31 Jan Week 11 Recap: Our first visitor + Hā’ena Beach

This week was jam packed with completing farm work, squeezing in freelance whenever possible and welcoming our first visitor since our arrival — my mom!

With the lack of tourists on the island, rental cars are actually fairly cheap — IF you know when to book them. I made & canceled about 4 reservations before finding the sweet spot in prices: ~3-7 days before pickup. We got our first 15 days with a full size SUV (ANY model we wanted) for $360 — well under the usual monthly price for a small car for $1000!

I was able to pick my mom up from the airport and drop her at the Hilton Garden Inn Kauai — one of the approved “bubble” resorts that are accepting, tracking, and releasing trans-pacific travelers with proof of negative incoming test, and on-site rapid negative test after 72-hours of arrival. Not the cheapest way to spend your first 3 days on the island: forced to renting a hotel room, order takeout, and take a pricey on-site test. But certainly worth it for a full month of freedom to roam on the island!

After my mom finished her quarantine & 2nd test, she moved into her studio condo in Princeville. It’s quaint and has a great covered patio, pool, and a mile from Wyllie’s beach and local shops, restaurants. It’s also only about 17 min drive from the farm so close enough to coordinate lots of day trips & share the car!

Sunday we took the whole day to explore the shore past Hanalei — somewhere we haven’t been yet! We loaded up the cooler with market leftovers, some newly harvested bananas, and our beach stuff. We drove all the way to the end the road at Hā’ena State Park – about a half hour west of Hanalei.

After oohing and aahing at the amazing views on the way up, we settled on Hā’ena beach as our final destination: With ample parking, sweeping views of the bay and surrounding mountains – we were in heaven as soon as we arrived. There were perfect trees for the hammocks, shading the cooler while we walked the beach east & west. We ate our lunch watching the surfers and waves crash, getting maybe too much sun!

Before leaving we walked the road a bit to check out the amazing garden walls and massive cave. Amazing foliage and geology to send us on our way home to start another week…