When we arrived in Hanalei by bus, we went down the road to the bay and sat in the shade since we were sunburned from the previous day and because there was no swimming allowed due to the high surf.
Hanalei Beach
We talked about how we were going to fit everything we wanted to do into the next 4 days because as we found out the day before it takes a long time to go anywhere and we did not know if we were going to get to hike in Kokee' State Park, on the opposite side of the island and inaccessible by bus. The prior day’s hitchhiking experience did not encourage us to try it again. I was disheartened and remained in a sad mood for the next half-hour. After Hans cheered me up we went and walked out on the pier that extended from the eastern side of the bay and walked around the outdoor mall, which was the central part of town. After we had some lunch at Bubba Burger and some shaved ice we sat at the bus stop to go to Princeville.
When the bus came and picked us up, I was very excited to go swim at Queen's Bath because supposedly it is a very beautiful natural swimming pool where the water is calm and warm and the snorkeling is good. Well, to my dismay, the bus slowed down a little bit at the stop, and before I realized that the bus was NOT going to stop, it continued down the highway. I was stunned. We rode back to Kilauea.
When we got back to our room we put on our suits and borrowed some boogie-boards from Toby and Kirby and headed down the hill to the beach we saw on our first night here. When we reached the beach there were many surfers far out from the shore waiting for the evening tide. Hans went out into some slightly larger waves and tried to ride those, but I began with the smaller ones. I was pretty unsuccessful at catching the wave so it would carry me for very far, but since I saw Hans having more luck with the big waves I decided to give it a try. I saw Hans disappear under a very large wave and when I looked up and there was another one coming right down on top of me and I had only just enough time to wrap my arms and legs around my boogie-board and take a deep breath before it crashed down onto me and pummeled me into the sand and dragged me along the bottom. The board was ripped away from me but the rope that ran from the board to my wrist still held. Using the rope, I pulled the board down to me and hung on. At that point I lost all orientation and prayed that the buoyancy of the board would pull me up to the surface. When I came up another wave of the same size hit me and pushed me to the bottom again. When I came up again I was somehow on top of the board and was being propelled at high speed along the wave and into shore. When I had recovered and stood up, an observer on the beach said, "Wow, looks like you're getting the hang of it!" I saw Hans still in the water, with his rope dangling freely from his wrist and the board in the other arm. Hans had been pushed under the water as well, but the rope had sheared off of the board and a bystander caught it for him. After that I stayed in the smaller waves.
We made it back to the B&B after dark, took showers, ate some dinner and watched a movie on t.v. before going to bed.