Today we rented kayaks to go up the Wailua River and hike to Secret Falls. It was a really fun trip and I am pleasantly worn out, but here's the secret about Secret Falls: it's more of a trickle and not that exciting once you get there.
We wanted to start the trip early, but we couldn't pick up the kayaks until 9am, which, with the island-time delay, meant we didn't get into the water until 10am. It was a good paddle upriver to where we parked the boats. The path to the falls was littered with fallen and rotting mangoes, with a fermented fruit odor lingering in the air and the occasional necessity to duck out of the way of a new one falling.
If I thought Tunnels beach was super-touristy, I was wrong. Secret Falls is the most touristy place we've been. There were probably 40 people there when we arrived, and dozens more trooped in while we ate lunch. Luckily, we didn't end our day there.
After hiking back to the kayaks, we decided to go further upriver to where there was rumored to be a good rope swing and a cliff for jumping. Now, you can imagine that neither of those is really my thing, but Chris and Matt had fun and we got some funny video (stay tuned) of them jumping.
Back downriver, we took a side trip into the bird sanctuary. We didn't see too many birds, but we did see a lot of cows, go figure. Matt, Brooke and Chris conquered the mango and coconut trees along the banks, and now we have more tropical fruit than we know what to do with!
I think I really like kayaking, so Matt and I are "this" much closer to getting some boats of our own for use back home.