This day was probably my favorite of our whole trip. The Eo Wai'anae Tour wasn't something we'd planned to do until we got there, but I'm so glad we did!
This tour is a really popular one (from what we'd heard) because it's a family owned and operated outfit, it's pretty intimate compared to others like it and they don't allow drinking on the boat, which was really nice. There ended up being about 25 people on the boat, which was more than we'd anticipated, but it didn't turn out to be an issue. I was afraid we were going to get stuck with a boatload of idiot kids or vulgar tourists, but it was a nice mix of people and we had fun.
The tour takes place off of the Wai'anae coast on the western side of Oahu and lasts all day. They picked us up at our hotel and we drove about an hour or so to the marina where we all boarded the boat and met the captain (the big guy in the long-sleeve white shirt and white cap) and crew.
The guy in the visor is Rowland, the owner, who in the photo below is giving us a safety briefing.
I should also tell you that not all of these photos are mine. One of Rowland's sons took 700+ photos during the day and uploaded some to their Facebook page, so I swiped a few from there. But it's okay- they said we could. :) So any photos taken underwater (and a few others) were not taken by me.
I thought these concrete thingies were really cool looking. See the guy standing up on top behind that other thingy? That gives you an idea of how big they are.
I wish I knew what they were actually called...
That day it was really windy so it made the water pretty rough. And yes, I did get a little seasick, but it wasn't bad and it didn't last for very long. Anyway, for a while we weren't sure if we were actually going to be able to snorkel, but we found a spot that was calm enough and we dropped anchor. I've never snorkeled before, so I was pretty excited to give it a try.
I didn't see this ray myself, and quite honestly, I'm kind of glad. They creep me out.
Do you see Nemo? :)
I didn't get the hang of breathing through the snorkel very quickly. I felt like I was hyperventilating every once in a while- but snorkeling was still really, really cool.
Aaron wasn't going to snorkel (he's not a fan of sea life), then he decided he'd try it but he realized he couldn't put the mask on over his glasses and not wearing glasses would make the whole thing pretty pointless so... he took pictures of me instead. Next time he's going to bring contacts.
Another part of the tour was supposed to be swimming with "spinner" dolphins, so we spent a good part of the day chasing a pod that had been seen in the area. When we finally caught up to them Aaron snapped a bunch of photos while I got ready to get in the water. They're hard to see, but there are about a dozen in this photo.
And a bunch in this one, too.
This one got pretty close to the boat.
One of the crew members is a marine biologist and was explaining that this particular type of dolphin is generally nocturnal, so even though they are swimming and occasionally spinning out of the water (hence the nickname), they're actually about half asleep. So we had to be careful about how we behaved near them so as not to alarm them or make them go away.
Once we were given the signal we had to get in the water very quickly one at a time and swim in the same direction as the dolphins. Here we are swimming as fast as we can towards them.
This isn't my photo, but this is basically the view I got of them. I kept looking for them towards the surface when suddenly I looked down and saw dozens of them swimming a few yards below me. I guess while they're sleeping they often swim along the bottom and just kind of coast.
Somebody said they thought there were a couple of hundred of them- it was a HUGE group.
After that we headed towards shore and found a spot to drop anchor again. (See the rainbow?)
Rowland broke out the grill and hamburgers and made us all lunch. Aaron and I kayaked around the little lagoon a bit.
We saw several sea turtles during the day as well and while we were kayaking we came so close to one that I could have picked it up. I was so excited I think I squealed. That would've made the coolest souvenir EVER.
Other people tried out the kayak as well while others snorkeled some more or tried the paddle board. Here's one of our guides (one of Rowland's sons) performing a hula for us.
We had such a fun time on that tour. By the end of the day we were pretty spent and poor Aaron roasted his head and face, but hopefully he thought it was worth it. ;)
3 comments:
It's so beautiful!!!
The concrete things are called "tetra-pod". I saw like that in Japan.
Isn't snorkeling so much fun!? Kristen isn't a fan of putting her face in water either but i think she still had a fun time when we went to Catalina. I'm glad you guys had so much fun and didn't have your hand bitten off by a loose seal.
I thought that you'd already posted all of your vacation pictures, but I love seeing them and reading about the fun you had!
At first, I thought, "How could you only be wearing bathing suits when it is so cold?!?" Oh wait--you were in Hawaii! As your toes are freezing off in December, maybe thoughts of warm sand and tropical breezes might warm you a bit.
Mom
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