Becky's Blog Part 2

Day Six: Today we decided our arms were tired from all the surfing and kayaking, so we would hike. We packed up the cooler and some water and headed to Diamond Head State Park. It is supposed to be one of the oldest and best know volcanic craters in the world. The trail/ stairs wound it's way up the side, with a few scenic outlooks along the way. We hiked up the trail and climbed up most of the 99 steps only to be stopped in an old war bunker. There were paramedics and an elderly Asian lady with an oxygen mask on. We could only assume she either collapsed because of the heat or dehydration. The paramedics temporarily stopped everyone from walking the rest of the way up or down while they were waiting on their rescue helicopter. They had to strap her down and slide her out the 12 inch opening and carry her to the helicopter. It was pretty cool to watch. Then we finished our walk up to the outlook at the top. Later we drove around the coast line to another scenic out look and climbed down the big rocks out towards the ocean.

Day Seven: Today was Sunday, and we decided to go to church. We all put on nice clothes and headed down to a little church Rachel had seen by the Highway. We could hear singing when we pulled up but didn't recognise the song. We slipped in the back down and sat down, only to realise the service was NOT in English. The girls sitting in the bench by us told Rachel it was in Samoan but if the pastor noticed us, he would switch to English. We quickly slipped back out the door. After a short drive we found another church with an English service. After church we headed home for lunch and decided to go to the beach for the day. We packed up for Waikiki and spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, and swimming in the sun. That night we went out to dinner down by the harbor and were able to see big cargo ships, a couple dinner cruises, and the docks.

Day Eight: Rachel and I had another day down at Waikiki today. We brought the "noodles" to float on and rented surfboards again. The boards we rented were smaller than the boards we had taken the lesson on. They were much harder to balance on. After surfing we set up on the beach in front of the "pools". They are beaches with break walls all the way around a small bit of the ocean to protect the water from the big waves. We floated around on our noodles and soaked up some sun. That night we made dinner and watched the Olympics.

Day Nine: Today was my big Shark Encounter. (Nate and Rachel decided to be fiscally responsible and not join me on this encounter). Since the boat didn't leave until 4:30 we headed out in the afternoon. We decided to set up for a few hours at a beach with tons of sea turtles. The beach had lots of rocks growing seaweed all along the shore and turtles were everywhere swimming, eating and even sitting out of the water on the rocks. We did a little snorkeling, soaked up a little sun and went for a walk down the beach. Then it was time to head off to the boat. Nate and Rachel dropped me off at 4:30 and then headed off to explore the little surf town and grab dinner while I headed out into the ocean. After cruising out for about 25 minutes, the boat pulled up to the shark cage (which was attached to a buoy) and tied off our boat. We put on snorkel masked and were given instructions on how to safely get in and out of the cage. I volunteered to be the first one in. The sharks were already there. Circling the boat and the cage. The crew threw some chum (cut up fish parts) into the water and we got to watch the sharks swim by and eye it before circling back and chomping down. There were Galapagos sharks, Sandbar sharks, and two Tiger Sharks (which swam by but didn't stick around). There were 10 or 12 sharks, some only a few feet long but most bigger than me. The sharks got within inches of the cage. Sometimes the fish would swim into the cage with us, so they could get away from the sharks. One time I was holding my breath down in the bottom of the cage when a big shark slammed into the cage while wrestling with another shark to get food. I lost my hand hold and both my feet went right through the cage bars!!! It was hard to hold on but amazing to watch I took lots of pictures with my underwater camera.

Day Ten: We decided to go to Hanauma Bay to do some more snorkeling. Nate and Rachel both got calls about work and needed to take care of important things so we got a late start for the Bay. When we showed up, the parking lot was full. We decided to drive down the road and find the little beach we had seen a few days earlier (when driving around after Diamond Head). We parked by the Halona Blow Hole and carefully walked down the rocks to the beach. It is apparently the beach where some beach scenes were filmed from the movie From Here to Eternity. It was a really neat little beach surrounded by cliffs and rocks and even a little cave. (Which we started to explore but was filled with broken bottles and garbage). We climbed over the the rocks and found the blowhole. It was not really impressive but I could see how it might be with bigger waves. Then we headed back down the road to Hanauma Bay. We watched a short video about the history of the underwater cater and how the nature preserve is working to protecting the sea life. We snorkled around the bay, it was a bit wavy so the visibilty was not ideal but we still saw tons of fish and sea life.

Day Eleven: Last day : ( Work up early, finished my packing, and headed off to the airport. It was an awesome trip.
Nate and Rachel were fantastic hosts and I had a lot of fun. I hope to come back and visit soon!!!