Advertisement
Published: February 5th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Day 5: Monday
Hanauma bay was recommended to us as the best place to do snorkeling and also to see a large variety of marine life. So that was the first on our agenda for the day. This time, I was determined to snorkel as we were nearing the end of our vacation. We took Kalanianaole highway, another scenic route, and entered Hanauma bay, parked our car and learnt that they limited the number of visitors into the bay each day to protect the fragile marine life. The view of the bay from top was superb. Niki and I couldn’t wait to get into the water. But first, we had to watch a 10 minute video about how the bay was not a beach park for beach sport, but a natural preserve for marine life. We were told not to step on the coral and not to touch the fish. We were also asked to watch out for jelly fish because 3 days in a month these fish came out into the bay and today was their customary visit and so far they had 2 stings that morning.
Rajesh hates to swim in the salt water, so he took
over the task of watching Meg. Niki had her own snorkel gear and I rented mine for $9 and we asked the life guard to teach us breathing and practiced on shore several times before getting into the water. The water was so clear and warm and the tide was up, so more fish. There was endless coral and schools of colorful fish and other marine life. We couldn’t believe our eyes that we were actually snorkeling. I had no idea what each fish was, but Niki pointed out angel fish, butterfly fish, couple of sea turtles, a sting ray and the abundant state fish - Humuhumunukunukuapuaa (like the song in High School Musical 2). Some people held a laminated sheet that showed them the names of the fishes. We had so much fun cruising through and over the reef chasing fish. And if we stopped chasing, the fish came to us. It was super cool and once we got the hang of it, we went on shore to get our underwater camera and shot some photos. I coaxed Rajesh to get in and he came into the water knee deep, careful not to step over the coral and he
also could see some fishes. No jelly fish encounters, thankfully!
We spent half day at Hanauma Bay and didn’t have the heart to leave. We wanted to come back the next day, but the life guard told us that the bay is closed on Tuesday. We showered and changed and bought pineapple ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery in the parking lot and headed over to the Valley of the Temples to visit the Japanese Byodo-in temple. The views along the drive to Kaneohe up to the temple were once again unbelievable. The temple is located in a scenic, peaceful area, with a pleasant garden and pond. Between the temple, giant Buddha, and tremendous brass bell, we felt that we were transported back to one of the Buddhist temples in Japan or China. Even the foliage and location below the misty mountain tops tricked our eyes. The swans were majestic, swimming peacefully with the koi fish in the pond. The workmanship of the temple, bell housing, pagoda, and Buddha itself was awe inspiring. We lit the incense and rang the peace bell. And found it hard to leave the calm and serene spot, with hardly any tourists out there.
We could have spent hours just watching the Koi fish and taking in the views.
We had yet another scenic drive to complete in Oahu. We headed back to Waikiki and took the route to Round Top Drive up Mount Tantalus located in the Manoa valley. Round top drive started off the accent with some luxury homes tucked into steep winding driveways. We had to drive really slow, while keeping an eye out for sudden sharp turns, hidden driveways, stray kittens and roosters, and the occasional resident dog. There were several pullouts along the road, where we parked the car and soaked in the view. The ride up Tantalus seemed like a ride through the South American jungles, complete with the sounds of rare birds and the scents of rare foliage. It was a rainforest with bamboo trees and we occasionally rode in and out of small pockets of rain and then sunshine. We saw the best ever clear and vibrant rainbow. Niki said we had to send some bamboo trees from there to China to feed the Pandas because they were becoming extinct. Good idea! At the very top, we pulled into Pu’u Ualaka’a State Park. From there
we could see Oahu in its entirety including all of Diamond Head, the Pacific Ocean and the concrete jungle of Waikiki. I am lost for words to express further my feeling as we stood there and captured our moments on photo and video.
That evening, we decided to visit the Hilton Hawaiian village. First we stopped at the Iolani Palace, the first ever standing royal palace on American soil. King Kalakaua lived there with his Queen Kapi’olani. It wasn’t a big deal and it was around 7 pm. So we just took some pictures outside and proceeded to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The Hotel is an entertainment complex in itself, with swimming pools, waterfalls, a lagoon with paddle boats for kids and several restaurants and shopping. We roamed around for a while and had planned to eat dinner at one of the restaurants there. But the kids missed the familiar Waikiki beach and so we went back to our favorite haunt. This time Niki picked PF Changs and we got a patio seat without any wait as it was already 9 pm. We ate another delicious dinner and recalled the amazing events of that day with spicy Dali chicken
and fried rice.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0528s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb