And That Will Be the Last Time

The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast with a view of the ocean. I tried guava juice for the first time. Delicious! I had it every morning thereafter. We spent some time exploring the resort and walking on the beach path. After a lunch along the beach, we headed out for our afternoon activity: ocean kayaking and snorkeling. No, we had never tried either before, though I have canoed on rivers a number of times. Yes, I was a bit nervous.

The following pictures are not my own, as we were advised to not bring along phones, cameras, etc. I thank my fellow Trip Advisor travelers for their shots.

Our first mistake was going in the afternoon, after the tradewinds pick up. Unfortunately, that was the time I was able to book it with a guide. The hotel shuttle dropped us off along the road at Makena Landing. Our group consisted of four couples and our guide, Tyler, an extremely attractive young man in his late 20's. I only mention this because I got it in my head that I could not disappoint Tyler! LOL! He gave us life vests and asked who had done this before. My husband and I were the only newbies, so Tyler said he'd get the rest of the group off and then explain what we were to do in more detail.

This is the beach where we took off from. It was mostly rocks. After explaining the do's and don'ts of paddling the kayak, we waited for a wave to come in and then Tyler gave us a push and we were off. Only we weren't. We immediately tipped over, fell out, and the kayak hit me in the back of the head. As my husband would later tell me, "Tyler looked at us with as much befuddlement as we must have had on our own faces!" I have no clue what happened, but after determining that I did not have a concussion, we got back in and tried again.
 

This is what I imagined when we signed up for this adventure. 

And, this was the reality. Did I mention it was terribly windy that afternoon? The first issue was that we were paddling against the waves, which were incredibly choppy. We had the hang of it, but I was scared out of my mind. Sitting in the front of the kayak, it felt as though a tsunami was coming at me with every wave. I was feeling blisters develop between my thumbs and forefingers, and I had managed to scrape up my knuckles on the side of the kayak, so there was blood dripping down my hand. Then I began worrying about sharks!

The second issue is that the group was supposed to be headed towards this cliff area where we would be snorkeling. I'm unsure why they just headed straight out into the middle of the Pacific, but my husband thought we should try to stay with the group. Tyler caught up to us in his kayak and steered us to the right while he rounded up the others.

The area we were in is called Turtle Town. While we were sitting in the kayak, a green sea turtle just like this guy swam up to us. The Hawaiian word for them is Honu and is often used as a symbol for Maui. The one we saw seemed like a very gentle creature and peered right at us as he came up for air.

Once we had our paddles secured inside the kayaks, Tyler hooked all our kayaks together while we put on our flippers and our masks. He came around with liquid soap to rub inside the mask so that it wouldn't fog up. Since the others had snorkeled before, they jumped off their kayaks and swam over to the reef area. Tyler came over to give us some pointers and to make sure we knew what we were doing. I will be honest here: I was semi-hyperventilating, just trying to breathe through the mouthpiece with my nose covered by the mask. It is not as easy as it looks! My husband took off  while Tyler gave me a pep talk. I REALLY wanted to do this, but I think my nerves were pretty frayed from the kayaking. Plus, it didn't help to learn we were at a 40 foot depth. He coaxed me into the water, but I was clinging to the kayak. Once Tyler told me about his girlfriend, who will only go snorkeling with him on his birthday, I thought, ok, I'M DOING THIS! He thought I might be more comfortable using an extra life jacket in my hands as a sort-of kickboard. I was able to practice breathing with my face in the water like that and finally felt comfortable enough to swim off towards the reef.

 



Finally! This is exactly what it looked like while snorkeling. I saw a blue tang, a school of black durgeon, and parrot fish. My husband was lucky enough to see four needlefish. After what seemed like only 10 minutes to me, we had to get back in our kayaks and paddle back to shore. It was much easier going the two miles back with the waves. I'm proud of myself for doing it, but I won't be going ocean kayaking ever again. Snorkeling, though, was fabulous!

  

 

 To reward ourselves, we went to Spago's for dinner that evening. We got the prix fixe meal, which was four courses. It started with a salad, then a carrot ginger soup with cardamom cream (might have been the best soup I've ever eaten), macadamian crusted mahi mahi, and finished with this:

Kona coffee cheesecake.