Tag Archives: rain

Moorea

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After our cruise ended, we stayed an extra two days on Moorea in an overwater bungalow. This was an item on my bucket list that I never thought I’d have a chance to cross off. I don’t think I can truly put into words how awesome it was to stand on our deck and be able to see fish, stingrays, and sharks clearly. We spent every day walking outside, jumping into the water, and snorkeling for hours.

On our first day we checked in, grabbed lunch, and hopped in the water to snorkel. After snorkeling, we enjoyed some champagne, a sunset, and some pretty awesome stingray watching.

Saying bye to our ship from the ferry to Moorea!
Loved that we could sit and look at the water inside!
Quite a view.
This stingray seems to be missing it’s tail :(.
Huge pufferfish!
Spotted eagle ray. So graceful!

After our sunset, we headed to dinner at the crepe restaurant. At night, the blacktip reef sharks come to visit the restaurant so we had quite a few friends hanging out for dinner.

So cool.
Mango Rotui!
Delicious crepes for dinner!

After dinner, we crashed after our big day and got some sleep so we could do it all over again!

 

We woke up on Friday and started our day on stand up paddleboards in the lagoon. We saw tons of fish, sharks, and took in some great views. After that, we grabbed our snorkel gear and jumped in the water. The day brought more fish, more sharks, and a snowflake eel!

Pufferfish
Pufferfish
Butterflyfish
Wrasse
Giant spider conch shell
Triggerfish who constantly protected her nest by attacking us as we got in the water.
Snowflake eel. So cool!
Longhorn Cowfish
Triggerfish

We ate dinner again with the sharks and organized ourselves so we could spend the morning in the water before we had to check out!

 

We woke up on Saturday and made the most of the few hours we had left. We spent the morning in the water with some familiar fish. We went pretty far out in the lagoon and on our way back we encountered a giant moray eel…which is the scariest thing I’ve seen in the water snorkeling and diving. He was really annoyed at us and came pretty far out from the coral and made it known he was pissed by baring his teeth at us. Pictures do not do this thing justice. Pretty cool that we got to see this without an incident!

View of our bungalow from the water.
Loved these tiny blue fish!
Giant moray eel
Another shot of the giant moray eel.
Super sad our bucket list vacay is coming to an end.
Had the best time ever!
Beautiful flowers in the lobby as we were heading out.

We checked out of our hotel, grabbed the ferry back to Tahiti, and headed to the airport to hang out until our flight left. No words can describe how incredible this trip was and the pictures only start to do everything justice. So thankful we were fortunate enough to see this part of the world! ❤

Cruise: Taihiti

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Our last stop on our cruise was Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia. We had one full day there and took full advantage of it. We started the day by having a lovely breakfast in our room, wandering around Papeete and visiting the market, then renting a car to drive around part of the island. Once we picked up the car, we headed North to start our trip around Tahiti Nui (we only had time to drive around the larger part of the island).

Lovely view for breakfast.
First visit to the market.

After stopping at a black sand beach and waterfall, we continued our rainy drive by a bright colored church and stopped at a botanical garden. Unfortunately the botanical garden seemed pretty desolate. However, we did see a Galapagos turtle but we were somewhat concerned since no one seemed to be there.

Our final stop on our tour of the island was the Maraa grotto. It was pouring down rain but well worth the stop. We met the cutest kitten and wished we could have taken her home with us!

Sweetest thing.
Such a cool photo of them walking away.

After a decent amount of time at the caves, we drove back to Papeete to return the car and explore more. We walked around the city, visited the market for lunch and souvenirs, and eventually made our way back to the ship to eat dinner and pack our bags for an early morning departure.

Loved the pearls everywhere.

 

 

 

Cruise: Raiatea

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Our next stop was Raiatea, where we actually docked vs. anchored in the bay. We were the very first people off the boat and rented another car to explore the island. We drove all the way around the island to see as much as we could.

After we circled the island, we walked through Uturoa and then had lunch on the boat. In the afternoon, we did a drift snorkel in a coral garden on Tahaa (Tahaa shares a lagoon with Raiatea). It was pouring rain when we left, which made for an adventurous boat ride across the lagoon. It cleared up and the snorkeling was incredible. We drifted right over a really shallow coral garden and saw a ton of fish and beautiful coral.

Enjoying some delicious fruit after our snorkel.
The water was so clear!
Bora Bora in the distance

After an amazing afternoon, we were the last to board the boat. We caught an amazing sunset from our balcony before a delicious dinner.

Sunflowers

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We visited the sunflowers on the North Shore this past weekend. It turned into quite an adventure as it happened to be raining and was incredibly muddy. The flowers were beautiful, even in the rain and it was a pretty fun day! We spent some time in Haleiwa and ended the day hanging out in the rain in the hot tub soaking off all of the mud!

Great Futures Start HERE

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I’ve spent a lot of time lately preparing for the Great Futures Start HERE breakfast for the Boys & Girls Club – Windward Clubhouse. It is an amazing event where people in the community come to learn all about the clubhouse and the impact it has on the children that attend. I’m so thankful that I get to be involved in such an amazing organization. The video below shows a little bit about what we do “Behind the Blue Door”.

Some of the lovely ladies that made the event possible!
A double rainbow to start our day!

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 2

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Day two started out with all of us being just a bit sore (maybe not so much Kyle) but the rest of us were feeling it. We made coffee and breakfast and then set out to explore! Our day consisted of checking out the the rocks at the end of the beach that had all sorts of things growing on them, walking the beach and visiting the caves at the end, lounging around camp (including in our tents when it decided to start raining) and then enjoying another beautiful sunset on the beach after it rained. We finished the evening by enjoying the stars. They were absolutely breathtaking. We also made friends with a black kitten. It took everything I had to not take him home with me. ❤

What a view.
Cousin love
Walking to the caves
Enjoying the shade and coolness of the caves!
Kyle relaxing in the cave
Sibling love
Bailey enjoying the waves
Walking back from exploring the caves
These birds were everywhere and not afraid of us.
Camp!
Enjoying the rain
Rainbow!
Getting water
Such a beautiful waterfall!
Just beautiful
Loved these flowers. They were everywhere.
Love that you can see the rain in the distance.
This cat..I was so upset I couldn’t take him home.

Hanauma Bay Ridge Wind & Waves

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My friend Lindsay and her fiancé Channa came to visit last month. We did a variety of fun things, but the most memorable was our hike. It was an insanely windy day but we persevered and were rewarded with quite a show by the rock bridge. The waves were huge and so powerful. The videos below don’t even capture it!

 

Waimea Bay

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I finally made it to Waimea Bay! My family visited the week after Christmas and we left early to make it up to the North Shore on time. The benefit of this was that most of the beaches were empty on our drive up.

Waimea Bay
Beautiful morning
Josh capturing a beautiful double rainbow

Pu’u Ma’eli’eli Trail

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Two weekends ago, we finally went on our first hike. It was less than 10 minutes from our house and super muddy. The view was amazing and well worth falling down (twice).

Before shot. Clean shoes.
About five minutes in.
One of my favorite shots.
Looking at our place!
Quite the view.
And after.

Kauai: Trip 1 – Day 1

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Josh and I landed on Kauai Friday evening for our third trip to the island for a quick weekend away from Oahu. We were only an hour late (which is pretty awesome on an inter-island Island Air flight), but since everything on Kauai shuts down at 9:00 p.m., we had few choices for dinner. We grabbed food at Duke’s in Lihue and then checked into our hotel (Kauai Beach Resort).

The entire purpose of this trip was to take a helicopter tour of the island. In February of 2012, Josh and I hiked the Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali coast of Kauai. It was an ridiculous trip (for many reasons) and during those 22 miles there and back, we kept hearing all of the helicopters above us. We decided that we were coming back to Kauai and viewing our amazing hike from up above. We went back to Kauai in September of 2012 to do just that, but got rained out for our tour (shocking). However, I am happy to report that this trip was a COMPLETE success! We had the most amazing helicopter tour with Jack Harter Helicopters. We flew in a helicopter with doors off for a whole hour around the island. We had great weather and the views were incredible! It was by far the highlight of our trip :).

Taking off!
The Marriott Resort in Lihue.
Waterfall from Jurassic Park (also known as Manawaiopuna Falls).
Five waterfalls that pour into Manawaiopuna Falls.
Rainbow!
Waimea Canyon.
The Nā Pali Coast. Incredible.
The Kalalau Trail.
Kalalau Beach…the beach we hiked to.
The trail from above.
Hanalei Bay.
Weeping wall.
Looking back through the valley we just flew through.
Wailua Falls.
After the tour!

 

After our helicopter tour, we headed to Wailua River to go kayaking. We kayaked two miles upriver to Secret Falls (120 ft water fall). We hiked (much further than we thought) in extremely muddy conditions to the waterfall. I had flip flops on (horrible idea) and we were covered in mud by the time we left.

Along the hike to Secret Falls.
Rooster in the woods.
Covered in mud!
So peaceful.
Kayaking in action.
Action shot of Josh.
This cracks me up.
Almost done!

 

After kayaking, we went to view ‘Opaeka’a Falls. It was late in the day, so we didn’t get that great of a shot. But it was huge!

'Opaeka'a FallsAfter quickly stopping there, we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner at Hukilau Lanai. We sat out on the patio and enjoyed some amazing food after a terrific day!

Focaccia Bread
Poke Nachos.
Lobster Curry Bisque.
Caesar Salad.
Opah fish with risotto and vegetables.
Macadamia nut tart and cinnamon ice cream.