Before I begin telling some of the stories I have to say I went outside my confort box on this visit! With the YES attitude, I did some daring things well daring to me. I was able to "experience Hawaii (Main Island) with gusto and would suggest to anyone that is going on a vacation either locally or across the pond to have this "I never be able to come back" attitude. Try and squeeze as many activities as you possibly can.
I will have to add the pictures later... I am on a different computer that doesn't have all my pictures.
Fun stories: I have some rather funny stories about our trip.
1) On the way: I was traveling with a big group. The chorus I sing with won amazing accomplishment a chance to compete at the International level in Honolulu Hawaii. There were 12 on my plan that went together. Many of the other members, there are over 100 of us, would see each other at the various airports along the way which was interesting. In the 12, The Dazzling Dozen, I will call us; there were several that were in need of assistance since the eldest member in our chorus was with us.
We left from the Dayton Airport around six in morning and when we landed in Atlanta, they told us that our connecting plane had been changed. As you can imagine this created distress to some of our members, but the attendant assured us they had set up a BUS for us. I guess our big group plus three in wheel chairs scared them a bit! This was an experience! I truly felt while we were on the bus we were going to die! We were on the tarmac trying to make our way around the huge planes/jets and trying to dodge the luggage drivers. I felt we had been shrunk down to ant size and were dropped down in the middle of extermination! Glad to say we did make it from across still alive and to our new terminal only to be told they switched it back to the original spot we started from. You guessed it we had to load everyone + bags back on another bus and do it all over again, like the first time wasn’t enough.
I am going to try omit describing the part where we attempted to sing for them b/c
1) We didn't have a pitch pipe for the songs we wanted to sing,
2) The LEAD that started us thought she was picking the correct pitch., which unfortunately wasn’t.
3) I would say we were still asleep since we had to be at the airport at 4 AM, but after our trek across the tarmac I cannot say we were ASLEEP… maybe still in shock would be more the word. I do know most of us were not feeling well some were having sinus issues. On the way back to the bus I had to apologize because GEEZ it was pretty bad.
2) Trip to Hanauma Bay:
We took a taxi to Hanauma Bay. I don’t have a ton experience with Taxi drivers in fact it seems the only time I use them is when I am on a Sweet Adeline trip. The driver was fantastic! Along the way he pointed out a couple of residents where actors’ live – Keanu Reeves, and his next door neighbor was Tom Selleck. We crained our necks trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of them, but found out that they are rarely there. Also, we saw a place called “Stairway to heaven” and thought it would be great to hike to the top. It has 3000 steps to the top which should take about 60-90 minutes to reach the top of it that is if you are in shape. Since I am camera freak I wanted to get up there I could take some amazing pictures. I didn’t have any takers while we were there, but found out it was CLOSED. When we returned from our trip I was doing some research for these stories and found out that not only was it closed but being patrolled with riffles. Glad we missed that, of course it would have been a STORY!
Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve is located on the Southeast side of Oahu and is classified as the 3rd wonder of the island. The bay is home to some of the most spectacular snorkeling and diving in the islands. It is a breathtaking place to visit. If you visit Ohau and can only go to several places, make this one of them. Important fact: Hanauma is closed on Tuesdays’ and under hazardous conditions such as severe weather or Box Jellyfish they will close the park so you will need to call ahead. The jellies typically arrive on the south and west shores of the islands every month 8 to 12 days after the full moon. If you have a calendar that lists moon cycles you might want to check that.
We had four in our group that went and we were all very excited even more excited after seeing the actor’s houses. I bought an underwater camera in preparation of this so I could capture the sea turtles, fish and coral. It was my BIG thing I had planned on doing while visiting.
The day we visited thank goodness we didn’t have to worry about the jellies of course, now that I think about it there were flags on the beach. Maybe because the water was extremely choppy they stayed further out. When we reached the park our driver gave us explicit instructions to be back at the location where he dropped us off. If we were not here at the designated time he would leave us. No pressure.
As we purchased our tickets we were told we had to watch a training video on how to snorkel in the bay – what was allowed and what wasn’t. Not much to say about this other than if you have common sense then you know you are not allowed to touch the coral or it dies. Video is a requirement to enter the park and thankfully it is less than 10 minutes long.
When the video finished we were ushered outside to be told we could grab a trolley down the hill, of course there is a cost of this or you could walk. Which our group slip up 2/2 – two on the trolley and two walking
I will stop here and say that I am an experienced swimmer. I used to coach swimming and was a life guard in my high school years, of course I won’t say how many years ago that was, but this point is KEY to this story.
After we located a spot on the beach where we wanted to setup three of us went into the water dragging our gear with us. I have been snorkeling before and experienced swimmer so I didn’t think this was going to be a big deal. I will say this that no matter how experienced you think you are you can ALWAYS benefit from refreshers.
My main point in going was to take pictures, I will be honest. Once we went out into the water we found out the coral started at mid calf water height in some areas. This is where the experience or lack of. We sat down and tried to put our fins on, but as we were doing this the waves were crashing all around us making the process difficult and that isn’t mentioning the sand that was going places where we won’t discuss.
If you are a snorkeler you will understand this, first it was low tide with choppy waters so there wasn’t much water at the edge of the surf before you reached the coral. The depths differed between 18-36 inches in some place. I have been snorkeling before but not in these conditions and was having some comedic issues getting my gear on.
We waded out into the surf a bit and found the coral almost immediately when we walked in. Remembering our video we just watched we had to wade out backwards and since the coral was in such shallow water, it wasn’t an easy task. They told us not to touch the coral but this was impossible almost every part of your body touched it due to the choppy waves. You had to do the dodge I have to say my rear end caught it more than once. I guess there is an upside; I wasn’t alone on this because the coral wasn’t sharp if it had been I would have lost the bottom of my bathing suit.
We finally reached a place in the water was deep enough to assemble the gear; really it was only mask, mouth piece and fins. You would not have thought it was a big deal getting these on but due to the waves tossing us around it proved difficult.
You would have thought once I got my gear on, and my body acclimated with the cycle of waves I would have been okay, right but unfortunately this wasn’t the case. I was in the process of following some fish, taking their picture or at least attempting to when my mask fogged up and my mouth piece started taking in water. I went to the surface and flipped over pulling my mouth piece out choking up salt water pulling off my mask and trying to see what the heck was going on. I have to say this process went on longer than I care to admit. Finally I found out my mouth piece had a hole in it. Since patience isn’t necessarily one of my stronger suits I took it out of my mouth after third or fourth attempt. This is when I was able to get some of the pictures, but they didn’t turn out as well as I had liked. My cohorts who were swimming off in a distance would periodically look over to check on me and see me flipping around and around in the ocean.
On the way home the girls told what happened to everyone in the van and had a big laugh!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments: