The Napali Coast
Trip Start
Mar 23, 2012
1
4
9
Trip End
Mar 31, 2012
Poipu, Hawaii
Monday, March 26, 2012
At noon we headed to the Koloa Sunshine Market. It was nuts. I've never seen anything like it. There was a large crowd waiting at the starting line when we we arrived. First they let the people with small children and strollers, pregnant women, and disabled persons get a head start walking toward the actual market(Patrick swears some people faked their limps). Then they let everyone else start making their way over and blew the whistle to start the selling...it was basically just a mass of people desperately trying to get the fruit they want but still managing to be surprisingly polite--after all most of us were tourists on vacation so I was happy most people kept their Aloha spirit. We felt a little panicked that it was all going to sell out in minutes but we were able to buy some pineapple, rambutans, papayas, a butter avocado (which was gigantic), a cream apple, another ice cold coconut--which they cut open for us before we left, and a nice flower arrangement. As we were leaving, I noticed the vendors all still had various fruit for sale. I think the frenzy of the crowd and the small space made the sell out factor seem worse than it was. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience--although we realized we had forgotten our shopping bag so it probably would have been nicer had we remembered something to carry all that back to the car (as it was we managed with our hands well enough). It was unfortunate this was the only farmer's market we made it to. I know some are more relaxed like at home and I would have liked to have experienced both--something for next trip!
We had booked a HoloHolo Sunset cruise for that evening so, after the farmer's market, we drove over to Port Allen for the tour. We had Captain Glen and his crew Abraham and Wade. The cruise was beautiful, the weather was perfect and we made it all the way to Kalalau beach. The Napali coast was magnificient. I had seen pictures but it was incredible to experience first hand. We didn't see any dolphins but we did get quite a whale show on the return trip--2 adults and calf. The crew was super friendly and we enjoyed chatting with them. It all ended with a champagne toast at sunset and we even saw the notorious green flash (though I didn't a photo). This cruise was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for both of us!
