Arriving in Nawiliwili on Kauai this morning, the first thing that went through my mind was that this, and not Honolulu, was how I’d pictured Hawaii.

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First, an explanation of this episode’s title. Kauai is arguably the lushest and greenest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. The 7 islands’ only real river is on Kauai, because this island has had almost 7000 years longer than its neighbours to develop geographically. Mount Waialeale, the highest on the island, is also the rainiest place in Hawaii. Waters flowing down from the mountain feed the river and waterfalls.

Everywhere you look is green. For many years, the bulk of the island’s land was planted with sugarcane, until the high cost of labour combined with a global downturn in sugar usage rendered it untenable. Now the biggest plantation on the island grows fruits from many different tropical countries, including my favourite: Mexican mamey sapote. The perfect climate and year-round growing season really does make the island a garden.

But then there are the chickens. In fact, we were greeted in port by a choir of roosters. The island has a human population of about 85000, a wild pig population of about 350,000 (!) and a chicken population of 450,000 !! Back in 1992, there was a huge hurricane here whose 170 mph winds destroyed about 25% of all the homes on the island … and 100% of the chicken coops (which were apparently “not built to code”). That resulted in all the island’s laying hens, and a large population of Filipino fighting cocks (technically illegal, but…) being “freed”. The resulting breeding means that chickens are literally everywhere: streets, parks, shopping centres, school yards, forests, the port’s terminal building- truly everywhere. Ubiquitous poultry.

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Today’s excursion description:

We did our excursion in reverse order, after a 1 hour delay standing around in an incredibly disorganized terminal this morning. The organization of excursion groups is something Holland America has done surprisingly badly on this trip.

Our guide, once found, had lots of information to share, and was quite entertaining.

Our first stop was at Kilohana Plantation, to take the steam train ride through fields that once grew sugarcane.

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Evelyn and Gaylord Wilcox, descended from 18th century missionaries to Kauai, were the owners of this huge plantation and its manor house, which hosted diplomats and socialites from all over the world during its heyday. Their sugar money funded hospitals, schools, and infrastructure all over the island.

The property is now a tourist site, farm animal refuge (cows, horses, donkeys, and even wild pigs; that there are chickens goes without saying on Kauai), and fruit farm.

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Our train tour included a stop to feed the animals. The pigs get corn tortillas!!

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From the plantation we drove to Opaekaa Falls, a double waterfall within Kauai’s lush greenery and lava rocks.

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We got back to the ship just after noon, and decided to walk over to the gorgeous beach adjacent to our docking place.

Once back on the ship, I spent the afternoon on Deck 9 with a couple of margaritas, intending to curate photos for our blog, but ended up chatting and laughing with a Scottish couple originally from Dundee but now from Sydney on Vancouver Island. It made for a really fun afternoon – and I did (after they left) get the blog completed to this point.

Tonight’s pre-dinner entertainment was by Step One Dance Company again, in a show called Musicology that we’d seen on our Mexico cruise leg, so we headed instead to deck 14 (the topmost deck) during our sail-away from Niawiliwili at sunset.

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We enjoyed dinner in the main dining room with retired Navy Vietnam vet George King, who otherwise would have eaten alone. He shared stories of his international travels with the US Navy, and his childhood growing up in a military family.

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Then it was off to an early night. Kona tomorrow!