Several months after coming back from our honeymoon in Hawaii, I finally took the underwater disposable cameras to develop. Sadly, the results were not what I expected. The water was very deep and we didn't get to see many fishes. We were basically floating since the life jackets made it impossible to go deeper. We saw a couple of turtles while we were snorkeling. Hawaiian green sea turtles (Honu) are an endangered species and they are protected. You can't touch them and you must keep a distance from them. If you want to see the pictures from outside the water click here.
Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle
Our Catamaran
The Diamond head in the background
We have an upcoming excursion to snorkel with the Manatees in Crystal River located about one hour north of Tampa. Before revealing these pictures I was planning to buy more underwater cameras. I'm excited to see how close we can get to the manatees. Supposedly, they are very friendly and you are allowed to touch them if they come near you. I would love to be able to take a few (nice) pictures of them. I don't want to spend a lot of money in an underwater camera. Can anyone recommend a cheap/good one available?
Our last half day in Hawaii we spent the day snorkeling at the beach by the hotel. All the guests are allowed 1 hour of free rental snorkeling equipment daily.
After out last swim, we checked out and drove to the airport which located around 1 hour away from the North Shore. We said good bye to Hawaii and got ready for a 8 hour flight to Chicago, a 3 hour layover in Chicago, and finally a 2 and a half hour flight to Tampa. Hawaii is too far away to go every year, but I know that we will be back!!! I was worried that maybe Andre wouldn't like it or that he would not consider Hawaii worthy of the long flights. He said it was better than he ever imagined. That was the same feeling that I had when I traveled to Hawaii for the first time. Pictures don't show how amazing it really is. If you are considering a trip to Hawaii, you wont be disappointed.
I'm so sorry that I have been slacking with the Hawaii posts. We went away for one week to Ecuador and leaving means a lot of work before and after taking the days off. I think I'm finally catching up with everything and I can continue with the last honeymoon posts.
This was our last full day in Hawaii. The honeymoon was coming to an end. The whole time that we were in Hawaii we heard a song in the radio that I couldn't get out of my head for days after we got back. We decided to upgrade our rental car for a convertible for the last few days of our honeymoon. We listened to a really good local reggae radio station while we were in Hawaii. I wish that there was one in Tampa.
The view from our room
The first stop was Sunset Beach, my favorite beach in Oahu. We stayed for a few hours and then we drove to the town of Haleiwa for lunch.
Sunset Beach
On our way back, while we were driving on Kamehameha Highway (83) we saw a crowd at the same beach were I saw a huge Hawaiian green sea turtle 3 years ago. Here is a picture of the turtle from my previous trip to Oahu. We stopped to see what was going on. We finally saw turtles up close during our trip. We didn't see any of them laying in the sand, but there were 4 or 5 swimming next to us. I'm sure that they didn't want to get close to the sand because of all the people standing on the beach.
Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles
We spent the late afternoon and our last night in Hawaii at the Polynesian Center. We got the ticket for the Ali'i Luau and the evening show. This was a different show than the one I saw 3 years ago. The Polynesian Center is definitely worth a day's visit, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time.
At the Luau
We only had half a day left on our honeymoon and we were not ready to leave Hawaii.
We got back from the island of Kauai to Oahu for 2 more days before returning to Tampa. We decided to stay in the North Shore this time. Waikiki feels too much like Miami's South Beach. Kauai was magical and at times I felt in a different world. There were less tourists, it was rural, and the 4x4 jeep allowed us to explore remote beaches.
We wanted to stay at the Turtle Beach Resort for the last 2 days in Oahu. I fell in love with the hotel when I watched the movie "Forgetting Sara Marshall". We spent the evening walking around the beaches by the hotel. We had some drinks at the pool bar, watched the sunset, and had dinner at Leonardo's, the hotel's Italian restaurant.
The view from our room
The massage room
We found some hammocks around the hotel. It was the perfect spot to relax.
We kept walking towards the stables. I love horses. I wished I was staying longer at the hotel to do some horse backriding. We only had enough time to visit the north shore's beaches and the Polynesian Center. We were sad that the trip was coming to an end and wanted to see as much of Oahu as possible.
The best way to say goodbye to Kauai was with a helicopter ride to see the rest of the island. Most of Kauai is not accessible, so the only way to really see it is by air. We decided to use Jack Harter Helicopters for the tour. The other options were the standard helicopters with room for 6 passengers. The passengers are seated by weight, so there is a chance that you wont get a window. The open door helicopter is only for 4 passengers, so everyone gets a prime view. We had seen a lot of Kauai by water and land. It was a great experience and see everything that we visited the days before from the air. This was the first time that I ever went on a helicopter ride. It was a little scary to have the open door/windows, but it was worth it. The tour was unbelievable, the pilot gave us many close ups to the falls, mountains, the valleys in the Napali coast, and into Mount Waialeale. I am happy that we picked Kauai as the island for our honeymoon, it was more beautiful than we imagined. Since pictures are worth a thousand words here are lots of pictures.
Kalapaki Beach & our hotel on the right side
Jurassic Park Falls
The first sight of the Waimea Canyon
The Napali Coast from the air
I got the front seat and Andre got the back seat
Kee Beach from the air
Bali Hai from the air
Lumahai Beach from the air
Inside an inactive volcano crater
Waterfalls inside the crater of Mount Waialeale
Waterfalls everywhere
Wailua Falls
Mahalo Kauai, until we meet again. We were on our way back to Oahu for 2 more days before saying good bye to paradise.
