A friend told me about a neat little beach heading north from Lihue just before getting to the Wailua Golf Course (apparently the cheapest place for a round of golf on the island).  Turn Right on the dirt road just past the sugar cane field and right when you see the golf course lined with trees.  The road follows the canal (see map below) along the golf course and then out to the ocean.

On your way in there will be a gate on your right after the road makes a hard left hand turn.  This is where they dirt bike rallies from time to time.  I saw a guy 'grooming' the ground and found out later they were getting ready for a weekend race.

Beyond that are some cool trees with sporadic picnic tables and the beach, with incredible views looking north along the Wailua Golf Course.  You can't see the golf course very much since there is a buffer of trees, and lots of folks had driven along the rugged dirt road to park their vehicles overlooking the ocean and grill or fish (or both!).  It definitely felt like a local hangout, but I was told not to hang out there after dark due to drugs.

You can take that dirt road (I'd recommend a 4x4 or mountain bike) all the way up to the camping area of Lydgate Beach Park.  There you will find one of the coolest playgrounds ever!

A cool biking trip I plan to take is to ride down the Kauai Bike Path to Lydgate, then take the dirt road along the ocean south past the Wailua Golf Course and then come back the same way or along the road.

Another adventure I plan to take is kayaking in the canal that separates this little spot between the golf course and the Kauai Beach Resort.

On the other side of the Kauai Beach Resort is Nokolii Beach Park, apparently created and managed by the Kauai Beach Resort.  Turn off Kuhio Hwy at the Kauai Beach Resort main road and drive down through an astounding corridor of old banyan trees - quite spectacular!  As soon as these trees end and before the solar-panel-covered parking lot, turn right and head down a paved road until you reach the ocean. 

There is a small parking lot with restroom facilities and outdoor showers to rinse off the salt water.  I didn't see any picnic tables like the place on the other side of Kauai Beach Resort, but there was a nice mowed trail that loops around the area along the ocean and back through the field.  Other than a lady and her dog, I was the only one there!  A nice little find on an otherwise overlooked section of Kauai most people just drive past to get to other places!

On Easter, Emily and I took my inflatable kayak (a birthday gift last year from Emily - best gift ever!!) out on the Kilauea Stream, which dumps into Kilauea Bay at Kahili (Rock Quarry) Beach (click link to see pictures and read about my adventure exploring the nearby lava pools).

She was going to lay out on the beach but then decided to come at the last minute, and I happily paddled along as she was even more content to lay down and be treated as a queen being paddled up river.

This excursion is not mentioned in most guidebooks because after a half-hour you pretty much reach the end of the river.  It's private property, but I explored just twenty yards upstream to find an ideal swimming hole with a rope swing.  It's a shame that places like this have been bought up and now people are prevented from enjoying some really cool, unique spots on the island.  Technically, rivers and beaches are supposed to be public, but increasingly people are buying up lands and preventing others from gaining access.  What a shame!

I joined family friends Jane and John on the South Shore for a nice walk behind the Hyatt along Shipwreck Beach and the Makewehi Lithified Cliffs.  

We saw some really cool formations along the cliffs, unlike anything I had seen on Kauai.

After we returned to Shipwreck, I just had to jump off the well-known cliff-jumping spot.  Although it's hard to tell from these pictures, I estimated (and later confirmed) the height to be about 35 feet.