Hanamau bay

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Dahna: After a good sleep (thank-you sleep-gods ;-) ) we caught a touristy shuttle bus and went out to Hanamau bay to go snorkeling. We realised later that we could have caught a public bus that got pretty close to the bay, but we were time pressured and still hadn't quite got into shoestring mode. So, excuses aside, it was ok - we got dropped off and picked up two hours later. The bay is an old volcano crater with a reef and a pile of coral and fish - some species unique only to that area apparently (I'm told, unique only to that bay... but have not conformed that.)

We got there for sunrise, and it was nice to walk down onto an empty beach and see the sun come up, but in hindsight (don't you love hindsight?) it would have been good to go later in the day so that the sun was on the water and you could see more... it was all pretty dark at sunrise. We were both a little disappointed in the snorkeling, having both been spoilt by the barrier reef. Apologies if I am sounding a little homesick and bias. But maybe there is always an element of disappointment when something is over-hyped. After seeing the glossy brochures everywhere the real bay failed to live up to it's photo-shopped and mass produced version. But it was still pretty cool. There's just something about being herded into something that makes me enjoy things less... that's just me.

That afternoon we rented a couple of malibu's and went "surfing". We found a break a little to the left of where the masses and lessons were and caught 5 or 6 good waves each. Jono stood up first go but failed to pull off the promised 360 ;-) He came close to doing one though when he had a collision with an American tourist who decided to paddle across the wave he was catching.

Oh, by the way, I have noticed a very strange thing about Hawaiins - they love spam. I guess it came here during the war and never went away. It is on every menu from sushi vendors through to pizza shops and high class(ish) restaurants. Mmm - so would you like spam, spam and eggs, spam on toast or toast on spam? eeeeeeeeyuuck. Oh well. Each to their own.

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Photos

Hanamau bay
Hanamau bay before the masses arrive

Hanamau bay
Hanamau bay before the masses arrive

Only in the US of A
need we say more?