Day 10: Under the Sea

This is the day Nephi and I had been looking forward to the most. We had booked an all day snorkeling trip around the island of Lanai with a boat company that had awesome reviews online. We woke up at 5:45 in order to be at the harbor at 6:30. We got there, checked in, were introduced to our captain and crew (Captain Dave, Bobby, and Elise), and put on our first coat of SPF 50.

At 7:00 the boat departed. Once we were out of the harbor, the captain made the mistake of stopping the boat to talk to us. Instead of the 5 minute safety speech it should of been, he kept talking and talking. Seriously we were stopped for probably 20 minutes (and he mostly wasn't talking about safety), and I really started to feel sick. I am easily prone to motion sickness, but as long as the boat is moving I am fine. It is when the boat rocks to the waves that it makes me feel queasy. Well we were stopped long enough that I started to feel really sick. We had to drive about an hour though large waves in order to get to our first snorkel stop. I really didn't recover and felt sick the whole time. Elise set me up in the back with a ginger ale. Sitting and staring at the shoreline, intermittently sipping my ginger ale or pressing it against my forehead made me feel better. On the way we saw a few shipwrecks. Apparently that portion of shoreline is super dangerous. There were 16 known shipwrecks and the most recent happened this January. It was cool seeing all the ruined boats.

When we finally made it to our first snorkeling stop, they fed us a quick breakfast, which I shoved down my throat so that I could get off the boat. The fist place we stopped was called Cookie Monster Cove. It was named by Bobby. Because the ride is so choppy and difficult, no other snorkeling tour takes you to the backside of Lanai, so this company just names everything whatever they want. Cookie Monster Cove was awesome. There were so many fish. We saw some super cool fish of all different colors. It was seriously amazing. I wish we had had more time in the Cove because in my opinion in was the best stop all day. After awhile though we had to go back to the boat. On to our next stop.

On the way we got to some cliffs. Captain Dave explained that when the Hawaiians first arrived to Hawaii in 600 AD, they saw the cliffs on Lanai and thought they saw faces in them. The believed that the island was filled with evil spirits and so they didn't land there. Instead they went to all the other islands. It wasn't until 1400 that the Hawaiians finally settled on the island. They are apparently really afraid of it. Anyway...it was cool looking for the faces in the cliffs.

After the cliffs were the caves. The caves also had a story about a banished Prince who lived in a different cave every night to keep the evil spirits from finding him. He got us right up to the entrance of a cave with the boat. He was definitely a crazy captain. You can tell he isn't afraid of being sued, but really just wants to provide a good time. It makes for a much more fun, though sometimes frightening, trip.

After the cliffs we stopped at our second snorkeling spot. SPF 50 application number 2. Again they fed us (lunch) and I quickly scarfed it to get into the water. The second stop was called Buddha Bay. Buddha Bay had a lava tube that was about 10 feet under the water. I swam that then climbed onto the rocks. I was about the 5th person to go through the lava tube, and the fifth person to climb on the rocks. When I got to the top of the jumping rock (about 25-30 feet above the water), all of the people who went before me were congregated at the top. I was like, what's up? They just didn't want to go first. I love jumping rocks so I went. After I jumped off, everyone followed suit. I thought that was slightly amusing. It was fun. After that, Nephi and I snorkeled around the Bay. It was really cool too. We saw a lot of the same fish as the first Cove, but we saw some other cool stuff too. We saw a red sea slug which was cool and we saw a lobster that looked like it someone has painted gold designs all over it. Buddha Bay was cool because we got to go really deep. Again, all too soon, we had to return to the boat.

Our third stop was Shark Fin Bay. SPF 50 application number 3. Shark Fin Bay has a big rock that looks just like a shark fin. It was definitely the least cool stop, but it was still fun.

After Shark Fin Bay, it was time to return to Maui. The waves were HUGE and the ride back was seriously frightening. I thought we were going to die. Seriously. It is amazing the beating a boat can take. We got just as wet on the boat ride back as we did in the water.

Overall it was an amazing day. I would recommend that tour company to anyone. It was so good. As we walked back to our hotel I realized that my back was hurting again. Yes...even with 3 applications of SPF 50, I still got more sunburned on my back. It is ridiculous. It hurt so bad that I demanded we stay indoors til the sun went down. Since it was about 4:30 we had about 2.5 hours before that happened. We lied down and both fell asleep. We woke up at 8:30 and headed to Maui Tacos. Someone had told us that you could get 3 fish tacos for $5.00 on Tuesdays. They lied, but that was okay. Nephi got his fish tacos and I got a steak quesadilla. It was pretty good. We went back home afterward and I fell asleep pretty quick. Nephi, however, stayed up for quite awhile writing down notes for stories.