Monday
We had another reason not to stay up too late last night, we dive today and the boat is conveniently 5 minutes away from home. During our first dive, we see one huge turtle. It's probably around 1.5 meters long and 1 meter wide and slowly cruising by. Then on the reef we have the usual eels. We can only judge by their head but one of them seem quite big. Later on, some kind of puff fish pass by slowly, oblivious to us. And a little later a very weird fish with fins not on the sides but on the top and bottom only. The 2nd dive is at the turtle cleaning station (unofficial name). It's a little amphitheater where turtles come to get a nap, and get cleaned. We saw around 15 turtles of various size, some of them as big as the very first one we saw. The place is teeming with life. Every time we stop, small fish come and check us out. They probably are offering the same cleaning the turtles get :D The divers brought statues down there and nature is using them to build new reefs. We come across a few Buddha, some Hawaiian gods and even the dwarf sleepy! We're not supposed to touch the turtles and we don't get too close but at some point, while looking at another turtle, I don't see the one coming towards me from behind. When I turn around it changes its course just slightly and graze me with one of its legs/fins. I guess I was in the way! Another scene that will cause great indignation to my travel partner happens between two turtles. One of the big one, leaving the cleaning station pays no mind to a smaller one and rock it with its fins. I guess it was in the way too ;) These two dives were fun. Lots of marine life to see, good rhythm and good visibility. We were a bit worried about visibility because of the recent storm that hit the islands but it was not a problem at all.
Back on the island, we're starving. After seeing seeing all these fish, we can't think of nothing else than eating fish. We find a little shack nearby to satisfy our hunger. The plan for the rest of the afternoon is to find a beach and do nothing for once! On a small island, finding a beach is very simple and in Oahu, most beaches are very nice. We find one not far with almost no one. What we were no expecting is to see people living on the beach. Hawai'i is not a paradise for everyone. Some people are forced to live in tents on the beach. After that episode, we read a bit about it and it's always the same story. Rent prices spiking leaving people unable to afford it... slums in paradise, a sad sight.
Tonight we want to see the Polynesian traditional dance – Hula. For that we have to go back to Waikiki and got to one of the big resorts... we try for an hour to find some place to park and we give up. Instead we end up in a very good Japanese restaurant and try the famous mochi (Japanese-hawaiian pastry) for desert. Our second run in Waikiki was not better than the first; worse actually since we end up in a different part of Honolulu altogether. It's way too much “mass tourism” for our taste.
Tuesday
This is it! Last day in paradise :( Our long flight back home is later this afternoon so we have time for a few last minute things. We get up early again, as is tradition, and drive to the Manoa Falls. It's a short hike through a eucalyptus forest that turns into a bamboo forest. The trail is slippery, muddy and rocky. We're happy to have our hiking boots on and pity the ones doing it in flip-flops. The fall is but a trickle and not very impressive... the trail is not that packed on our way up but it's not the same story going down! We head back home, pack and try the second item of the list – USS Arizona. I've always been interested in WWII and we happened to be at a major site of the war – Pearl Harbor. Sadly, I planned that very poorly. We learn at the gate that it's sold out for the day. You should have booked it in advance! I was expecting a standard museum but it seems to be more of a theme park... With a few hours to kill, we go shopping in Pearl city, find one last poke shack and finally head to the airport.
We came here on a whim even though it was on our wish-list. We were not expecting much of Oahu and it was even more touristy than anticipated. The Big Island however was impressive. The volcanoes, the views, the ambiance... we loved it. It's a bit rough but we didn't mind. We heard great things about Kauai from our friends who went there and hope to be able to visit it sometime soon.