Honeymoon Part III - The Adventure Begins

I'm not sure why all these activities start so friggin early in the morning, but they do. On Tuesday we had to be at the Kihei Boat Ramp at 7:15am. Which was fine, because our hotel was about 15 minutes away. When Richel and I were getting ready in the morning, she had convinced me to wear my swim trunks to the boat ramp, which I thought was ridiculous. Of course they would give us a place to change in to our swimming trunks later on, right? Well, whatever. I guess it couldn't hurt to wear the swim trunks to the boat ramp.


This was our mode of transportation: a water raft named the Kanaloa. It looked fairly benign.

After checking in, our guide and our captain both warned us that this raft ride was not for those with back or neck pain, or pregnant women. They also told us that we had to hold on to the raft's life-lines tightly. Yikes! What did I get us in to? But it was a raft, right? How fast could a mere raft go? Especially one that looked like that? It wasn't anything sleek and sporty like on Miami Vice.

Well, I had my answer. As soon as we cleared the docks we were flying along at 45 knots. Thank God the waters were relatively calm that day. I was even more thankful that Richel was sitting in front of me, shielding me from the wind and water in my face. We continued to zip along the water traveling faster and faster until we reached our max speed at Warp 9. In all manliness I hid down further behind Richel from the wind and water that splashed up upon us as we continued to bounce along.

"Captain! I think my head blew off about half a league back. Could we circle back and get it?"

Finally, we slowed down to the speed of sound so that I could hear myself screaming. We were now off the Southern coast of Maui, looking at old lava flow that had come down off the mountain and directly in to the ocean.














With the overflow of lava in to the ocean and with the ocean pounding away at the shore, many caves were created, called the Kanaio Sea Caves. There was even a cave large enough for the whole raft to go inside of.


Hey, proof that I was actually there for once. Cool shades, huh? Note: that ugly 70's hair part in the middle is the product of blasting across the ocean on the raft, not because of my poor fashion sense.


Some parts of the caves were large enough for the raft to go inside.


A rare picture together with the famous archway behind us.

After what seemed to be a couple of hours of looking at rocks and coastline (okay, this is getting kinda old) we sped away to La Perouse Bay for snorkeling. Richel and I, being the two snorkeling newbies on the raft, fumbled around with our equipment while everyone else suited up and jumped in the water. Thank God Richel insisted that I wear my trunks on the boat trip. I was going to wear my long sleeve Banana Republic dry fit shirt while I snorkeled so that I wouldn't get sunburned, but I wasn't sure how the dye would react with the salt water. Besides, we would only be in the water for a few minutes or so, right? So I took it off.

Ah yes, stick to the plan: pretend to be slow in getting the gear on, let everyone else jump in the water and if it's safe and no sharks are sighted and no one is attacked, then get in.

Everyone else was about 20 meters out and it was at that point I felt safe enough to get in the water. So in I went! Splash one. The first thing I noticed was how warm the water was. The second thing I noticed was how salty the water was. Hey! Did those 20 people relieve themselves around the boat before swimming off or something? I could only pray that the warm salty fluid I had inadvertently swallowed was ocean water and not our shipmates' pee.

The next task was getting Richel in to the water. Splash two (hmm...why is she flailing around in the water so much with her arms and legs? She has a floating belt on, flippers, and snorkel gear). With all that flailing around I was sure there was something out there that noticed us. I dunked my face in the water to look around for any blood-thirsty predators but didn't see any. Whew! Okay, let's swim a little more.




We went about 3 meters before Richel made a mad dash back to the boat side. What? Was there a shark or something?! I didn't see anything.



"I dont' want any more!"

Aw, you gotta be kidding me. Well, at least she got in the water. That's a big first step. But our tour guide and captain were very supportive. They continued to encourage her and reassure her that she was doing great, and that was enough to get her back out, again. I was treading about 3 meters off the side of the boat (no life-jacket, no float belt, just me with snorkel goggles and flippers) so I was unable to really cheer her on.



This time we went about 5 meters from the boat before Richel made a mad dash back to the boat. Shark? This time Richel was adamant about getting out of the water. I was obliged to follow, as the rules for snorkeling say always go in pairs and never leave your partner. And we all know about the valuable lesson that Maverick learned in Top Gun: Don't leave your wingman.

So I climbed aboard and dried off. I wanted to do more snorkeling, but oh well. Anyway, I was so proud of Richel for jumping in the ocean and snorkeling, even if it was for just 5 minutes. After about 20 minutes or so, our guide Dante called everyone back in and off we went to Molokini Bay at Warp 6. I actually thought the trip was over, but to my delight it wasn't. We were just going to another area to snorkel. Alright! We would have another chance.

Molokini Island is a partially submerged volcano crater that looks like a crescent moon. Anyway, we went there and this time Richel and I stayed in the water much longer. There were already other boats and snorkelers in the area, so it appeared safe. We swam around looking at all the schools of friendly colorful fish that swam mere inches away from us. I actually reached out to try and touch one, but couldn't; they wouldn't allow themselves to get any closer than 2 inches. While swimming around, I took pictures of some fish and Richel underwater - now we had proof that Richel was actually in the water swimming. I was hoping to see a sea turtle, and other people did see them including Richel. She also saw a manta ray. The only interesting thing I saw was a tube fish. Or at least I think it was a tube fish. I did see something about 30 meters away on the ocean floor crawling along but it was vague and it disappeared before I could catch up with it.

Anyway, we did the same thing a few more times: travel to a different spot at warp speed, stop, snorkel, look at the fish and coral, take pictures of Richel, and then get out of the water. We then came back aboard and were given a sandwhich lunch and drinks. It was about 2pm about this time, and we welcomed the nourishment after having gone the entire morning without food or drink.

Refreshed and envigorated from our meal, we now had enough strength to hang on for dear life as we blasted back to the Kihei Boat Ramp at Warp 9. We docked, disembarked, and kissed the ground. Amazing that Richel and I had gone snorkeling and had a good time without incident. With my luck, I was expecting to get mauled by a shark, impaled by a sting ray, or attacked by a sea turtle. But none of that happened. And now that Richel and I were safely back on dry land we both had one thing on our minds: shower. We climbed in the car and sped home, still damp from the ocean water (eh, it's okay. We had a rental).

After getting cleaned up, I was quite distraught to discover that I had been badly sunburned. Aw, not good. My back was strawberry red and tender. I should have kept the shirt on - who cares if the salt ate away the logo?

Anyway, Richel and I were so tired afterwards that we napped in the afternoon. After all, this was the most exercise we had had for months, and in her case, years. For the rest of the day, Richel repeatedly told me how she could not go kayaking on Friday because of my sunburn and because she didn't have the right shoes. Nevermind the fact that it was another snorkeling trip and that my sunburn and her shoes had absolutely nothing to do with kayaking.

Our evening was nothing special. We went to the Whaler's Store, another convenient store/chain in Hawaii and bought a nice cheap but tasty dinner which we ate in the hotel room. We then went to bed quite early, for we had to get up at 2:30am the next morning...

Stay tuned for Part IV