Today is a pretty short blog of script and shots as I spent most of my time underwater. It’s been 5 years since I’ve even used my Open Water scuba diving license so in the morning I took on a Refresher Course with a dive shop. I managed to also convince Paige to have her first go at scuba diving so she did a little Introductory lesson so we could go out on a shore dive together with an instructor in the afternoon. We practised techniques in a deep pool. I was surprised to see that I picked up everything pretty quickly and soon I was just enjoying practising my buoyancy skills.
We had a quick break for lunch and then prepped ourselves to go for a shore dive off Kailua Pier. Next week, the Ironman World Championships are on in Kona so the streets and surf were dotted by fit, lean, sweaty Ironman machines. Not really the time to come here to lay on the beach when everyone has a god damn six pack. Anyway, we were in wet suits so we’re all good. Haha. We swam out for 100 yards out of the boat channel and then went down to the coral reefs below. There were 2 other introductory divers with Paige and the instructor was also getting mentored as she was new. So we were fortunate to have two instructors. We swam around the reefs – sighting angelfish, moray eels, pufferfish, cleaners etc.
After the crew got settled, the mentor instructor took me away to head somewhere deeper as I was licensed. We swam across a bed of nothing but sand for a while until this dark shadow loomed over us and there was this island of beautiful coral reef gleaming out at me like a Vegas casino. And that coral reef was cashed up with fish. I saw a school of milkfish, scorpion fish, clams, fish endemic to Hawaii, species of coral etc. So many colourful yellow ones and spotty ones just circling around us to put on a show. Once we enjoyed the coral casino, we rejoined the group and adventured the Hawaiian sea beds some more and came back up. We washed ourselves in icy cold freshwater showers where I screamed like a baby having a tantrum, packed up and headed back to our hotel. We were exhausted.
So we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner at Hokolua Cafe where we had a very tender local steak complemented by roasted tomatoes, grilled asparagus and rosemary mash. Then we stuffed ourselves with lilikoi cheesecake for dessert. Lilikoi is a type of Hawaiian passionfruit. The restaurant owner even brought a fruit out for us to enjoy on its own too, which was very kind of him. It was like a sweeter and less tart version of the passionfruits we had at home.
We also got spoiled by another gorgeous sunset. From our own room. Stop it Hawaii. Please.
The colours changed within minutes. The view would also warp with the reflection of the ocean, the congestion of the clouds and refraction from the water. Every minute was a different painting.
Today was a beautiful day of sea and sky. I’m sorry I couldn’t share the sea side (pun right there).
P.s Those holes in the fly screen is what’s forcing me to bring back souvenirs of bug bites all over my legs and unfortunately, one on my forehead.
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