Cram it all in!

For the maybe two of you that stuck it out and read all about my Hawaiian adventure, you will be happy to know that this is the last post! Yea! After today my blog will return to its randomly/regularly scheduled programing.

Saturday
Tiffany and I woke up early and headed out to hike Maunawili Falls. It is on the side of the island that gets a ton of rain so it was a lush and muddy trail. It is only about a mile long and there is very little change in elevation, but it does end in an amazing waterfall that both Tiffany and I jumped off of at the end.


Afterwards we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the Kayak rental place. They gave us (mainly me since I had never kayaked before) a brief kayaking tutorial and showed us the map below and told us to follow the dotted line to get to the island. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I kayaked through the ocean over a "dangerous reef" to another island (Moku Nui to be exact, one of the Moks). It was around 2:30pm by the time we got our kayak and we were both worried we would not have enough time to kayak to the island and back before our rental was due at 5pm.

Tiffany had only ever kayaked with David before so I am sure it was a lot different kayaking with me. I don't think my stroke was right (I know it was not, in fact, because Tiffany told me it was wrong) but I could not understand how to fix it from the front of the kayak. I kept trying to look for another kayaker that was using proper form that I could mimic, but there were none to be found. We stopped a few times for Tiffany to show me proper form but each time the kayak would rock and I eventually decided my improper form would work! We managed to make it to the island in about 45 minutes. I was thrilled! We even passed a couple on the way... Yep, we passed a boy (well with a girl but you get the idea)!

The island we kayaked to. I could not get a shot with both of them in it, but the other one is beside it, I promise. Can you believed I kayaked from where I am standing to that island and back?!?! I can't!

Once we got to the island we headed around the cost to the North Shore of the island. There is a pretty cool rock that you can jump off of into the ocean if the waves are low enough. We had hit a few bumpy waves on the way out to the island so we knew neither of us would jump but we headed out for the view anyway. The first picture below is the last part of what we had to climb in order to get to the north side. The second is the view from us standing on the rock you could jumped off of.


After spending about an hour on the island we decided to head back. The journey back was a little easier because the wind was at our backs but the waves kept trying to turn us seaward so I paddled on the right side almost the entire way back. I was getting so frustrated and tired of only paddling right but on the whole kayaking is exhilarating! Exhausting but exhilarating. We made it back to the canal to turn in our kayak with 30 minutes to spare! No fines for us!


After kayaking, we got cleaned up and headed back to Pinky's for dinner. The food was good enough but I am very rarely as hungry as I was then, so my opinion is skewed. Regardless, I did not find it special enough to only be open for two hours on Sunday... but I guess they are surviving... I am glad I got to satisfy my curiosity though.

After dinner we headed back to KoOlina, met up with David and went night snorkeling. I used a common household flash light double bagged in Ziplocs and the light was sub par. Honestly I was completely freaked out with the light. I stayed glued to Tiffany's side. We saw some pretty cool stuff but I didn't have my camera (nothing would have turned out anyway). I saw an eel, a few octopuses, rock lobsters, fish with huge eyes (nocturnal fish = large eyes) and four fish with long string-like tails off of their fins (David knows the name of them, but I do not). Tiffany traded me lights after a few minutes and I felt much more comfortable with the dive light. My increased comfort level did not stop me (or Tiffany for that matter) from screaming about fifteen times. My nerves were just on edge and everything sent my heart racing. I hit a buoy... scream. I see a fish moving... scream. After about 20 minutes I began to feel claustrophobic. I don't know if it was the lack of light or the general scariness, but I had had enough. I headed in and waited for Tiffany and David to join me. I had a blast night snorkeling and I really want to do it again (what can I say, I like the adrenaline rush) but next time I want a dive light the whole time!

Sunday
On Sunday Tiffany, David, Courtney and I all went to North Shore one last time before I headed off on my 10pm flight. We did some shopping (I got my souvenirs), ate lunch, had another snow cone and went to three tables for some snorkeling. I would post pictures from the festivities but alas my camera was waterlogged on my last snorkeling excursion. I was a little upset but thankful that I brought my laptop and uploaded my pictures every night. I only lost the pictures from Sunday. Huge blessing.

My camera is already on its way to Olympus to be repaired/replaced. Unfortunately my warranty expired a few months ago, but paying for the repairs beats paying full price for a new camera! I just realized this as I was posting but Amber's camera broke on her last day too... Ironic!