Author Archives: sandersnm

Fear Conquered: PADI Open Water Diver Certified

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As of Wednesday 10/30/2013, I successfully completed my PADI Open Water Diver certification! For many people, this is a big deal…but for me this is HUGE. As someone who has been terrified of the ocean her whole life, getting scuba certified was the last step for me in conquering that fear. After numerous snorkeling trips, getting in a cage to go shark diving and even just swimming in the ocean off the beach…I was ready.

On Monday, I did my first day in the water. The first site we went to had a few small waves and I completed one skill. All of a sudden there were huge waves and I was getting knocked around everywhere. At this point, I started to slightly panic as I knew I couldn’t get used to all of the equipment if I kept getting thrown into the rocks by the waves. My awesome dive instructor decided it would be best to go somewhere else that was a little calmer. We moved locations and started again. This time it was MUCH better. I completed all of my skills correctly on the first try and that was the end of day one!

On Tuesday, I did my first open water dive off of the shore. The first dive we just had some fun and went down to about 20 feet. I got to see an octopus and a pufferfish, among other tropical fish. The next dive that day, I did a few skills and we swam back to shore.

On Wednesday (my final day), I opted to do a boat dive…and I am so happy I did! Our first stop was Turtle Canyons where turtles come to hang out, sleep and relax so the fish can clean their shells off. We pulled up to the spot and there were two huge turtles on the surface by the boat. We got our gear on and jumped in the water. I did a few skills, then we got to have some fun. The visibility was decent and I was able to see some pretty cool fish. However, the best thing about this dive was the GIANT turtle sleeping. It was so big, at first I thought it was a rock. Absolutely incredible! I also got to see a spotted moray eel, a nudibranch (sea slug) and a sea snail.

Giant turtle.
Me and the giant turtle.
Swimming over the turtle.
Spotted moray eel. He wasn’t pleased with us invading his space.
Nudibranch!
Trumpetfish
More trumpetfish. They were everywhere.
Sea snail.

Our next dive had much better visibility at Nautilus reef. We spent some time on the surface, I did my last skills and then we got to dive! Our first discovery (I say our, but really it was my awesome dive instructor) was a huge pufferfish. It was hidden in some coral, but I was able to get a partial picture. The next was a small whitetip reef shark. It was only about two to three feet, but still a shark! It was swimming under some coral..pacing back and forth. The next was an octopus! This time, I got to hold it! It was so weird to feel it suctioning onto my skin. So bizarre! You could also see him changing colors. Pretty phenomenal. After that, we swam around and saw a sea cucumber, tons of beautiful coral and fish and found another octopus. All in all, I’d say it was a pretty big success!

Success!
The coral was beautiful.
Big pufferfish hiding.
Whitetip reef shark!
Octopus!
Sea cucumber.
More trumpetfish. Tons of them.

The Big Island: Trip 3 – Day 2

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Our Sunday began with waking up and (for me) still being shocked. We spent some time calling family and friends and telling them the big news! After that, we checked out of our hotel and headed north to Waipio Valley to spend the day there.

Waipio Valley was the childhood home of King Kamehameha I. There are about 100 residents in the valley now along with taro fields, a ranch, rivers and wild horses. The drive into the valley was incredibly steep at a 25% incline. Luckily for us, we had a jeep and were able to drive all the way down and explore. Our trip to the valley included driving through a river, seeing wild horses and watching the waves at a black sand beach. It was beautiful!

Panoramic of Waipio Valley.
Black sand beach at Waipio Valley.
The road into Waipio Valley.
More of the road down.
The switchbacks up the mountain to hike into Waimanu Valley.
Wild horses in the valley.
Driving across the river.
More of the switchbacks.
More of the wild horses.
Black sand beach.
A jeep shot for Josh.
So happy!
The road on the way back up.

The Big Island: Trip 3 – Day 1

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This past weekend, Josh and I headed to the Big Island one last time for our last trip before Josh deploys and I move. We flew in on Friday night and checked into our hotel to get some sleep before starting our early and very busy Saturday.

Our first stop of the weekend was kayaking across Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook Monument to snorkel. The snorkeling and kayak tour came highly recommended to us and they definitely did not disappoint! On our 1 1/2 mile kayak to the monument, we were surrounded by a pod of spinner dolphins. It was so amazing to be so close to them and on their level! The video below shows just how close they were too us. Amazing!

Kayaking with Dolphins Video

After kayaking over to the monument, we landed our kayaks and got our snorkel gear ready. We also took some time to admire the monument. Captain Cook first visited the islands in 1778. It was thought that he and his crew were gods and were welcomed with open arms during a time of peace. After exploiting the kindness of the Hawaiian people, he left and returned during a time of war where he was not exactly welcomed back with open arms. He was killed in the bay by the Hawaiians and the monument memorializes his death.

Kealakekua Bay.
Captain Cook Monument.
Kealakekua Bay from the other side.
Amazing cliffs.

Next, it was time to snorkel!! It was absolutely stunning. By far the best snorkeling I have ever seen. I could have spent hours just swimming around the area. It was great, as we were the only group (us and one other couple with our guide) and two other random people. We beat the crowd of tour boats!

Kealakekua Bay Snorkeling Video

Trumpetfish. Amazing!
Me swimming with a Needlefish. They were everywhere.
Tons of baby Needlefish on the surface…so hard to see.
Tons of yellow tangs.
Yellow Tang up close and personal.
Fourspot Butterfly.
Rainbow Butterflys.
Parrotfish.
More of the Parrotfish.
Grouper.
Amazing coral life.
Orange Spined Tang.
Orangeband Surgeonfish.
Two big Needle fish.
Parrotfish and yellow tangs.
Pennant fish.
Threadfin Butterfly .
Black Surgeonfish.
Arc-eye Hawkfish and Spotted Sharpnose Puffer.
Black Surgeonfish.
Trumpetfish and Fourspot Butterfly fish.
Blackspot Sergeant, Lowfin Chub and Achilles Tang.
Lowfin Chub, Achilles Tang.
Lowfin Chub.
Trumpetfish and Tellow Tang.
Parrotfish.
The massive boat of tourists coming our way.

After we finished snorkeling, we headed back across the bay. We encountered more dolphins along the way showing off their spinning moves. After we had lunch, we went back to the hotel to shower, change and start making our way towards Mauna Kea. The Mauna Kea summit sits at 13,796 feet and houses University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy and Mauna Kea Observatories. The 13 telescopes are operated by astronomers from 11 different countries. It was an incredible sight to see.

We stopped at the Visitor Information Station (9,200 ft above sea level) to acclimate to the elevation before heading to the summit. After about an hour, we headed up to the summit to catch the sunset and check out the observatories. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy so we didn’t get to see the sunset, but the clouds were still beautiful.

Heading up to the summit.
Telescopes!
This guy was flying this remote controlled plane around. Pretty cool.
The sun setting. Which we cannot see (of course).
Cool clouds.
Pretty sky even though we couldn’t see the sunset.
Our attempt at taking pictures of stars. It did not work!

After that, we headed back down to do some star gazing. The Visitor Information Station sets up multiple telescopes for people to view things far, far away! It was awesome. The stars were absolutely breathtaking. I have never experienced anything like it! Once we finished viewing everything through the telescopes, we wandered through the gift shop and then headed over to a picnic table area, where it was pitch black, to better view the stars. As we were sitting there mesmerized, Josh said “So I have a question for you”. My response was, naturally, something along the lines of “Yeah, what’s up?”. To which he replied “Will you marry me?” as he got down off the bench onto one knee (in the dark). I was COMPLETELY shocked and surprised and uttered things such as “EXCUSE ME!?” and “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”. After I slightly recovered, I remembered to say “OF COURSE YES!!!!!!”. Since it was so dark, I couldn’t see the ring he had…he jokingly said “So I know it’s dark, but I promise it’s pretty”. It was an absolutely amazing and unexpected way to end the day! As I sit here writing this, I’m still in shock! We attempted to take a selfie picture of the two of us and, of course, cut half our faces off (typical). So that is our engagement picture…sitting in the dark with half our faces cut off and squinty eyes! Once we got back to the car, we took a much better one (below). Then I decided to call my mom and wake her up at 2:00 am her time to tell her the amazing news! We then made it back to civilization to find a place to eat dinner. Since it was so late, one of the only places open was “Humpy’s”. Yep, we celebrated our engagement at a restaurant called “Humpy’s”. Hilarious! All in all, I would say it was one successful day on The Big Island!

Engaged!!!

Engaged!!!

Family Fun at Manoa Falls

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As one of our last activities before Jan and John left, we hiked to Manoa Falls and enjoyed the birds, flowers and waterfall. As someone who usually hikes this pretty fast to get to the endpoint, it was so good to hike with Jan and John. Since they had never hiked it before, they took the time and kept their eyes open for exotic flowers, plants, etc., which made me slow down as well!

Pretty purple flowers on the vines.
Love this photo.
Jan and John in the tree arch.