Beautiful Kauai

I really do love the WWOOF program. Maybe I've just had extremely good luck, but the places that I've found to stay on my trip to Hawaii have been both perfectly suited to what I need and completely magical. I landed on Kauai Friday afternoon, greeted by a green gem of an island. After all the lava of the Big Island, it felt like I was truly arriving in paradise for the first time. The tall mountains were green and angular, the dirt was bright red and the sky had fluffy white clouds hanging perfectly in the sky. The air smelled sweet as orange blossoms.

My new host drove us to her home in Kapaa and showed me around the lovely hilltop estate, a little bed and breakfast with beautiful ponds, flowers and fruit trees everywhere. She calls it Honualani Gardens, the gardens of heaven on earth. She introduced me to my new home, a cozy house in the valley, completely alone. Perfect. Her property is a five acre permaculture estate, brimming with mature tropical fruit trees. Around every corner there are breadfruit, cacao, lilikoi, avocado, lemon, starfruit, banana, noni and coconut. Breakfast always includes a huge smoothie with whatever is falling off the trees. Her raised bed garden was already full of asparagus, tomato and beautiful herbs. The ponds are filled with big water lily; red and black ducks run across the lily pads like something out of a cartoon. At night I can hear the frogs and night bugs singing me to sleep in the rain and can almost feel all the garden fairies.

My first weekend on the island we went to Princeville on the north shore to check out a farmer's market and visit the most amazing beach. Tunnels is a surf spot past Hanalei and it is quite possibly the most perfect beach that I've ever clapped eyes on. The white sand stretched for miles in either direction, perfectly soft and lovely. The water was the clearest, deepest teal. I swam down the coastline, looking up at the tall green mountains at the edge of the water. As I was paddling around, some huge sea turtles were playing the surf just feet away, their big flippers flapping as they tumbled around in the waves. I feel so calm and contented here. I think I'm finally starting to relax and realize that this is an extended vacation. It only took me five months to get here, but anxiety is finally a memory, not a constantly hovering threat.

My new host is also worth noting. Jai has owned the property for 27 years and is as magical as her land. Her bright blue eyes sparkled when she picked me up at the airport and cooed, "Aren't you cute? We're going to get along great!" Word. She is quirky to say the least. My first day here she ran my birth chart and told me all about the inner workings of my personality. My first morning she relayed her vision of us in the clouds at sunrise, how our cloud selves were regarding one another over a cloud heart...a good omen for my stay. Then she told me all about her invisible pet rainbow dragon and the fairies in the garden. I freaking love this woman! I wish I could describe how spunky and delightful she is. A good dose of fantasy and frolicking is exactly what I need and Jai is just the person to deliver it.