Hawaii Photo Album
Day Four - Wednesday, April 18th - Beaches - Hanauma Bay, Halona Blow Hole, Windward Coast
On Wednesday, we got up on the far northeast corner of the island and headed all the way back down the coast, toward Hanauma Bay, to snorkel.
We
stopped by the Halona Blowhole both coming and going from Hanauma Bay. Here's Matt -- with amazingly blue water behind. (for more beautiful ocean shots, check out our honeymoon photos)
This area (to the left of the lookout) was just pounding with surf.
Beautiful sky that day, too -- another of Matt at Halona. Becky might call this a "Babar Cloud" day. (a few of you reading this know what I mean!)
Just down the road from the Halona Blowhole lookout was another lookout. The guidebook says on a clear day you might be able to see neighboring islands. It was cloudy towards the horizon, so we couldn't -- but it was still gorgeous.
We
From what we read and heard, Hanauma Bay was originally a crater; over the years the ocean-side wall of the crater was eroded, leaving this bay. The bay had heavy use for most of recorded history, and sometime in the past few decades it has been pretty decimated. It was turned into a nature park and sea life seems to be coming back. Everyone who enters has to watch a film reminding you to not touch the coral or fish, and it seems to be working -- we saw plenty of fish and coral. We don't have a ton of pictures here, however -- since we locked up the digital camera and went with disposable waterproof cameras, which we haven't had developed yet. Hopefully they'll turn out and we can share pictures of fish. We saw quite a few different species.
Here's Matt on the beach at Hanauma (before we snorkled).
Half-way up the crater, after we snorkled
These pictures give an overview. Be sure to click on the panoramic one to see it in larger size (it was done with a "stitch" on the camera)
Self-portrait, after snorkeling
A pretty star-shaped flower:
Heading back towards the windward side, we stopped again at the Halona Blowhole Lookout. The sea was angry that day, my friends!
Ok, the thing with a blowhole is that it's tough to predict. And, the other thing with a Blowhole is that it's tough to photograph. But, these pictures start to capture it. These pictures all cover the *same* area -- but as you can tell, the third picture has a lot more white water in it that the others -- that was the blowhole spouting.
Adjacent to the Halona Blowhole lookout is Sandy Beach (you can see it towards the back). This was not a day for enjoying the beach, no matter how sandy it is -- the waves were wicked.
We turned up the Kamehameha Highway on the Windward coast, enjoying the rented convertible.
We've never even seen a whole episode of Lost, but still -- this just looks like their marketing!
The highway runs close to the shore in parts, giving view to some small off-shore islands. Yes, look at the second picture to see Becky taking this while we were driving.
The first beach we stopped at on the windward side was Kailua. A few kite-surfers were out, but otherwise it was pretty much uninhabited.
Lanikai Beach is just south of Kailua. This looked like the sort of beach where you could have stayed a while (especially if it had been sunnier, and had we not been hungry and trying to get north by sunset).
On our drive north, looking to meet the sunset, we stopped in Kahuku for the famous "Shrimp Trucks." Even Becky ate the shrimp -- probably because it was entirely covered in garlic. I don't think either of us had ever tasted such garlic-y sauce.
For our first real sunset on the north shore, we knew we had to go to Sunset Beach. As the name implies, the sunset views here are excellent.
Why is it so appealing to take pictures of your feet on a beach? Maybe to prove you were there?
Only a few surfers were out on Wednesday night
Check out the panoramic picture from sunset
Sunset ended behind a cloud too quickly, but the colors were great while they lasted. Such a beautiful color scheme. Makes you think God has an idea what he's doing as an artist!
A look down the beach at sunset
The last glimpses of sunlight brought beautiful pink and purple colors to the sky over our hotel -- the end to another good day.
