Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Day 3 Part 1

I'm having to do Day 3 in segments because it was a really long and awesome day. I took the most pictures on this day so I thought it would be easier to break the day up.

We began the day with a zip line tour. It was one of the cooler things we did there. Scenic, thrilling, adventurous, all of that. We met at the tour guide office and were piled into a very questionably smelling and rickety van. Our guides drove along the highway for a bit and then turned of onto a dirt road. The road they took us on seemed like it should be for 4x4 vehicles only. Our van wasn't a 4x4 vehicle but you couldn't tell our guides that. The driver gunned it up every hill and through every mud hole. Of course the shocks on the van were non existent. The ride was definitely foreshadowing of awesomeness to come.

Behold. One of the most beautiful spots on the earth:

We were parked in lush green fields that lots of cows lazily grazed in. Surrounding us were beautiful green covered mountains. Parts of Jurassic Park were filmed here. We didn't see any velociraptors but we did see lots of bovine-a-saurs. Bad joke, I know.

We were soon suited up and ready for the zip line.
I have to say we totally rocked those helmets!

Here I am getting ready to zip down.
Nothing says foxy like a bright red helmet and zip line gear. Rawr.

Here's the view when I got to the bottom:
I can't get over how incredibly beautiful this forest was.

The trees here are so interesting. They have a mind of their own.

We continued to go down a series of zip lines until we got to the bottom of the forest. Here's a view on the way down. They filmed parts of Indiana Jones in this river:
And for your viewing pleasure, here is a video of Dale and I zipping down to the bottom of that river. We decided to go backwards with no hands. I thought I was pretty cool until I looked over and Dale was upside down!


Doesn't he kinda look like a vampire? Oooh, Twilight! Sooo dreamy!

Here's some views going across the river. Which we had to do using this bridge. Yes it rocked from side to side and yes it was funny following Dale who purposely made it do that because he knew I was following him.

We then walked up the forest where we went to a series of even longer zip lines.

Crossing more bridges.
We were up super super high!
Here's Dale going down the second to last line. Look at those glorious giant calves gleaming like a beacon for all to see!
After that one we approached the "grand daddy" of all zip lines. The longest in Kauai. It takes you over the rain forest canopy and gives you a view of the whole valley and surrounding mountains. It was incredible!
Can you see that platform off in the distance? That is where we land.

Here I am, waiting my turn, still looking foxy in my gear.
Here's dale and one of our guides, Gabe. I can't remember what they were laughing about but I'm sure it was a hilarious joke at my expense. Check out Dale's sweet ball cap/helmet combo. Rex does that same thing when he rides his bike. Guess it runs in the family.
And here is the video of Dale and I going down this amazing zip line. Ignore my sissy screams.

My excuse for not going upside down was that I had to film the whole event. Totally legit, right?

So after the zipping it was time to head back to the van and grab our lunch.
It was also time for a bathroom break.

I challenge you to find more epically placed port-o-potties than these two:
Have you ever stepped out of the J-John only to see views like that? Juxtaposition at it's best!

Anyway, the plan was to eat our lunch down at the swimming hole. Here we are hiking down:
If I ever got lost, I could just look for his calves.

Here's the swimming hole.
It was a lot of fun because they had a mini zip line set up to where you could splash into the water:
Here's video of Dale:


And they had a tall platform you could jump off of. When I jumped off, I went in slightly side ways and slapped my side. Youch!!! Dale did some of his cool tricks:


What's funny about that is I had no problem with him doing back flips and gainers in to the pool. Nor did I have a problem with him going upside down on the zip line. But when he wanted to dive into the swimming hole head first I freaked out and wouldn't let him! That's just the mom in me, I guess.

So that's the first part of our super adventurous day! I will show the rest soon!

2 comments:

Kari said...

Wow Alys, what fun!! I was showing Justin the movies you took and the pictures and he just keeps saying "I want to do that!" I'm so excited to go...maybe you can fit in my suitcase & come with me! :)

Tim and Shay said...

That looks like so much fun!!! I'm totally taking notes for when we go. That is next on my vacation list after our Cruise.