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| Aloha! - Diamond Crater and Hanauma Bay |
| Friday, January 12, 2007 |
Aloha!
Aloha! - The Journey
Aloha! - Pearl Harbor and the Submarine Tour
The next day morning, it was my turn to wake up early and get ready first.
We were going hiking to the Diamond Head. The sunrise was supposed to look good from the top, and it being the New Year's Eve, all activities were to close by afternoon. So we had booked this trip for 6:30AM, insane hour even by my standards. We were the only couple in the shuttle that took us to the crater. The driver was a friendly guy. We realized we had our afternoon program also with him. He offered to pick us up for the 8:30AM trip, and club the two activities together. Heck, we didnt wake up this early, to go back to sleep! So we politely declined the offer.
We reached the crater in 15 minutes, it was very close to Waikiki breach front. It was still dark, we saw a few hikers walking towards the crater. we went on a slight hill, and then through a short tunnel and lo! we were right inside the crater! I should say it didnt really look like a crater to me, after all the volcano here had erupted some 150,000 years ago and hasnt moved ever since. :--) The inside of the crater was almost symmetrically round. Apparently this led to the belief that the eruption here was one big one and that was about it. It was one of the two big volcanic eruptions that formed the Oahu island.
We started our hike first on paved road, then on a muddy trail, going up towards a corner on the top of the crater, directly overlooking the ocean. Just as we started on the trail, a tiny incident happened. DH still laughs about it when we see the picture associated with the incident. As I said, there were not very many people around and it was still a little dark as the sun had not risen yet. We saw a guy jogging back from the trail towards us. DH turned to me and said in a hurried voice," Hey quick, get me the camera, lets take a picture" I dont know it if was lack of sleep or what, but my head didnt quite process what I heard. I bluntly asked, " Why? Why do you want to take a picture of that guy?" Well, DH knows I can be a dumbo at times, some may call it stupid, I wouldnt, but this time it sounded atrocious even to him. He just gave a "I cant believe you!" look at me, and picked the camera from me. I realized my folly soon. All this happened in a matter of seconds, it is worth mentioning here I think. If you didnt get it, DH was asking the camera to ask the guy to take a picture of us. Yes, silly me, I didnt get it. We are always looking for someone, read scapegoat, to take a picture of the two of us, pictures look soo drab if it only had one of us.
 It was a refreshing walk. The hike was a short one, approximately 1 mile one way, a two hour leisurely hike in total. The Diamond Head got its name from the fact that the sailors from far away saw the top of the mountain glistening like diamond. It was actually calcite that the sailors saw, but the name stuck with it. We did see some calcite on the sides of the hill as we trudged along uphill.
In a short while we reached a lookout point, and I should say in time, because the Sun was just rising at the horizon. The look out was decent. a Japanese guy got onto DH's nerves by not leaving the spot for us to take pictures. DH was cursing him, when he finally moved away. We took some snaps with the rising sun in the background.
 We had to climb about 200 steps which got my panting for breath. I cant climb stairs. Period. I can walk howmuch ever on level ground, but slopes, my body gives up. On top of these stairs we went through a tunnel, I guess the slope was too much as we neared the top, they had to cut a tunnel to get to the top. We entered what was a fire station and a look out point at one time. We climbed another series of spiral steps to get to the top. And then a crawl underneath a wedge like thing, almost doubling ourselves to get out into the open. The view wasnt spectacular, it was decent.
 We saw a lighthouse at the bottom. We got a nice view of the Waikiki beach with its tall hotels, on one side, a brilliant sunrise was on one other side, brilliantly colored ocean on one side, and the inside of the crater was on the last side. I was more awed with the crater than the beach. It was like standing on the rim of a coffee cup. The only difference was the rim was not level on all sides. It was higher where we were standing and the rest of the rim was a little lower.
The rim was uneven, the reason was because when the eruption happened, the wind was blowing towards the ocean. Hence all the ashes and lava flew to the ocean side, and immediately solidified, thus that side was higher than the rest. There, apparently thats how land gets formed in Hawaii.
We started our downward hike, after taking some pictures, munching on snacks and watching other families with kids around. It was a short hike down, my feet started aching a bit. If upward hike was breathless, the downward hike was straining my ankles and feet. I had to put brakes on my feet more often to avoid a headlong crash downwards. As we almost reached the bottom, my feet starting aching so badly, I started walking at a snail pace, forcing DH to also slow down, which lead to a funny conversation, not worth writing here :--)
We had 15 minutes to spare before the shuttle came to pick us up, so we waited while munching  on snacks. There were a bunch of brids around, which surrounded us as we put crumbs for them to eat. We were observing the birds and their flocking behavior, their fight for food, with mild excitement. Have you noticed how most birds when they walk fast, bob their heads back and forth? I was wondering why they did that. I thought it must be to balance their small fragile body during movement, to keep the CG within themselves, as their body to head size ratio is pretty small compared to us humans. While I was partially right, here is a complete explanation.
We reached our rooms by 9AM, we relaxed ourselves, by watching TV, and cleaning up a little, and eating. Boy, I had peanut butter after a long time. Screw dieting, it tasted so yummy.
******
Our next pick-up was at 11:00AM to Hanauma Bay. We were going snorkelling! We packed our swimming clothes and change of clothes, slippers, snacks in our backpack, and let DH carry them :--D. It was about a 20 minute drive to the bay. During the drive, our driver cum tour guide taught us how to use the snorkel gear. For the uninitiated, snorkel equipment consists for a goggle-cum-tube for the eyes and mouth and fins for the feet.
Before leaving the hotel, I had a major dilemma about my contact lens as in should I wear it or not. Snorkelling is an activity to look at the underwater world. I didnt see any point in doing that without my contacts, or glasses. I have atrocious short sight. When I go swimming generally I try to minimize the total time I am without my glasses and not in water. Because I dont see much without them. So I kept my contacts on, I was going to wear the goggles over them, and pray water doesnt get into my eyes.
Hanauma Bay was rated one of the best beaches in America a few years ago. It looked beautiful, a naturally semi-circular shaped bay. It was obviously formed by another crater close to the ocean. It was almost too crowded at the Bay, and the parking lot was full. They were not letting more cars into the bay. Mercifully, we didnt have a problem since our guide would be leaving us there for a few hours and pick us back up.
There was a long line to get the tickets. We munched away on the caramel corn while waiting in the line, carrying all our belongings. After getting the tickets we had to watch a mandatory (jeez!) 13 minute video about the Bay and preserving the fishes and the reef in the bay. The main point to take from the video was that we were not to step on the reefs while snorkelling in the bay.
We walked down a slope to the bay, it was at the bottom of a mountain. The water was very shallow, about chest deep, hence the water color was amazing, a beautiful light blue. The sun was just perfect, didnt feel sweaty, but didnt feel cold either. There was another long line at the locker rental. We deposited our belongings, and went to the water finally. The reefs were pretty close to the shore. We put on the fins and walked like clowns in the water. We practiced a bit of breathing underwater with the goggles on. It was a little hard. I got water in my mouth a couple of times, salty water. The goggles are supposed to get locked onto your face, airtight, causing a vaccuum inside. Thus water did not get into the eyes. We had some kind of a spray sprayed on our goggles to prevent so-called fogging.
Once we mastered breathing a little, it was amazing to duck into the water to look under the surface. Initially I found it really hard to swim with the fins on. I mean, I was able to swim, but I found it real hard to stop swimming and get back on my feet. It scared me a little. After some trials I gave up on the fins, switched to DH's rapsters and started swimming. Ah, bliss! to swim without fins. DH however managed to swim and float with the fins. This was my first time out in the sea swimming. There are many differences between swimming in a guarded pool and in the open sea. In the pool, you know how deep the floor is, and you know where you are, and you know where to stop, your spatial locality is pretty limited. In the sea, there might be unexpected obstacles under the water, the depth cannot be perceived easily, and there are waves pushing you all over the place.
It took some time before we started doing some real snorkelling. I almost jumped with joy when I saw the first fish under water. It was so near my leg, I couldnt believe it. It seemed to be oblivious to my existence. I watched it as it brought two somethings out of an openning near its mouth, to clean and brush the mud from the ocean floor, to look for something to eat. It was so amazing. It was as if, the world under the surface was totally different from the world above the surface. I duck my head under the water and I am in a different world, Sea world?, it was quiet and surreal. I duck my head out of the water, and I see a crowd of people all around me, the real world. For the next hour we saw so many variety of fishes. Me and DH swam nearby each other. Sometimes I showed him some fishes pointing at it, and he did the same when he saw any. Finding Nemo - was the movie I remembered.
We floated on the water surface for sometime, we even ventured on top of reefs, which are, I think rocks with algae kinda plants on them. We knew we would find more fishes closer to the reefs. I was a little scared because you cant stop and stand if you amidst the reefs. We went over some reefs, saw a whole lot of fishes, of all colors, just like they said in the webpages. Here is a sample tour.
Just when it was geting exciting, it was time to go! DH was very much tempted to skip the drive back, as he wanted to spend more time, as we had just learnt how to snorkel. He said it was easier to navigate and change course with the fins. I was doing okay with the rapsters. We reluctantly came away from the ocean, hurried to change and get our belongings from the locker, hurriedly walked uphill distance to the parking area.
DH so fell in love with snorkelling, that for the rest of the trip he was ready to skip all programmes to just snorkel away in Hawaii.
 While returning back, we had a bad news waiting for us. DH's Chithappa who recently had a heart surgery, passed away. He has three kids, all girls, one was 3 years old. :--( It came as a shock to us. We were very quiet on our way back to the Hotel. We went home, talked about it a little, and dozed away, as we were pretty tired. We saw the last sunset of 2006 from our patio. This will be the only picture I am putting up of the afternoon.
We were to go to the beach and float on a bed, but we didnt feel like doing it. We walked along the beach. New Year Celebrations had begun in most hotels. Music was playing all over the place. We sat at the beach when Sparkie called up. It was free charge to call US from India on New Years Day, and Sparkie was kind enough to give us a call and wish us.
Later we set out to find a decent place to have New Year Eve's Dinner. Every single place was crowded, the whole place was too crowded. I felt like having Pasta. We roamed around a lot searching for a good place, finally ended up in Ilima. It was not too crowded, but the food was awesome. We had chicken with pasta and buffalo wings. We split the portions. We always do. One single entree is too much for either of us.
We tucked into bed very early, because our legs were begging for some rest and anyway we had an early flight in the morning to the dream destination - Maui. |
posted by SK @ 7:36 PM  |
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| 4 Comments: |
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>>I bluntly asked, " Why? Why do you want to take a picture of that guy?
LOL :D
btw, actually naanum adhaan nenachen :p
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Hey J :--)
Heheh glad to know it wasnt just me!
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Snorkelling sounds like such fun :-)! Alright - next vacation near the beach I am sooooo going to do all the water activities!
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Hey Arch, You should! It is a lot of fun :--) Take your straightner with you though :--D
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>>I bluntly asked, " Why? Why do you want to take a picture of that guy?
LOL :D
btw, actually naanum adhaan nenachen :p