Hawaii - Day 3 - Haunama Bay and drive through the island

Friday August 17, 2007

We woke up at around 6 am and surprisingly we seem to have adjusted to the time change okay so far. We took out the breakfast Terry and Bob had left for us in the fridge. We ate it on the quiet of the water and the morning hours and just to relax.

Jamie watched some TV (about Sharks of course) and I wrote in the journal for a little while before we headed out to Hauanama Bay for the morning.

We got there around 8:20 am and it was busy already. Jamie waited in line to get tickets while I took some pictures. We got the tickets and watched a video to make sure we are protecting the reef. Apparently the reef was created as a volcano once erupted creating a crater right near the edge of the ocean. Over time the rocks eroded and then it opened up into the Bay.

After the movie we then headed down the hill into Hauanama Bay. The beach was beautiful. We tried to get our equipment on but the one mask strap wasnt staying on. Jamie went back up to the car to get his wallet to get some rental equipment. In the meantime, I went to the rental place to see if they could fix the mask. They fixed it all up so when Jamie got back we were ready to go. We asked a lady near us to take our picture and then noticed that she was alone. So we went out snorkelling for a short while with her.

The reef in some places started as soon as you got into the water. There were alot of different kinds of fish and many of them were brightly coloured. I did get to see a pipe fish which was a bit rare to see. Jamie and I tried to get over the reef into some deeper waters. Jamie made it over but I was stuck on the coral with the waves. I just couldn't see where to go over. Afterwards, we realized that we should have done it right away since the waves were getting bigger as time went on. We stayed until noon and went back to the Bed and Breakfast stopping at the grocery store first. We had lunch and a shower and asked Terry about what to do next.

So about 2 pm we started out on a drive around part of the west side of the island and then through the mountains over to the east side and up the east coast. The west side of the island is very lush and has very nice beaches. The mountains were beautiful as you could see only green and there were lots of details to see where the water comes down the mountain.

We headed through two little tunnels going through the mountain on highway 61. After the tunnels we stopped at Pali Lookout. Apparently, this was where there was tiny road up the mountain a very long time ago. It was a very tough road and the only other way to get to the other side was to take a boat all the way around the island. This portion of the mountain was very windy and it was hard to hold still in the one part. The view up here was beautiful and showed the city of Kaneohe.

There was also a plaque explaining about a battle that happened when the King of the Big Island came over to Ohau and they ended up pushing the natives of Ohau over the cliffs of the Pali mountain.

We then headed to the west side of the island. The highway was a bit busy but we make it slowly. We headed all the way up to as far as we could go on the west coast. The locals dominate this area and Terry had said there were some rough areas so we didn't really stop that much. This side of the island wasn't as lush and some places there were dead trees on the slopes of the mountain. We had the sun going down on this side which made it beautfiul but also made it harder for Jamie to drive. He started to get a headache.

We headed into Honolulu to go to the Aloha Tower and marketplace. Jamie wasn't feeling all that well and he ended up laying down in the car. I did find him some tylenol and went and got asome takeout food and headed back to teh bed and breakfast. There were some other couples there also. Jamie got to meet them but we just relaxed a bit and went to bed.

Apparently today was Aloha Day. The third Friday in August they celebrate the day that Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States. One lady said that traffic would be better but we hit the traffic anyway.