On September 29, 2013 I married my best friend. It went by in a whirlwind like everyone said it would. It truly was the happiest day of our lives thus far. I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding. Although there were things that did go wrong that weekend, I didn’t let them bother me and my wedding was everything I had hoped for. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the banquet room was decorated for the reception, how lovely the flowers looked, and how delicious and enticing the cakes were. I had a blast on my wedding day. During the ceremony, I felt very honored to say my vows and to marry such an amazing man. Everyone who attended our wedding kept saying how beautiful our wedding ceremony was, how everything was nicely decorated, and how fun the party was! We danced the night away and it truly was very special. I often look back on our photographs from the wedding and relive that amazing day.

The day after our wedding, we left bright any early for the airport to go on our Honeymoon. We flew 9 hours and traveled a total of 18 hours when we finally arrived to our condo in Kauai, Hawaii- a true paradise! We are so grateful to my aunt and uncle for allowing us to stay in their condo. We were so surprised to find a nice gift basket from my aunt and uncle waiting for us with gift cards to local restaurants and every type of food you could think of made with Macadamia nuts. It was such a thoughtful wedding gift. The condo’s view was amazing and every day we would eat breakfast on the porch and revel in the beautiful scenery.

We were lucky that we got to do a lot of fun activities during our time on the island of Kauai, and here is what some of what we did:

Helicopter Tour
Now going into the helicopter tour, I was a bit scared. I had never flown in one before and it seemed frightening. I’m not a big fan of turbulence anyways. But this tour was beyond my expectations. We flew around the whole island, from the high mountain tops to the sandy beaches and rocky cliffs. We went with Safari Helicopter tours and our pilot was great. At some points the pilot flew very close to the mountains and that was a bit unnerving, but I got used to it. The scenery was utterly breathtaking. From the waterfalls to the tree tops, to the farms and flatlands of Hanalei Valley, to the beautiful beaches, it was an amazing sight. My husband took video of the whole flight with his GoPro camera. (The GoPro was a great tool to capture our honeymoon memories and is the camera we used in the videos on this blog post. It’s waterproof and was a must-have for this kind of adventure). That was probably the most exciting and my favorite activity of our honeymoon. Too bad we waited to do it until the very end of our vacation!

 

Hiking Adventure
My husband and I went on several hiking trips during our stay on Kauai, and I’m not much of a hiker (or an outdoorsy person) so some of them were a bit of a challenge for me.  We hiked up cliffs overlooking the ocean, hiked through the trails through Waimea Canyon to the highest elevation on the island (5,148 feet above sea level), and hiked up a trail on the North shore. I would have to say, our best hike (and the one that pushed me the most) was our hike to the Ho’opi’i  waterfalls. My uncle gave us a great guide book called The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed, which was a valuable resource during our honeymoon. I highly recommend you buy this book if you ever go to Kauai. The book, written by a Kauai resident, not only tells you the best beaches to go to, what restaurants to go to and those to skip, and where to stay, but it also tells you places to go on the island that most people don’t know about. The waterfall hike we went on was one of them. Known, only by the locals and those who have this book, the waterfalls were very secluded and upon finding we felt like we unearthed a hidden treasure.

We parked on the side of the road outside of a neighborhood and found the beginning of the trail. We hiked next to some pastures and then trekked down the trail and through the woods. We made it to the first waterfall and it was so peaceful. The water rushed down the falls and into a lagoon. We were not the only ones there. There were several other people enjoying the falls and we saw them jump into the lagoon and climb up the rocks on the sides of the waterfall. We were not daredevils like them and just took in the scenery and snapped a few photographs.

The book said there was another waterfall a little farther down the trail and we decided to check it out. We walked what felt like forever and finally heard some rushing water. There were two trails you could take, one very small Billy goat path, and one skirting high along the mountain. We took the high road thinking there would be an easy way for us to go down. There was not. We literally had to climb down the extremely steep mountain holding on to tree branches and rocks to hold us up. It took me quite a while to climb down and then we saw other hikers come by and several women and young kids climbed down very quickly with no problems. Like I said, I am not very outdoorsy!

We finally make it to the waterfall, and it is spectacular. I couldn’t believe the beautiful sight. These falls are less intense and the water does not fall as rapidly. The left side of the falls is a slow trickle and the right side has a more rapid waterfall that leads to a pond that you can swim in. We decided to cross the rocks and get in to the water near the falls. This must be done very carefully, as the rocks are very slippery. We literally were crawling across the rocks on our hands and knees so we wouldn’t fall down. We got about chest deep into the water and hung out beneath the falls. I was very proud of myself for climbing up the rocks and standing next to the waterfall. We saw the locals move very quickly climbing through the less intense left side of the waterfall, gliding gracefully across the slippery rocks. We also saw another local bathing in the pool beneath the falls with rushing water all around her. Needless to say, we didn’t try it ourselves! Our hike really was a great adventure. We got a few bug bites, a few scrapes and there was a little complaining from yours truly, but it was a day we will never forget.

Read more about our honeymoon of a lifetime in the next installment coming soon.