1/12/10, CATCH UP

                                                   1/12/10  CATCH UP

 I skipped a lot of the things we did in December with the daughters and son in law so first I’m going to tell you about our submarine ride!  The 48 passenger electric drive craft we rode in is one of 11 specially built for the Atlantis sight seeing tours.  They also have one at Waikiki, Maui and 8 more around the world.  Some are 64 passenger size but all feature back to back seating down the middle of a tubular cabin with large round windows the length of each side.  We road a tender craft out to where the sub waited and we started submerging as soon as everyone was seated.   We didn’t move very fast and since it is very quiet (and the fish have been seeing it for 20 years!) fish passed very close to the windows.  The day we were aboard the sun was shinning but a whitish plankton bloom gave the water a slight “fog”.  All five in our group had been snorkeling so the comparisons were at the forefront of our minds.  We’d mainly hopped to see deeper water fish that we’d not seen already and we did.  What impressed me the most was that, in contrast with snorkeling, the pace was very slow and relaxed instead of needing to hurry to the surface for air and very comfortable.  Rob and Adar, who have a lot of scuba experience, were probably the least impressed but even they appreciated being able to easily share the experience with us.  It was only about 35 minutes underwater down to 108’, around two wrecks and back but we felt it was worth the $65 ticket –once.  

That same afternoon as the sub ride we snorkeled at a beach south of Kailua called Kahaluu Beach Park.  Both the fish and the sea turtles were abundant and I thought that I finally got the hang of the underwater camera.  I expected a load of very nice pictures of fish and of a turtle feeding but when we tried to down load them to the computer all we found was the last set.  Apparently Myrna had not cleared the chip properly and, in fact, it took one more outing to figure out the procedure for this economy camera that had come without directions.

We took two hikes with our guests in December.  One was a short guided nature tour up at Volcano.  The other was a 4 mile trail through the giant fern rain forest and down into the Kilauea Ikki crater, across its floor, back up a ½ mile from where we started then through the Thurston Lava Tube lighted portion and back to the car.  Of course we also took in the visitor center there in Volcanoes National park and we went to the Jagger museum over looking the main Kilauea Caldera in which we saw two white feathered Tropic Birds playing in the steam plume.   Apparently they are sea birds that nest in the cliffs of the crater and fly every day to the ocean to return with food for their chicks.  This past weekend Myrna and I took a 4 mile guided tour up to another volcano, Mauna Ulu, which erupted from ‘70 to ’79.  Our guide was a ranger who had witnessed the first three years of its eruption and his first hand accounts made it more interesting.  At the beginning of this hike we saw a pair of Nene take flight away from our group of 80 mostly local tourists.  Along the hike I sampled some of the cranberry relatives that are reported to be a favorite of the Nene.  The berries were juicy but bland.

On a separate trip we took flash lights so we could walk in a 2 mile long lava tube that is just west of Hilo.  The ceiling where we entered was more than 20 feet high and the floor clearly shows the flow patterns.  We probably only went in one tenth mile before we came to a sharp turn to the right where the ceiling got too low to stand and we decided to turn back.  The guide book says people can pass all the way through however.

After the lava tube we continued up Saddle road and turned onto the Mauna Kea Observatory road.  At the 9200’ level there is a small astronomy guest reception/museum.  Visitors are permitted to continue to the top in the daytime IF they have true four wheel drive (not all-wheel like our Forester) and IF they stop to acclimatize to the elevation at least 20 minutes.  On this weekend evening we came for the stargazing with several small telescopes maintained by the amerture astronomers.   Because the moon was just past full this wasn’t the best night but we caught some good lectures, a film and got to do a little viewing through the telescopes.   A note for those who have been Saddle Road before: the road is being improved but much of west part is still potholed.

Today we just ended a 2 week drought with .6” of rain so I got by with only needing to water my garden once so far here.  I was planning to water today if the rain didn’t arrive.

Aloha!