Koloiki Trail

 We had one more day left and Dad wanted to visit the island of Lana'i. It was going to be an expensive ferry trip across and not everyone was sure about going over there, but in the end, we decided it was a grand idea and everybody came along. Dad did a great job of arranging transportation for us from the ferry into town. He and Laura were excited about walking around town and having a little bit of a date day to themselves. Jacqueline and I took Dad's recommendation about visiting one of the highest points on the island and started out on a little hike of our own. We had to walk all the way through town and out to a fancy resort. At the resort, we asked the valet for a map and he gave us one for the hiking trail that led us out from there. We walked through the fancy hotel with many displays, through the manicured gardens, and on the paved path that went around the golf course.
Finally, it took us to where we were away from civilization a bit and the trail got very quiet. There were a few people wandering down the trail, but it was rather quiet. It first led us through a forest with tall skinny trees, but a nice clear path. It helped that we had a map with numbers on it, sort of a nature trail. This path led us to a road that switchbacked uphill. We followed the road for quite some time. There were many flowers and plants around, but this part of the island was definitely much more barren than the island of Maui that we had been staying on. Eventually the switchbacks gave way to a much flatter trail. This was starting to lead us out to a point. This island of Lana'i used to be used entirely by the Dole corporation to grow pineapples. Eventually, it became cheaper to grow pineapples in the Phillipines, so that was abandoned. Most of the island still remains privately owned, but it has returned to somewhat of its natural state. This natural state, though, is rather dry especially on the part of the island that we were looking out from.
As we made it to our overlook, we could appreciate the island's differences from Maui. Still green and lush compared to Utah standards, we could still see the ocean amongst the browns rather than the greens. It was a beautiful spot overlooking this big canyon. One thing that we had thought about doing was driving to the actual high point of the island, but had decided that we did not have enough time to complete the long dirt road that would take us there.
Instead, we settled for the Koloiki Trail that turned out to be a rather enjoyable hike. It left us enough time to walk all the way back down to the resort, back through town again, and to a restaurant to have lunch and still have enough time to meet our ride. He drove us down to the beach where we got some snorkeling and chilling on the beach in. We had to make sure and enjoy it because this was our last day of getting to do all that. It is funny how you just sort of get used to waking up and going snorkeling or sitting on the beach. This section of beach had a few extra waves.
Jacqueline even got to take a tumble as the waves pushed her around a little bit. Dad, once again went way out and found the coolest fish. He even brought Jacqueline out with him, but I was a bit wimpier and preferred to float closer to the mainland. After a while, it was time to go, so the six of us went back down the road and caught the ferry home. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day for the six of us. We would return to the state of Washington the next day to Christmas and then a trip halfway across the world to Patagonia.