We were on deck looking at the island, Ernie noticed what looked like a nuclear power reactor containment building, but no heat exchanger towers. He mentioned it to Dale and someone near by heard him and said it was a propane facility.
We elected to do the "Kings, Trains, & Waterfalls" excursion in Nawiliwili. We will probably look back on this excursion as the best of the cruise. We were pleased that the bus and driver/tour guide were provided by Roberts Hawaii. If you visit Hawaii and want to do a tour, we have found that Roberts Hawaii is the best tour company to go with. They provide the most comfortable buses and best driver/tour guides we have experienced anywhere. As much as we are told how beautiful Maui is, we discovered that Kauai is just as beautiful and in our opinion even more so.
We made stops at:
Kilohana Plantation
Opaekaa Falls
After a relatively short bus ride with interesting narrative, we arrived at Kilohana Plantation. The first thing we did was board a train for about a 45-minute tour around the plantation. The narrator was very clear speaking, knowledgable, and entertaining. He spoke about the history of the plantation and the many products that were grown there. Though it is no longer a working plantation, several types of trees and plants are kept-up near the train tracks so there is a reference point when the narrator talks about the products. Midway through the train ride we stopped at a spot where there are "wild" pigs, goats, and sheep. We do not know how wild any of the animals are, but that is how the excursion description refers to them. There were also some donkeys there, we were not told if they were wild or not. Slices of bread were put on a railing near the train so we could take bread and feed the animals. We were there for more than 10 minutes with the bread being replaced as quickly as we took it from the rail, so we were able to feed the animals the whole time. This was the highlight of the excursion for us. When we go to fairs, Dale's favorite animal to see are baby pigs and Ernie likes to go into the petting area to feed & pet the goats, so this was great for us. The remainder of the train ride included more narration of the history of the plantation. When we arrived back at the station we were given amply time to go into and explore the manor. The manor is mostly museum and shops now, but there were still many interesting things to see.
The next stop was at Opaekaa Falls. Opaekaa Falls is an 151-foot waterfall. The viewing point is at a pull-off on the side of the road. It is an impressive waterfall amongst beatiful scenery. There is a bridge near the pull-off, crossing the street onto the bridge we could look down onto the Wailua River. The scenery there was also beautiful. There were several kyaks on the river. Pictures.
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