Journeys›Photograph

Rainbows and an Aerial Look at Kauai

·Kauaʻi County, Hawaii·#travel#nature#aerial-photography#coastline#kauai#hawaii
Two cocktails sit on a table with a sparkling ocean, palm trees, and two people in the background under a cloudy sky.

Started slow in Poipu — two drinks at an oceanside table, a cucumber wheel and an orchid riding the tall one, tiki torches out on the point past the hedge. Somewhere between the first sip and the last, a squall moved through offshore and left a rainbow planted in the water. We chased it up the coast to Spouting Horn, where it held for a good while over the surf, the blowhole huffing spray out of the lava shelf below us.

The afternoon was the helicopter. Lifted off past Nawiliwili — a cruise ship parked at the harbor, the Huleia winding brown through the green below — then around to the Nā Pali side, which you can't reach by road at all. Trail, boat, or this. The cliffs run up to something like 4,000 feet and just drop, ridge after fluted ridge, straight into the water. Kalalau Beach sat at the bottom of it with nobody on it. The Kalalau Trail covers eleven miles of that coast on foot; from the air it took minutes, which felt a little like cheating.

A rainbow stretches over a cloudy ocean scene with breaking waves and distant land on the left.A vibrant rainbow spans a dark ocean and rocky coastline with a blowhole, under a cloudy sky.A rainbow arches over a dark rocky coast with a deep blue ocean and white waves under a cloudy sky.A rainbow extends over a dark ocean with white waves crashing on a rugged, dark rocky coastline under a cloudy sky.Aerial view of a cruise ship docked in a coastal harbor with beaches, buildings, and green mountains.Aerial view of a verdant valley with a winding brown river, distant mountains, and scattered dwellings.Aerial view of dramatic green-covered cliffs descending to a coastline with small sandy beaches and dark blue ocean.Aerial view of a rugged coastline with steep, green and red mountains, a sandy beach, and dark blue ocean under a cloudy sky.

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