Day 10: Queen's Bath & Sea Lodge Beach

Day 10: Queen’s Bath, Sea Lodge Beach

This was our first slow morning in Hawaii. So far we had really been functioning on what I would consider Pacific Time – bed at 9 up at 6, but we were a little slower to get up that morning. I was actually a little surprised that my calves seemed to be the only sore thing. This was the case with Bill too. Anyway, we had a leisurely breakfast, laid around for a while, then roused ourselves to head off to Queen’s Bath. This is similar to the lava pools that we saw in Maui – the Olivine Pools – a pool formed by ocean water pretty much enclosed by lava rock and therefore protected from the pounding surf.

Queen’s Bath is actually very close to where our condo unit is. On our Princeville map, we saw that it was only one road over. So we drove over (a long exhausting drive of 3 minutes), but saw that there were no more parking spots available. We scoped the area for more, but it is all private residences there, so we could not risk parking.

So we decided to drive on down to see if there was any parking for Hideaways Beach which is right there at the Princeville Hotel. There was no parking there either. This is what we get for getting started later! So we thought about going to a different beach but decided to try one more time at Queen’s Bath for parking, and this time there were spots

On our hike down to the bath, I told Bill to keep his eye out on the other side of the creek for a way through to our condo unit. On our map, I could see our condo units, then to the west, a creek, and then Queen’s Bath, so I thought that perhaps we could find our own special secret way to the bath. And sure enough, just above the waterfall, there seemed to be a faint path through the jungle. More on that later.

We spent a good amount of time there. The awesome thing to me about Queen’s Bath was that it was VERY warm. I love to swim in warm water! Plus after the previous day’s hike it was great to just float around in warm water. We also snorkeled a nearby inlet that had some fish, but probably less than usual due to the people jumping in from the nearby cliff.

On the way back up, we decided that Bill would trail blaze to find our secret path, and I would take the bags back to the car and drive home, hoping to meet Bill there. Bill went where no man had dared to go before, forging through jungle, battling the elements, OK OK not really, but he did find that the path dumped him out at the Alii Kai units right beside ours. So we now have our secret path to Queen’s Bath if there is no parking!

Our afternoon was spent taking a small shoreline hike to Sea Lodge Beach where Bill snorkeled and I floated around. At this beach, the reef extended out very shallowly for a long ways, making this ocean water very warm and wonderful. The snorkeling was OK. We then headed back to the pool, then to catch dinner.