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| Oahu Route |
Mary (Dona's sister) met us at the Honolulu airport, then whisked us out of Honolulu, over and through the mountains to her place in Kialua, on the eastern shore. Hawaii struck me as much more rugged than I imagined it, even though I've seen countless pictures of it. I guess that's a result of all the other pictures of beaches without the appropriate backdrop. As long as you ignored twenty-first century appliances and buildings, it seemed like we'd stepped back in time.
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We had shipped our masks, fins and snorkels to Mary earlier, as we didn't want to haul them all over Borneo and Tasmania. Whoppie! They had arrived, so we emptied the box and refilled it with stuff we wouldn't need until we got home, then took a trip to the post office to send it on its way.
Mary is about two blocks from the beach. Despite being a bit groggy from our crummy Jet Star flight from Hobart via Sydney, we grabbed our snorkel gear and headed there. On the way we stopped by Mary's daughter Tara's place and picked up a couple of boogie boards.
The beach wasn't crowded, and the waves were good. Neither of us had ever used a body-board, but it didn't take too long to get used to them. What a kick in the pants! I wish the waves had been bigger...
Tara brought her two boys down, and Dona and I helped them build sand castles.
The next day Mary took us over to Hanauma Bay. Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, the bay was the crater of a volcano. It's now a marine conservation area, and a great place to snorkel. We had a great time, despite the crowd of people there. There was quite a bit of surge and a good rip running out around the edges of the reef.
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| Hanauma Bay |
We went back to Mary's local beach, boogie-boards in hand, for the afternoon. The waves were a bit bigger, and we had a great time. I can see how you could do that all day, if you could stay warm. After an hour or so I had to get out, as I was getting chilly.
Like many over-achieving old geezers, I had visions of what might have been if I had grown up in a place like this: Wow! Get past the first thirty seconds and that video is awesome! One of my new goals in life... Who needs drugs and alcohol when you could be doing that???
Dona and I were sitting on the boogie-boards drying off and soaking up some sun, and a steady stream of kids was showing up with surfboards. I guess school had let out, the waves were up, and everyone was going surfin'. One guy headed down the beach with his surfboard looked up as he went by us, gave us a hang-ten hand sign, and yelled "You guys are awesome!" I suppose we looked like we could be his grandparents, what with my gray beard and Dona's hair. That made our day!
That evening we went out to dinner with Tara, her husband Malcolm, and their two kids, Shaun and Ethan. They were all flying to Portland in about a month, and driving out to Montana, so we will see them shortly after we get home.
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| Tara, Dona, Mary, Malcolm, Shaun, Ethan | Malcolm, Tara, Dona, Mary, Shaun, Ethan |
Then it was off to the big island for more adventures.
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
