Snorkeling

Jeremy and I recently spent a full week in Oahu, Hawai’i in celebration of our 15th Wedding Anniversary (August 15th).  Many, many, thanks to our family who took care of our kids during our time away!! 

Life after vacation seems a bit hectic to say the least.  I wanted to share a small portion of our trip as I’ve been feeling guilty for not sharing our adventures in a timely fashion. I didn’t mean for this to turn into a long rolling blog, but it did. Just look at the pictures if you don’t want to experience snorkeling in Hawai’i with me. ;-)

I never really thought snorkeling was my cup of tea.  Not because of the silly mask, or how weird it feels if you accidently try to breathe through your nose, or breathing in a big gulp (no, not the 7-11 kind) of salt water.  I just wasn’t very interested. Once you’ve snorkeled once you’ve seen it all right?

Hawai’i has changed my view and has made me want to explore more parts of the world where marine life and the waters are abundant with color and life. 

For me the draw was seeing animals in the wild, doing what comes instinctually. Both bays we visited were natural and not manmade nor stocked. There is also an element of fear. The waters are pretty clear, but you can’t see that far ahead. What’s just beyond that next chunk of coral? What happens when you venture out past the breaking waves to the open sea where the unknown is looking you straight in the eye?

Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay is a natural coral reef on the Southeast side of Oahu. It’s the crater of an old volcano covered with water long ago. It’s now a natural preserve where you pay to enter and experience natural marine life. If you are lucky you may even see a sea turtle. Fat chance…right?

We set our alarm to wake at 5:00 a.m. to see the sunrise at Hanauma Bay (how romantic). Um yeah, that didn’t happen and we were on the road by 6:00 a.m. (still really early for me).

Ahhh, Jeremy got us some Kona lattes!  Hawai’i has thEEEE best coffee!  I think we were both feeling a bit better after some joe.  Thank goodness the hotel store opened at 6am!

The day was overcast and a bit chilly (for Hawai’i) and I was getting worried that we were going to have to go snorkeling in cool waters. We hung out on the beach for a while waiting for a break in the clouds. Jeremy had to make a few calls. But don’t get me wrong…we were there for 8 nights and Jeremy’s super busy at work right now, so that was totally fine by me. I hung out, tried to stay warm, and watched others getting ready to snorkel. Some of the gals just couldn’t do it. Even putting on the snorkel mask was very hard for one lady. She sat kneeling in the shallow water for a very long time. I also got to watch some of the land wildlife…chickens. Yes, I said chickens. Hawaii has a very high ratio of wild chickens to humans. It’s kind of weird. You’ll see colorful chickens almost everywhere you go outside of the big city.

Yes! The clouds finally broke and it turned out to be a beautiful day. The waters were mostly shallow. The fish were beautiful. It’s funny how they are nothing special from one angle and when they turn the sun hits them and they are mesmerizing with brilliant colors. There were a few large fish with teeth even! But they could have cared less about us. Some of the coral was tall with only 1.5 feet of clearance between the coral and the top of the water. When I got out a bit too far the waves breaking over the coral made me a bit nervous, but it was exciting too! There were a few times a big fish would swim up out of a hole in the coral just in front of me and would startle the heck out of me. Jeremy finally had had enough, but I wanted more so I swam out further and the coral opened up to a deep sandy “pool” area. Behind a tall chunk of coral, a big sea turtle was hanging out chomping the good eats on the coral wall. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I so wish Jeremy could have been with me. The turtle hung out, swam to the top to get air, and then swam back down to his feeding spot. They are so graceful and fairly quick in the water. It was a bit freaky, because I didn’t know how fast they could swim. It’s against the law to get too close to them or to touch them. I was plenty fine to just hang out and watch him do his thing. I went to get Jeremy and we tried to find the same area of coral, but it all just looked the same so we had to abort the mission. Hanauma Bay was very fun and I could have snorkeled there all day!

 

Shark’s Cove – North Shore of Oahu

 

On our last full day on Oahu, we drove up to the North Shore. It was by far the hottest day we had experienced. The sand was blazing hot everywhere we stopped along the way. One of our stops was Shark’s Cove. Don’t fret; it’s only called that because from the aerial view it looks like the shape of a shark. The waters on the North Shore were fairly calm for this time of the year (winter season gets big waves, but we were on the tail end of winter). There were rolling (not breaking) waves, and others were snorkeling so we gave it a try. The waves were crashing on shore a bit so it was hard to get our gear on while trying to not get shoved onto the very rocky shore.

Once out in the water though it was so amazing!!! By far, my favorite of the two snorkeling stops. The cove was deep, but very clear. There were many large schools of fish foraging on coral reefs. Literally, there were schools of fish we got to swim through. I can’t convey how amazing it was to see such large amounts of fish in one area. When the sun hit them it was breathtaking. Now, this is a deeper cove. I felt like I was really experiencing the ocean at this location. As I was floating on the surface of the water, I was literally rolling with the waves. You could feel the power of the water. And the water pulled you towards the sea as the waves moved in and out. Seeing the water hit the coral reefs underwater was very cool. Don Ho must have been a snorkeler (“Tiny Bubbles”).

We ventured out past some of the breaking waves of the cove to another mini-cove and found a little sea turtle! I was so excited when I saw it in the distance; I tried to get Jeremy’s attention by bumping him with my arm. Little did I know I was knocking his breathing tube out of his mouth just as he was breathing in…oops. I was happy Jeremy got to see a sea turtle in the ocean though!

I must say the element of danger was much more present here versus Hanauma Bay.  At H. Bay there were many lifeguard locations. Not so at Shark’s Cove. The area was wide open. Sharks could have very easily swum in. Even a whale! No joke! It was that open a space!

Overall, I had an amazing time. I now have the desire to find even better waters to travel to in the future!

On our way home we stopped by an area where an old turtle often beaches himself.  There was even a “turtle guard” who roped off the area so nobody could bug him.