Re-Visiting Hawaii for my Anniversary

[Paul B]

Last week was my 40th wedding anniversary and for our Honeymoon we went to four of the Hawaiian Islands. So this time we wanted to go back to the Islands we liked best so we went to Maui and Kauai. The last time we were there the Island of Lanai was not open to tourists and was owned or leased by Dole to grow pinapples and you couldn't go there so we also went there.
Kauai changed so much in those 40 years that we didn't recognize the place. In 1973 there was only one traffic light and a McDonalds on the Island.
We landed in Oahu and took a plane to Kauai. You don't want to stay on Oahu, trust me. Oahu is Manhattan with palm trees. There is also no real Hawaii five 0. No such thing but the last time we were there we watched them film it.
Anyway we get to Kauai and rent a car with a GPS. But the GPS isn't like your normal GPS. The thing comes with a tour guide, but you can't shut it off or you have to re set the thing and you get lost. But there were many signs that commercialism has taken over the Islands. For instance we are following the GPS and all of a sudden some guy starts talking. I looked in the back seat thinking the car rental guy came along, but no one was there. It was the GPS. So besides the girl telling you where to turn, this guy is telling you about the history of the place you are passing. He said something like, "Coming up on the left is a large stand of royal palm trees, each individually and lovingly planted by King Kamahama (I can't spell the Kings name)
So if you look to the left, thats where they were. Of course we bulldozed them down to make room for that lovely Island K Mart where you can find ash trays imported all the way from Tai Wan made from immitation coconut shells that have a realistic, pink plastic palm tree right in it"
Every where you look there is a Home Depot, Walmart, Starbucks, Subway, Macys, Lord & Taylor, everything but Hawaiian things. I remember seeing the beautiful Hawaiian girls all over the place and real Luau's. On our first trip there we met a girl I know who lives there. (I used to date her when she lived in NY) I will call her Sue. No, thats her real name so I will call her Mary to protect her identy. At that time "Mary" took us to a Luau that her friends made for us. In the morning they dug a deep hole in the damp sand on the beach, then they filled the hole with hot rocks that they just took out of a fire, they put a pig in the hole and filled it with the hot rocks and covered it in palm leaves and left it for 10 hours. Then at night, They light torches on the beach and swim out into the ocean to light floating torches. We all had Island drinks and sweet fruits. Then they uncover the pig with the Hawaiian music playing while beautiful girls danced. And it is the best pork you ever tasted.
That is what I expected. This time we met that same girl and she gave us a bottled water and took us to KFC. It just wasn't the same.

 

[crox99]

Paul,

Can't wait to go back in less than 2 years to celebrate my 10 year annyversary!!!I was just taling about it with a co-worker of mine....

 

[Paul B]

I'm glad we went back but it has really changed. The diving is the worst diving I have ever experienced and I dove in quite a few places.
The hotels we went to were fantastic as we picked smaller ones. I don't do big hotels anymore. On Maui we were at the only two story hotel on the Island. Very nice with excellent service. Kauai was also excellent. Lanai only has two luxury resorts but they are not to big, but very expensive. I didn't realize that when I booked it. One night there we found this greasy spoon on a mountain. Very few people live on Lanai. The owner was from Jersey and we started talking to him. Many of the Hawaiian people are very heavy and un healthy. They eat nothing but deep fried foods. One of their favorites is deep fried SPAM. Imagine that? I don't eat fried food especially deep fried because I don't want to be 400lbs like many of them are. It is impossible to get a decent meal there unless you eat in the hotel like we usually did but the meals are very expensive and you can easily spend $200.00 for two people with a glass of wine. Anyway, this guy liked us and wanted to make a nice Italian meal for us, and he did. He loves to cook but the natives just want junk food that is deep fried. Even in the supermarkets all the food is stuff I wouldn't eat.
But we managed to eat fresh fish every night just the way we like it.

 

[Paul B]

This little spotted moray was in a half dead piece of coral. Many of the corals there are just about hanging on.

This picture of me was taken from about 5' away. The visability there stinks. Not the 2' we get in NY, but horrible for the South Pacific.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

We just got back from our honeymoon in Maui on Oct 9th and our experience was the exact opposite. We stayed in wailea but drove around most of the island (brought my own GPS). Plenty of great restaurants including the best sushi we've ever had, hands down anywhere, and we eat sushi religiously. Snorkeled at a few locations around Maui and Lanai and visibility was at least 50'.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

Better pic of just how clear it was where we were:

 

[Paul B]

Plenty of great restaurants including the best sushi we've ever had, hands down anywhere, and we eat sushi religiously. Snorkeled at a few locations around Maui and Lanai and visibility was at least 50'.

Maybe my mask was dirty. :scratch:

I didn't measure the visability but even if it was 50', that is horrible.
I never dove anywhere except here in New York where the visability was as low as 50'. The Caribbean which is not the best diving has much better visability. Remember everything underwater looks about a third closer so if you can see what looks like 50' it could really be 30'.
That picture that I posted of that moray eel was taken from a few inches away. I put my hand about as close as I could without the thing biting me and it looks like a foot away. The picture of me alone was just arms length away as I just handed someone my camera. But I was not with you so maybe when you dove there it was better. But even fifty feet for a remote Island like Hawaii stinks.

This was taken in the Caribbean, I forget which Island, but it is fairly clear.


I think this was the Caymans from about 10' away. Very clear, no sediment and 100' visability.
Still not the best visability but pretty good.


This is Tahiti where it is the clearest water I personally have ever dove in except for the Great Barrier Reef which if I remember was the same.

Tahiti. Very clear



And these sharks in Bora Bora were probably 60' away.



I remember in Tahiti the first time I jumped into the water, it was 120' deep and floating on the surface you felt like you were going to fall to the bottom, thats how chear it is.
I love Hawaii, but of the 250+ dives I was on, it is the worst diving in regard to visability and sea life. It is just my opinion. I am sure many people love the diving there but it sdepends on what you are comparing it to.

IFSmarineguy, welcome home and happy anniversary. We were there the same time as I was there from the 6th to the 18th or so. We were on Maui on the 9th, then we went to Lanai then to kauai. We also had our Honeymoon there

Sorry double picture

 

[lfsmarineguy]

This was in Lanai right behind the Four Seasons resort there:

 

[lfsmarineguy]

As far as biodiversity goes, Hawaii wouldn't be our first choice for a dive trip. It is however a great vacation spot with ridiculously easy access to shallow reefs off most beaches that are full of life. Our craziest interaction was on the first day while jet skiing. We found ourselves basically engulfed by a pod of Spinner Dolphins that was easily over 100 strong, including a roughly 2' calf that kept breaching with the rest of them. They were also bow riding when we were just cruising at low speeds. I had about six of them come up and just swim right under the front of the jet ski. It was awesome!

 

[Paul B]

Turtles are definitely plentiful there, I met his brother, Harold here.
I saw at least 7 or 8 turtles on every dive and turtles are definitely a crowd pleaser and are one of my favorite creatures as I used to keep all sorts of turtles as a kid. But, and I hate to say this, turtles are actually a bad sign. OK stop yelling at me through your computer, but turtles are preyed upon by sharks and the turtles in Hawaii live on algae. A lack of sharks is a very bad thing and it does save a lot of turtles. (remember I don't hate turtles, my Daughter thinks I look like a turtle) They leave places like Hawaii because they can't afford to eat in the restaurants there and there are no larger fish or seals to eat. We did see one seal, but one seal is not an abundance of seals. Biodiversity in Hawaii is huge but the number of each species is dwindling very fast.
I used to see a shrimp or crab on almost every coral, not there, I now see crown of thorn starfish eating what is left of the coral.
Look at the clarity of the water in your pictures and the one I posted above of that nurse shark. Big difference although I know Hawaii is a volcanic Island and gets a lot of ask in the water from the volcanoe's underwater far out to sea. But corals don't really care why the water is not clear or why plankton is almost missing, they want nice bright water and that also attracts fish. I looked very hard to find fish fry like you can see near that nurse shark which is extreamly common on healthy reefs, but there was virtually none. And an almost total lack of smaller fish, or anything small due to all the predators and lack of herbifores except urchins.
No sharks+ lots of turtles= lousy reef.
You may like the diving there but as I said, it depends on where you have been diving. Can you name a tropical place with worse diving?



Hair algae like this grows on all healthy reefs, but almost anyplace else this would have been eaten by a school of tangs in 5 seconds. The last time I was there, there was huge schools of yellow tangs, this time I saw some, but only individuals, no large or even small schools.



To determine the health of a reef you need to stand back and take in the whole picture. Yes there are seals, whales, schools of grunts, turtles and hula girls, but if you look close, like I do by laying on the bottom with a tank of air and scrutinize the places under the corals in in between coral branches, you will see that the place is dying. But you have to dive in a few other places to compare it. I don't know where the other members on here dive, but if there is a worse place to dive in a tropical place, I would like to know as I am interested in the world reefs. I dove on many of them since 1970 and I am still diving.

 

[Paul B]

Moorish Idols are very common there, but again that may not be a good sign. Moorish Idols are one of the few fish that can live on the growth that covers the rocks there which looks like a cross between dead algae and detritus. They also eat sponges. Sponges love this type of water as they are not very dependent on sunlight but eat bacteria. This Moorish off Maui looks to be in a desert and not on a pristine coral reef.



You can see that growth here to the left of the butterfly. it covers everything. Kind of looks like my tank.
Compare the home of this long nose in Hawaii with the one I posted above on Tahiti. Which one would you rather live in? Big difference