Why bother with setting a wake-up alarm when your body is wide awake at 4:30 am?
This South African iris was in someone's downtown garden. The plants here are truly beautiful.
Our 7 AM shuttle picked us up in front of the nearby Ross Dress for Less and we were on the beach at Hanauma Bay 90 minutes later. We were very grateful for the umbrella rentals so that we could have some relief during breaks from the water.
Hanauma Bay State Park is a protected coral reef beach inside of an old volcanic crater. This site has been famous for it's snorkeling and swimming - too famous - for many decades. Leading up to the year 2020 the park was becoming known for overcrowding and overuse of the natural landscape. The Pandemic shutdown allowed for Hawaii to re-evaluate the park's management and today it is restricted to 1,000 non-resident visitors a day. This means that non-residents have to reserve a spot in advance and watch a mandatory wildlife rules/awareness video before being allowed into the park. The wildlife even get a "weekend" in that the park is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays!
This was the best snorkeling experience I’ve ever had in my life! The water was extremely comfortable and the natural coral wave breaks meant that the water was crystal clear and calm. A lot of the fish were quite curious and bold – one even bit me when I tried to stand on the sandy bottom! Once your eyes began to really look at the coral you could see that there were sea urchins tucked inside the little hollow areas everywhere. As long as you didn’t stick your hand down in one you were safe from stings.
A monk seal decided to grace everyone with its presence later in the morning. The lifeguards cordoned off the sleeping beastie with orange cones to keep people at a respectful distance, however a few people still had to be verbally reprimanded for trying to get too close.
At the bottom of this post are a buncha photos from this excursion. There's also a video compilation on YouTube:
When it was time to pack up for our return shuttle we hiked up to a nice viewpoint in the park and then took a break in the shade under some very large trees. The resident red-crested cardinals and zebra doves were really begging for some of my Maui onion potato chips.
Back at the hotel, showers felt really great. For the rest of the afternoon we did some wandering and shopping. Hans wanted to check out the Kahala store, where we had a really fun conversation with one of the employees. We left with some new duds and O’ahu north shore restaurant recommendations.
Trying to kill time before dinner, we took an Uber to the Don Quixote store and got lost in all of the Japanese fun that is a Don Quixote. By this point we were within walking distance of the Ala Moana mall so I purchased a lilikoi/coconut fragrance from a local beauty products store.
We were quite far away from the hotel and suffering from tired feet. Luckily the W bus showed up as soon as we left the mall and so the air-conditioned chariot got us back to Waikiki quickly.
Our 7:45 dinner reservation could not come soon enough, as we hadn’t eaten lunch and our morning had consisted of many hours of swimming.
Tiki’s Grill and Bar was very busy and very loud. It was too bad because the service and food were both excellent. The drinks were...okay...but we left (each) with a fun souvenir tiki mug. Once I had filled up with delicious pasta, coconut shrimp, and alcohol, I was truly dead on my feet. This had been a very fun day but the half-mile walk back to the hotel was dreadful. Crashed, hard, into bed.
It's easy to get them confused, but only the Reef Triggerfish is Hawaii's official state fish,
also known as "humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa"
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