacked our picnic lunches. We sat there on the rocks enjoying the views as we ate. After a while we all changed back into our dry clothes and prepared for our trip back up the trail.

Before we began our ascent, the guides issued us all some light mountaineering harnesses that were complete with large carabiners. They explained that we were going to go a different way up the hill that was going to take us over some streams and up a small rock climbing section. The younger members of the group were especially thrilled to get to clip in and conquer the rougher terrain. After I made it to the top I looked back down and realized that the whole section we went through was actually on the top of the huge waterfall that we were swimming in earlier.

Our horses were waiting for us at the top of the trail. We rode back to the stable along a similar path to the way we came. As we were riding back I talked with our guides and learned that they are much more involved in the equestrian culture then I had previously realized. They actually partake in a rodeo circuit where they regularly complete in events such as roping and barrel racing. These events take place on Kauai as well as the other Hawaiian islands.

As we rode through the last gate and pulled back up to the stables I noticed that there were smiles throughout the group as we all said our goodbyes before we parted ways. The experience we had at Princeville Ranch Stables definitely had a bit more excitement in it then I had expected from the days horseback ride. I definitely think that this will not be my last time at Princeville Ranch and I’m looking forward to doing it again in the future.

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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

Before we even got to the ranch I knew that we were in for a special experience. The ride that we had scheduled for the day was at Silver Falls Ranch, which is located deep in the jungle, on the north side of Kauai. We had just had some rain the night before our ride; all the foliage seemed like it had become a brighter shade of green then it was the previous day. We turned off of the highway right before the Kalihiwai bridge on Kahiliholo road. After we had passed the 4th or 5th house on the road my girlfriend Simone turned to me and commented:

“I could drive up and down this road a couple times, just to take in the beauty of these peoples front yards".

When we got to Kamookoa Rd I turned to the left and we followed the signs towards Silver Falls Ranch. We passed the main corral where we could see our guide saddling up our horses. The beauty of the grounds of Silver Falls Ranch were beyond comparison with any of the estates we had seen lower down the street. I kept driving until we got to the barn where we parked the truck and made our way inside.

The check in office was located at the end of their central barn building. As we walked in, the ranch receptionist greeted us, then gave us a clipboard with some paperwork to fill out. She also gave us some helmets (if we wanted them, or an extra waiver to sign if we didn't). After completing our forms, we had a couple minutes to kill before the ride started, so we decided to walk around a little bit.

As we were mulling around the barn area I looked into one of the stalls and saw a newborn horse and it’s mother. Unfortunately, the newborn had a cast on it’s leg that went all the way up to the hip. One of the ranch hands explained to me that the horses’ leg was broken during birth. Sometimes, when horses break their legs they have to be put down because of the injury. However, because this one was so young, the local veterinarian thought that it had a better chance of making a full recovery then an older horse would. After hearing this, the ranch decided they would do everything they could to save it. We observed the baby horse for a few minutes before we wandered outside. We took some pictures of the peacocks that were mulling about in front of the barn. Then just after 9:30 we saw our guide begin to round up the members of our group by the corral area, so we made our way over to there to join them.

We met our guide who explained that he had been working as a ranch hand for Silver Falls for over fifteen years. He went over the basics of how to control the horses before he called each member of the group up to the mounting block to get on their horse. Once we were all mounted up, he took the lead and the group moved out of the corral and onto the trail.

The trail that we went on was absolutely beautiful. There are over 1,500 palm trees planted around the ranch. There were so many Hibiscus flowers, Lahala bushes, Bamboo trees and other different species of tropical plants around the property that I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the trail. Our route circled far back in the valley, over the ridge and into an ancient crater. This crater stopped erupting over five million years ago. Since the final eruption here, the mountain had been eroding into the thick soil that covers the entire area today. The nutrients in the soil provide the vegetation with everything needed to thrive. After journeying through this section of the ranch there is no longer any question in my mind why Kauai has earned the nickname of "The Garden Island".

Eventually we arrived at our destination, a calm jungle pool underneath a gentle waterfall. There was a small pavilion that the ranch constructed nearby where we ate lunch. After our meal, we journeyed down the stairs to take a dip in the pool. From the shore it looked like it was going to be cold but when I jumped in I was happily surprised that the pool was actually a much more refreshing temperature then I had anticipated. The falls were beautiful, and made a perfect backdrop for our jungle swim.

After everyone was done at the waterfall, we got back on our horses and made our way back towards the main barn where we had initially checked in. Once we got back, our guide posed us for some pictures with the mountain in the backdrop before we dismounted. We thanked our guide and made our where back to the barn, where we stopped to see the baby horse with the broken leg one more time. All in all we had a great time, both Simone and myself thoroughly enjoyed the horseback riding experience we had at Silver Falls Ranch.





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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

When I was a kid, my family lived in Kihei on the island of Maui. During the 1990s when I was growing up, Kihei was one of the fastest growing towns in the nation. Unfortunately, it grew so fast that some of the city planning came in after the fact. These rapid developments led to a fairly chaotic urban sprawl across South Maui. When I was in high school there was much talk about a “Greenway” that would cut through the entire town of Kihei. This space was supposed to provide a safe haven for pedestrians away from the hustle and bustle of South Kihei Road and the Pi’ilani Highway. Unfortunately, this “Greenway” in Kihei was never constructed. I was delighted to find out that there is a similar project in Kapaa on Kauai that has been approved, and is currently under construction.

This path is planned to span the entire stretch of coastline between Lihue and Anahola. Currently, the construction of the path has only been completed on two sections. The north section travels between Kapa’a and just north of Donkey's Beach. This stretch spans just over four miles. Farther south, the other two-mile segment of the bike path goes in front Lydgate Park (which is located just south of the Wailua River). The construction that will join these two segments of the path is expected to be completed in the near future. The completed sections of the path are perfect for taking a bike ride, hike, rollerblading outing, skateboarding ride or dog-walking journey.

Today we decided to take my black lab, “Holly Girl” for a walk on the bike path. We started out at the Kapa’a Boat Ramp, then worked our way north around the point to Kealia Beach. This stretch of coast is absolutely beautiful. From the point on the south side of Kealia you can see all the way down the coast. The view extends past Kapa’a and the Wailua River, all the way to the islands main airport in Lihue. We took our time walking and stopped to see all of the sights along the way. Pavilions were located periodically on the side of the path to provide users of the bike path with shade, as well as a comfortable place to sit down.

We stopped once we made it to Kealia Beach. I threw a stick for Holly Girl for a little over half an hour. The waves were rough but I was confident she would be fine. She has been a beach dog since she was a puppy. When she was small I used to take her to Makena Beach on Maui (Makena Beach is known for having a pretty strong shore break). I would go skimboarding and she would make it her mission to chase after me down the beach and into the water and oncoming waves. At first when she would do this I would try and make her stop; I worried that she would get hurt by the waves. Keeping her out of the water was easier said then done. Nothing I could do short of tying her with a metal cable would keep her from chasing me. Even if I did tie her she would cry like a little kid that was told “Christmas was canceled”. Eventually, I just started letting her go for it and miraculously enough, there has been no serious incidents. Through these beach experiences as a puppy she developed the ability to completely submerge her nose under the water. This skill has helped her to learn how to do all kinds of stuff in the ocean that most dogs never learn how to do. Playing in the surf is one of her favorite things, and it is really fun to watch her in action.

We stayed at Kealia for a just under an hour until we started getting hungry and made our way back to Kapa’a. All in all, we spent about three hours from the beginning to the end of our trip. After we were done my girlfriend Simone told me:

“I wish we had known about this earlier, because we should definitely do this again.”

We decided that we definitely wanted to do an excursion on the bike path again soon. I think next time we’re going to start at Kealia Beach, then go north to the end of the path just a little ways past Donkey’s Beach. This morning we saw some people riding tandem bikes down the path…… Maybe we’ll have to give that a try at some point too.



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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

We showed up at the Outfitters Kauai office in Poipu at just before 6AM to check in for their downhill bike trip. The ride goes down the road along the rim of the Waimea Canyon. A couple weeks ago I went on a hike along the opposite rim of the canyon, so I knew what kinds of incredible landscapes we would encounter on today’s bike ride. It was a rather grey morning at the headquarters in Poipu so I was a little worried that rain could become a factor during the ride. My worries dissolved as we traveled westward towards Kekaha because the weather improved significantly as soon as we got past the town of Kalaheo. Once we reached Kekaha we turned up the hill and our guides began some very interesting narrations.

Andy paused to show the group some various trees that we passed on the way up the hill. He shared his wealth of knowledge about Hawaiian plants and history by clearly identifying the species of most of the plants that we passed as well the country of origin. Andy was also able to elaborate on many of the stories behind the plants (which he did). He explained how most of the plants in Hawaii were originally brought to the island by people. He also told us what the original purposes were behind their initial introductions. Until this morning I did not know that all the Eucalyptus trees along the road to the Waimea Canyon were originally planted to help stabilize the soil around the road during its initial construction. I also did not know that the road to the Waimea Canyon was originally constructed to service the elaborate aqueduct system that was in already in place throughout the highlands of Kauai to divert rain water out of the swamps to provide irrigation water for the fields below.

The bikes we were outfitted with were purpose built for this trip. They consisted of a beach cruiser style frame with modern breaks and a single gear. As we began our ride down I instantly noticed the massive stopping power that the cable disc brakes provided, which I appreciated. I also liked the wide seats and upright bars. If I were to go off-road or up a hill I would definitely want to ride a bike that was set up differently. However, for the downhill, paved trip we were doing today... these bikes were perfect.

How this tour was set up was similar to the other bike tours that I have done before on Maui. Andy drove the van behind the group and the other guide Maggie, took position as the lead rider at the front of the pack. Maggie and Andy each had two-way radios and were constantly communicating with each other. Andy would drive behind the group and block the downward traffic with his the van. Periodically the whole group would pull over to the side and let traffic pass. When I got to the end of the ride I was talking with one of the other riders and he said:

“To tell you the truth, I thought that we were going to have to go pretty slow because we were on a tour. I was wrong.”

I had similar expectations, and was also very happy that we didn’t have to ride the brakes the whole way down. Towards the beginning of the trip we didn’t go that fast because of the corners. We weren’t going slowly, but I was definitely using my brakes. When we got farther down towards the bottom of the road it straightened out and we got to let the brakes go and see how fast we could ride. We finished the high-speed section at the end of the tour and we pulled up at the market where the ride ended. I looked around as I got off of the bike and every single person in the group had a smile on their face. I think it’s safe to say that we all had a good time.

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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

As we checked in at the Blue Dolphin store in the shopping village of Port Allen I looked up at the grey threatening looking sky and thought to myself:

“If nothing else, I’m sure we’ll see whales.”

I had just done a trip along the Napali Coast about two weeks prior and there were whales everywhere then, so I was pretty confident that we were about to have at least one encounter with a playful group of whales today. If I had only known how many whales we were about to see I would’ve strapped my GoPro cameras down all over the boat because we were literally surrounded by a group of whales for almost ten minutes. I think that any camera pointed in the direction of the water would’ve got some good pictures of the whale encounter. After the excitement of the whales subsided the Captain was able continue on and navigated us down the coast past the Pacific Missile Range and Polihale Beach to the Napali Coastline. The Napali cliffs are over 3000 feet tall and I am sad to say that although I got some good pictures, none of them were able to capture any sense of the actual scale of how tall the cliffs of Napali really are. The Captain kept the boat in close to the cliffs on the way up the coast until wereached Kalalau Beach. Here we turned around and the Captain moved our course farther out to sea so we could get pictures of ourselves with the entire cliff line in the background. We spent the rest of the evening eating and sipping from our bottomless MaiTai cups as we watched the sun go down over the ocean. The seas were calm, the crew was friendly and the grey clouds did not drop a single bit of rain on us. We enjoyed our time we got to spend on the boat with Blue Dolphin Charters.




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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

Today we went out with Aloha Kauai Tours on their Kauai Backroads 4x4 Tour. We met the group at the Kilohana Plantation where we parked my truck and jumped in their customized 4x4 van. We became acquainted with the other members of the tour as our soft spoken driver eased the van back onto the highway. Our driver explained that he was born and raised on Kauai and that he was over seventy years old. He told stories of his youth, and the many changes that the island has gone through since that time. As he turned the van off of the highway and onto a dirt road, he gestured towards the dense jungle and told the group

“I used to work in a sugar cane field that was once here, where these trees are now.”

The group was silent as they took in the amount of change this man had witnessed that was evidencedin the height of the foliage alone. Luckily for us he had the keys to the many gates that divided up the large section of pasture that we were traversing in the van so he was able to take us to areas where we wouldn't otherwise have been able to go. The trail turned uphill and we eventually made our way to the top of the Kilohana Crater. We spent some time observing the views before we got back in the van and made our way back to the highway. Once we reached the highway, we turned right and headed to the old plantation town of Koloa. Our driver shared an excellent historical narration throughout this section of the tour. He seemed to be able to time his speeches perfectly, so at the end of every story he would stop the van point out the window and say:

“All that happened right....here”

We continued through Koloa and on to Poipu where we journeyed to a section of Maha'ulepu beach at the end of a long dirt road, quite far down the Maha'ulepu coast from Poipu. Here we spent some time walking around as we tried the various snacks and beverages that our driver had brought for us. The cliffs on the left side of the beach over hung extremely far, and looked like they could collapse into the sea at any moment. I got some cool pictures of this area.

After we were done at the beach we loaded back up in the van to make our way home on a “shortcut” the driver knew of. We drive up a wide dirt road up into what seemed like a sheer wall of foliage. As we got closer to the top, a small hole with a pinprick of light at the far end could be made out in the distance. Our driver explained that when the sugar cane industry was in its prime one of the main producers named “Wilcox” owned the area we were on. His fields were split by this large mountain range, and for years he was forced to drive around it using the regular county roads. This was a great hardship on his production because he had to use “street legal” sized trucks and the loads would cool down by the time they gotto the factory because of the distance around the hill (I didn’t quite understand why, but from what he said it seems that the quality of the sugar was lowered if it was allowed to cool too much after the field was burned). In addition to the longer distance to the mill, he was also racking up fines with the county for over use of the road. To remedy this situation Wilcox brought in laborers from China to dig a private tunnel large enough to fit one of his sugar cane “super haulers” that were on a similar scale to modern day monster trucks. Our guide told stories of the amount of wind these machines would create as they raced their haul back to the factory passing by the field workers at sixty plus miles an hour. As we were dropped off back at the Kilohana Plantation I couldn’t help but to feel like I had a much greater understanding of the island of Kauai. (Click here for more information about this trip or to make a booking)




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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours

I had an idea of what we were getting into when I showed up at the headquarters of the Wailua River Guides in Kapaa, but I had no idea how much I was going to really enjoy the kayak and the hike up the river that we did today with Wailua River Guides. The story actually starts before I got to the headquarters when I was getting ready to leave my house. I was having one of those mornings where it was just taking me forever to get everything ready. Then, because I was already behind, I started feeling pressured for time and lost my rhythm. This resulted in a feeling that I needed to be constantly double checking to make sure that I had all my photo equipment (which there is a lot of in my bag). Lets just say, when I got there I was still feeling little bit of lingering anxiety from earlier in the morning. Once I got on the boat and got wet, then paddled for a few minutes and got my blood pumping it felt like the rocky start to the day had never even happened.

When we got up the river to the trail head I opened up the dry-bag that the Wailua River Guides provided and gathered together my camera gear for the hike. It was a slippery hike, but at no point was I worried enough that I was going to fall enough to want to put my DSLR camera back in its pelican case that I had in my backpack. As we traveled through the jungle our guide shared many interesting facts about the plants and areas that we passed along the way. We learned about the "Hala" tree that was used by the ancient Hawaiians to create the thatch roofs that were common in their buildings. We also learned about many of the farming techniques of old as we passed through ancient agricultural terraces on the way to the waterfall.

The waterfall was well over a hundred feet tall and had a rather large pool that was calm enough to swim in. It was shallow at the edges and much deeper towards the center. The stones at the edges were loose and slippery which made it difficult to get in and out, but I managed to make it unscathed by staying on all fours and getting low. It is dangerous to swim under any waterfall because it is possible for rocks or even pebbles to fall with the water with enough force to cause injury to anyone in their path. I felt it was worth the risk and went for a shower under the falls, it was amazing!

On the hike back we took a different path that led us next to a small pool that the guide said was man made by ancient people as a private bath. After further investigation, experts now think that it was meant for the exclusive use of royalty. It was an absolutely beautiful place. At first when he said it was man made I was a little skeptical. He continued explaining and pointed out that all of the stones in the waterfall were standing strait up vertically, which is opposite from how nature arranges them. This observation made complete sense and my mind could not help but to imagine what life was like for the people that created this amazing water feature.

The paddle back was a very leisurely one, my friend Chris and I finally got our timing down and ended up making it back in a bit less time then it took us to paddle up the river. We pulled up next to a dock in front of one of the houses and talked with one of the residents that was sitting at the end of his dock drinking a beer out of a green bottle. He was an entertaining guy and we were kinda sad when the rest of the group caught up and we had to say "bye" to him.

After going on the paddle up the river I was in such a good mood. The exercise and the mellowness of the paddle of the river completely erased the rough start to the day. I was already smiling as we were driving home, and then my smile got even wider when I saw a woman on the side of the road selling Ahi. We stopped and picked up an 8lb Yellowfin Tuna for $25 and then went home and spent the rest of the day eating sushi hand rolls and giant sashimi platters. It was a perfect ending to an amazing day!

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Jake Barefoot
Vice President
Tom Barefoot's Tours