Tubing with Kauai Backcountry Adventures

After seeing videos and photos of people cruising down the irrigation canals at the old Lihue Plantation, we decided to book the tour through Kauai Backcountry Adventures.

At their warehouse, they outfit everyone with headlamps, helmets, gloves and water shoes.

They pile you into four-wheel-drive adventure vehicles and vans and take you a few miles back into the island's jungle green interior.

We made a stop at the crater overlook to take in the view of Mount Waialeale (one of the wettest spots on earth), learn some basic geography and to see the faraway source of the water that we would soon be riding on.

{the ladies}

{the view}

{the crater}

After our stop, we piled back into the vehicles and proceeded further down the rocky dirt road to the irrigation canals, all of which were hand dug around 1870.

{bamboo grove at the drop-in point}

{Dad's ready to go!}

The guides helped us into our tubes one by one, as we each dropped our okoles in pukas (butts in holes) we each got a rapid introduction to the "refreshing" and "invigorating" waters (ie: freezing and cold!).

{helmet and headlamp strapped on}

{Mom at the starting line}

{bumper to bumper traffic as everyone gets fitted with a tube}

{snazzy borrowed water shoes}

Once everyone was in a tube, they unleashed the rope that spanned the width of the canal, and we began to float down the water alongside our guides.

{Hana}

We cruised along at a pretty speedy clip, although not as fast as the tours that took place last week after all the hard rains that befell Kauai.  The guides told us that the tubing lasts about an hour to an hour and a half.  They said that one of their tours last week only took 20 minutes because of how fast the water was rushing!

{entering the first tunnel.  Lights on!}

We went through a total of 5 tunnels.  The first was the shortest and smallest tunnel.  One of the longer tunnels spanned almost a mile.  During our ride through the last tunnel, everyone turned off their headlamps to experience floating through in total darkness.

{lazy river float}

{elbows and ankles in as we cruised through the narrow "hallway"}

{one at a time!}

{Mom}

{Dad anchoring himself on a Eucalyptus branch to allow the rest of the group to catch up}

{the second tunnel}

{a freezing cold Hana}

{we're about to hit the three foot waterfall drop}

{Dad looks pumped for that waterfall, doesn't he?}

We all took turns heading down a short drop.  The three foot drop was gentle, but still deep enough to make sure that everyone got refreshingly soaked.  Brrr!

{cruising through one of the tunnels}

{after the third tunnel, it started to rain}

{having the time of his life}

{Hana is a little more subdued}

{on the homestretch}

After we made it through the fifth tunnel, we had about a ten minute float down the canals.  At the end of the ride, guides helped us out of our tubes and up the embankment.  I've never been so excited to see a towel.  I changed as quickly as I could into dry clothes, long pants and a hoodie.

It was definitely a cold pursuit.  I would have been happier to have gone on a much warmer and sunnier day, but even though the adventure was butt numbing, I had a fun hour cruising down the irrigation tunnels.

I foresee a hot tub in my very near future though...