Volunteers in Paradise: Time off

After going to Hanauma Bay about 25 years ago when I visited our friends Sue and Lee in Hawaii, I knew that I would want to go back someday. We started our day there on Monday at 7 am. It was cloudy and early, so we practically had this beautiful paradise to ourselves for a couple of hours before the crowd started streaming in. This is how it looked when we arrived...

It's a crescent shaped bay that's a nature preserve, and there are a few things to remember to keep all of those gorgeous fish healthy and plentiful - no touching the reef, no feeding the fish, and no peeing in the water. :) We saw amazing fish, some so big and colorful that they didn't even seem real, and we got really excited when we saw a big sea turtle. We swam along beside him and at one point floated over him, and he totally ignored us. There were rain showers the whole time we were there, but who cares? (Yeah, we were already wet). We had a wonderful time!

Next we hiked to Makapu'u Point and the lighthouse. It was a steady uphill climb up a paved path, and the views were really incredible. The sky still hadn't cleared, so we couldn't see as far as we would have on a sunny day, but still...

When we got to the top, there was a fenced in viewing spot and people had brought locks and clamped them on. Some were engraved, or had names written with a Sharpie - likely inspired by the bridges in Paris.

As we were admiring the view, the rain moved in, and wow- it came down hard and blew sideways. We ducked under trees, but it didn't help. Neither did rain jackets.

We were soaked when we got back to the car, but we both agreed that it was a hike to remember. Beautiful!

After lunch, as we drove down toward Waikiki to shop a little, we talked about stopping for another hike. It was kind of sunny and we were dry by then, so we decided to go for it!

As we started on the trail to Manoa Falls, we entered a peaceful jungle setting. There were big trees and huge interesting plants, and the only sounds were loud birds singing all around. The peaceful feeling didn't last long though, because... well, it IS a rainforest. It started POURING. We had just paid to park and we had already walked about a mile, so we kept walking. The trail quickly turned into a mud bath, though, and got slippery, so as soon as we got a glimpse of the falls through the trees, we turned back.

Art's disposable poncho was pretty useless in this kind of weather.

Nice trees, huh? And on the way out, we spotted these crazy periwinkle berries the size of jawbreakers.

After leaving there, we wandered around Waikiki in our muddy boots among all the people who were dressed for dinner and drinks by the ocean. We were trying to kill some time and miss the traffic, but it didn't help much! Oh well...

It was our favorite day here so far!

Tuesday was all about hiking and snorkeling, too! We hiked to Ka'ena Point again, but this time from the other side, so it was totally different. The trail was really a road for 4-wheelers that went along the ocean for about 3 miles, with mountains on the left. It was hard because we ended up hiking it at the hottest part of the day and we really didn't take enough water. The scenery was gorgeous, though! There are remnants of World War II, including concrete pillboxes, all over the island. Some have been used as art canvases. The picture I took shows an especially elaborate painting an artist did at the point. Also at the point - Monk Seals were napping on the rocks. So cool...