Kauai vacation
April 28th - Zip-Lining and North End of Power Line Trail
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We decided to be adventurous and signed up for something called Zip-Lining. Zip-lining entails stepping into a harness, clipping onto a pulley, and then zipping along a cable stretched out over a canyon. You don't really go that fast, probably less than 20 mph, because the height between the launch point and landing point isn't that great. Also, there is slack in the cable, so you build up speed over the center of the canyon, and then lose speed as you rise toward the finish. The outfit we signed up with offered an 8 zip package, plus a swim at a waterfall and a lunch. It was located on a ranch on the north end of the island, near Princeville. We got an early start and had a few hours before our adventure, so we drove over to the Wildlife sanctuary on the north shore. It turns out we were too early for that to be open also, so all we got was this picture looking down at the light house in the sanctuary.
We went over to the Princeville resort, which is built on the side of a cliff. It offers deluxe accommodations. We walked around its lobbies and balconies. This picture is the bay below the resort.
Once we got our safety lecture and demonstration, we were out on the ranch, ready to try some ziplining. The first zip is just a practice, less than 100 yards long. Rather than going across a canyon, you just run off of a raised platform, and you see how the harness takes your weight, and you are carried by the pulley down the cable. Here are a couple of photos of Melanie running down the ramp and trying her first zip.
The second zip is a lot more exciting. It is much longer and the cable is stretched across a canyon that is a couple hundred feet deep. This is Melanie crossing the canyon. There were 12 people in our party, plus two guides, one for each end of the zip - to hook you up and disconnect you at the far side. It takes maybe 15 minutes to get everyone across each zip. The actually time to cross is pretty quick, you only travel a few hundred yards.
After the second zip, you have to cross over another canyon via a suspension bridge to get to the third zip. The bridge is just some cables, so the guides bounce up and down on each end to give you a thrill as you cross the canyon. Of course, you are clipped to one of the bridge cables, so you can't possibly fall.
The zips got progressively longer and faster. This is Art crossing the canyon - the launch is high up behind, so you get more speed. Melanie took the photo from the landing side of the canyon. Each zip takes you back across the canyon, so they are planned such that you go from a higher point across to a lower point, so you have to walk a short distance between each zip.
You get the hang of the zipping pretty quick. Here Melanie is not holding onto the harness, but is zipping in for a landing with a no-hands technique.
The guides encourage other zip techniques, like tightly winding up the harness before you launch so that you go out over the canyon spinning. Or, jump way off to the right side of the platform on the launch so that you get some oscillations into the ride. This is a picture of Art taking off backwards.
On the longest zip across the canyon, one of the smaller women hung in her harness admiring the view. Unfortunately, she was so light that she didn't build up enough speed to ascend to the landing platform. She got mostly up to the landing point, and then slid back down the cable until she hung out over the mid-point, unable to move. The guide tied a rope to her harness, and then clipped back onto the cable, and slowly went hand over hand down the cable until she reached the suspended woman. The guide grabbed the harness of the stranded woman, and the other zippers who had already crossed pulled on the rope attached to the guide's harness. After Melanie saw that, she decided to go for maximum speed on the long zip, to ensure she would reach the other side. This picture shows her tight form to minimize air resistance, and she zipped across the canyon easily.
The zip adventure included a lunch and a swim in a pool that was fed by a waterfall. The pool was surrounded by some steep rocks, so you could easily jump in. The guides showed were the safe leaping points into the pool were, so you didn't have to fear rocks hidden in the water. The plunge to the pool was about 25 feet. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the lunch or the swimming point.
It was mid afternoon by the time we finished our zip adventure, so we decided to hike the northern end of the Power line trail. The book said there was a waterfall visible about a mile or two from the northern end of the trail, so we decide to go that far.
