Yesterday, while I was going through my 1991 diary, I relived our trip to Hawaii. Here is one of the memorable experiences that we had.
While I had previous been to the Island of Hawaii, and Oahu (home to Honolulu), I had never visited Kauai, which was said to be quite beautiful, so we made arrangements for a hotel room and rental car, and booked a flight. Kauai did seem like a tropical paradise, although they have the huge touristy hotels, it seemed less developed than the other islands.
We participated in a lot of typical Hawaii things. We went boogie boarding, sightseeing and exploring, and scuba diving.
We found our way to the beautifully scenic small Tunnel’s (Makua) Beach. The wonderful turquoise/blue water was lined with tall palms on the shore and the green volcanic-shaped topography in the distance.
As we got out of the car and rummaged around for the snorkeling gear we had brought with us from BC, we overheard a conversation in distance mention something about a moray eel. Hearing those words certainly peaked our concerns, and we felt a bit hesitant about entering the water, but once we did, we became immediately captivated by what we were seeing under the water.
While I had done a little bit of snorkeling before, this was the first time it really felt like the real thing.
Out from the beach was a large expanse of very shallow water, maybe two or two and a half feet deep, with a coral reef below it. We had to carefully float our way above the coral, but I couldn’t believe all of the colorful diversity of tropical fish we were seeing. There were schools of small fish, and outrageously colored bigger ones. It seemed as if all of the colors of the rainbow in amazing patterns and designs were slowly swimming in front of us. It was like experiencing one of those Jacque Cousteau documentaries in real life.
While I explored, I couldn’t really shake that thought of moray eels. Unbeknownst to me, as I slowly swam, concentrating on the incredible fish I was seeing, my wife came up behind me, leaned over, and with her hand, clamped down on my leg. I just about had a heart seizure, thinking a moray had bitten me. She enjoyed the joke immensely, a whole lot more than I did.
As I snorkeled further out from the shore, gradually the depth of the water deepened to about maybe three feet. I proceeded outward, suddenly, the coral reef totally dropped away, which was shocking, and it felt like I was floating in space over the dark chasm.
That snorkeling at Tunnel’s has remained a precious memory of a wonderful experience in my life, and I get flashbacks of it every time I see something about tropical coral reefs.
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