We'd booked a snorkelling tour of the famous marine reserve, Hanauma Bay - a reef and coral bay that sits in a volcano crater. Unfortunately the bad weather this week has meant no scuba diving tours in the bay, so I had to settle for snorkelling.
We met our tour guide at a hotel near our apartment and discovered that we were the only two booked on the afternoon tour so that was good. Our instructor, Allyn, was friendly and was also a certified PADI scuba diver so we were in good hands. He knows the bay very well as he leads snorkel and dive tours here twice a day, four days a week.
After a brief stop at the dive shop for fitting of fins and signing of waivers followed by a 30 minute drive east from Waikiki we arrived at the bay and were given a run down on the bay. We watched the compulsory 9 minute instructional movie about how to avoid damaging the reef and coral whilst in the water and then took the little tram down to the beach and got our gear ready and headed to the water for some under water exploring.
Immediately, straight off the beach was the reef with marine life everywhere. Tropical fish of all types including the Humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, all quite tame and swimming right up to or past us. We even got to see another giant Green Turtle feeding on the reef. This was quite a site to see. We saw eels and more species of fish than I can probably even remember. It was stunning, and this apparently was poor conditions so we were only able to snorkel on the inner reef. Visibility was still really good at 10 metres plus, but apparently this is quite poor for this bay where it is often crystal clear.
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| Hanauma Bay |
We finally made it out of the water after probably 90 minutes snorkelling and exploring the amazing reef and marine life on offer.
We washed off our gear and selves and as we were packing up it started to rain softly at first turning in a downpour within a few minutes. Luckily we were able to shelter from the rain under one of the palm trees near our gear, which was in a water tight plastic container. Whilst waiting for the rain to ease, Sharon noticed a cat with kittens just at the back of the reserve, apparently wild cats are common in O'Ahu. They looked just like normal healthy well looked after household pets so they must live a pretty decent life in the wild. We also spotted another local wild animal, a mongoose who run across a section of rock at the back of the reserve and re-surfaced at the garbage bin.
The rain eased and we headed back to the van and back into Waikiki. We showered and changed and then headed out for some more pre dinner drinks whilst watching the sun set into the ocean again. We watched the local Hawaiian musicians at the bar playing some great Hawaiian style songs with acoustic guitars and Ukulele and singing - a guy on acoustic guitar and vocals and his daughter on Ukulele and vocals. The both had great voices but the girl in particular was stunning. There was also a hula dancing girl performing with them on many songs.
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| Sunset at Waikiki Beach (iPhone 4 photo) |
Today's Weather
77°F (25°C) | Humidity is 81%
Mostly cloudy. Winds are from the east-north-east at 6 mph. Visibility is 10 mile(s). Barometric pressure is 30.07 in. Hg (1018 hPa).
