The Day that Never Ended

We left Cairns at 5:30 am Australia time. We arrived in Brisbane at 7:30 am and left again at about 11:25 am. We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 5:15 pm their time (we lost three hours) after a 3 hour flight.

Then we had to exit the plane, thread our way through a confusing maze with no signs to help us, go through security again, wait in a small lounge (300 people) with two bathrooms and no toilet paper. All this just to get back on the same plane an hour and a half later. No one was very happy. The plane left at 6:55 pm Auckland time.

We arrived at LAX (Los Angeles) at about 10:45 am after an 11-hour flight, a crossing of the international date line and a net gain of 19 hours. I think that works out to a day minus 5 hours, but by this time I am so confused I probably couldn't tell you who I am or what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh yeah....sleeping.

Never mind, one more leg to home. We left LAX at 1:53 pm Pacific Time and arrived in O'Hare Chicago at 8:00 pm Central time. Five hours in the air and two hours lost. But it is still Saturday the 29th, the same day we left Cairns. I'm going to bed. If anyone is interested, they can work out the details and correct my calculations.

We are home.

Last Night in Australia

We had another lazy day today. We had dinner for the last time at Dundee's. It had become our favorite place to eat. They even remembered us and gave us the same table outside.

The air is warm even at night. The 20-somethings are out in force tonight. The nightclubs are full and we are going to bed early. We have an early departure tomorrow. We will have to get up at 3:00 am just to make the 5:30 am flight to Brisbane.

Lazy Thursday

We spent most of Thursday in the pool here at the hotel. We both got more sunburn. We had dinner last night at The Stumbling Goat. Connie tried kangaroo and surprisingly liked it. Not only are they cute, they taste good. (:-0)

We love the Australian commercials on television. They are allowed to be a lot more suggestive than would be tolerated in the U.S. We have both been surprised into an "Ohmigosh"on several occasions. They are also reporting on the U.S. World Series which surprised us.

We have been trying to get a look at the sky at night. While in town, the light pollution prevents our seeing any unusual constellations unique to the southern hemisphere. We had formulated a plan to drive west of the circling mountains and find clear, dark skies but our lack of knowledge about the mountain roads and dangerous wildlife at night held us back. Now the weather looks bad for the next couple of days. We are going to add stargazing to our list of things to do next time we come here.

There are so many things to see and do here, it was impossible to get to them all. We intend to see Uluru (Ayers' Rock) next time also. The list is long: The Bite, Canberra, Melbourne, wilderness camping, opal mines, southern railroad, etc. Soon.

Connie's Wednesday at The Habitat

It's a little hard to see, but there is a joey poking his head out of his mother's pouch. The kangaroos are really cute. I saw them on my visit to The Habitat just north of Port Douglas.

The Habitat is a nature preserve that features the ability to walk in among the animals and feed them if desired. The wallabies were very friendly and were disappointed that I had neglected to pick up a bag of food.

While Rob dove the reef, I was exploring. The lady at the bookshop recommended The Habitat. She was right. It was amazing. It also took several hours and I just had time to get back to the marina and have a beer before Rob returned. I saw examples of fox bats and found out that the large bats we have been seeing at night around the hotel are actually these critters.

I also saw more koalas, crocodiles, and birds of all kinds. I even saw another cassowary. The naturalist giving the tour was the only one I had heard give any warning about encountering the cassowary in the wild. It is bad tempered and seems to be a direct descendant of the raptor dinosaurs. Looking at the feet is like looking at the velociraptor from Jurassic Park. Eeeeeew.

Well, they live in far north Queensland and I don't think we will get there on this trip. Of course there is always next trip......

Bye for now. Connie.

The Final Dives: Helm's Deep and The Wreck

Yesterday, I did my final dives on the Great Barrier Reef. While Connie toured Port Douglas, I went out with Quicksilver Dives to the Agincourt Ribbon Reef. Quicksilver was about twice the cost of the other dive companies, but they went to a portion of the reef no one else did and the locals kept recommending them. Even as I was boarding, I began to understand why. Better then 50% of the passengers were Australian instead of European or Asian.

Quicksilver runs a very complete operation with shark nets and lycra suits for the snorkelers plus a platform permanantly mounted out on the reef. Out at the platform, there is a helicopter, submarine, and several tender boats for running to different locations on the ribbon. They are also among the few using guides who were also naturalists. The platform has above and below water viewing areas so going in the water is not required to enjoy the reef. Everything is fully accessible and my boat had a half-dozen or so severely handicapped individuals onboard. Agincourt reef itself had almost no bleached or damaged coral and it is clear that accidentally touching the reef is more to them than the risk of being sued because a customer might get hurt. Everything about Quicksilver Dive speaks of a level of professionalism one or two rungs higher than most others providing tours of the reef.

We had a perfect day, so I got to do a couple of the drift dives that they usually can't do.

The first was named Helm's Deep. I didn't ask when it was named, but it was a good marketing decision. With a drift dive, the idea is that one submerges to a depth and lets the current do all the work. The drift runs along the north edge of Agincourt Reef 4 which is a helmit shaped section at the north end of the ribbon. There were three of us: Trevor our dive guide, Carrie from Florida on the fifth dive of her life, and me. Unfortunately, Carrie didn't weight herself properly and then got unnerved by the deep blue opposite the reef. This dive is right at the edge of the continental shelf and one could theoretically go several thousand feet down in some places. Imaging using a jet pack to hang 5 ft feet off the lip of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and you get an idea of the effect. After she headed for the surface for the second time, Trevor took her to lip of the reef and motioned me to stay at depth but in sight. The current was much faster down where I was (about 50 feet) and it took some work to stay below them where Trevor could still see me. The scenery was fantastic, but working like I had to made me burn a lot more air. My air was down to the safety margin after 26 minutes and so we went back to the tender.

The second dive, called The Wreck, was between ribbon sections 3 and 4. A few years back a Taiwanese fishing boat had gotten caught out beyond the reef in a storm and tried to run the 40 foot deep gap in the ribbon. Unfortunately, they mistook a bay-like portion of section 3 as the gap and wrecked.

There were three of us again: Trevor, a guy whose name I never got, and me.

Again, my match of the moment dive partner almost messed up the dive. For some reason, he panicked and starting hyperventilating after just a couple of minutes. Trevor took him to the surface, got a tender right there to recover the guy, and came back down to me. He then proceeded to give me a solo tour. Shortly thereafter, we saw a small white tipped shark, probably attracted by the panic earlier. The moment I looked directly at it, the shark doubled back and took off like he/she owed me money. It was amazing how quickly the shark merged into the background and she/he is almost invisible in the picture I took despite being only about 30 feet away.

We continued along paddling gently as the current carried us. We passed some of the most colorful reef I have ever seen. There was very little left of the wreck beyond the metal portions of an old anchor and something that looked like an old engine. After just under 40 minutes of enjoying the beauty, we surfaced and went back to the Quicksilver VIII.

I just got back from getting the photos developed and Connie is taking an afternoon nap. When she wakes up, she will probably put in her Wednesday.

Finally Found Nemo!

[Rob]
I went out on the reef again today. This time it was with the crew of the "Calypso" to Opal Reef. Never did ask if they were directly associated with Cousteau. Since there were an even number of certified divers on this trip, I was paired up with "Beatrice" from Switzerland.

The first dive spot on the reef was called "Blue Bouy" without any clear reason beyond the marker buoy being that color. Just before submerging, there was a ray sitting on the bottom that moved off. With everyone getting into the water, a picture just wasn't possible. The dive guide we were with was a lot more "touchy feely" than others I have had -- meaning he was picking up all kinds of stuff and letting us touch it as well. I tend to prefer to just take pictures, but did touch a couple of the items he did.

There were a fair number of giant clams at this site. Like the octopi, which I didn't see any of here, they change the color of the fleshy portion of their bodies depending on various situations. Usually, I just saw the spots change from blue to green if we approached them. Some of the clams were very brilliantly colored. I need to look up whether those are different species, or if they are the same species in a different mood. Along the way, I got another chance to take a picture of a ray, this one was white with brilliant blue spots, but the picture didn't turn out very well.

The second dive site was known as "The V" due to it being at the beginning of Opal Reef where the two portions meet. We went over the joint, which was deeper than the rest of the reef and headed down one leg for a while. On this second jump, there were a lot of anemones and anemone fish. Amongst the varieties were the little Orange and white clownfish made famous in Finding Nemo. I took pictures of them and several other varieties. Along the way our guide played with one of the clams. Steve touched the clam fairly deeply inside and the clam closed on his hand! He then did the classic movie impression of being trapped. Not bad, but I could see from my angle that his hand wasn't trapped. I tried to get a before and after picture of the clam's coloration change.

On the way back to the boat, we found out that the current had picked up and the water was suddenly a lot colder. The guide and I were the only two who were able to swim onto the joint of the V! I may be the fattest diver out here, but I got power when I need it. The dive master motioned to swim back to the others and we all surfaced. Being about 300 yards from the Calypso, he signaled for a recovery boat with his whistle. It was cloudy and colder and the skipper of the zodiac was in a hurry. I was the only one not shivering by the time we got back to the main boat. Funny how the "fat American" jokes and sly remarks disappeared after that.

We were temporarily maxed out on dive time, so there was a short question and answer on the reef. Amongst the many things discussed was about the clown fish. Amongst the answers: Finding Nemo was not technically correct when describing the lives of clownfish (duh!). However, if they wanted to be technically accurate, the cartoon would have had to been rated at least a hard R (or M in the Australian code) with XXX being continually flirted with (not to be confused with XXXX, which is a brand of beer here). I will just say that all clownfish are born male and the largest clownfish in an anemone is always the female.

The Calypso relocated this time to "The Split Bommy" which is an outcropping of the reef. There were storm clouds in one direction and I wouldn't have dove like this in Wisconsin, but they said the storm was passing by. It was dark down there, like diving in the evening. We circled the bit of reef and I took some more pictures. About half way around, there was a short tunnel and everyone else wanted to go through, so I did as well. About 75% of the way around, all of the fish suddenly departed. we were near a fair drop off and I couldn't see to the bottom. I thought "Oh oh" and hugged the edge. Beatrice swung herself way out over the depths. After a minute or two, the fish came back in droves and seemed to be feeding on bits of something floating to the surface. Beatrice was still there, so I figured it was nothing.

Back at the dive rope, our guide checked our air and he sent one of the other divers up. The Calypso crew had provided me with a larger tank but I never came close to needing the extra volume. Once the diver had made it up the rope and was doing her(?) safety stop, we started around again at a different depth.

The neat thing about the reefs out here is that they are so steep that one gets to see a completely different set of creatures just by changing the depth of the dive. We skipped the tunnel this time as its outlet is very shallow. Right about the same point as last time, all the fish disappeared again. Beatrice was again slung out there like bait and I was in close to the reef like a smart diver. Suddenly, a school of the fish was back and swimming frantically just behind us and I saw it! Right at the edge of visibility, I clearly saw a shark! I couldn't see the top fin, so I am thinking it was a grey reef shark, but its face was all too visible in the flash of light. It had gotten a hold of something and swum away from both us and the school of fish, back into the depths. Then we heard the boom.

Remember, I said flash of light? Our dive guide motioned us to move to the safety stop depth a little nervously. While we are waiting out our three minutes, there are several more loud booms. We surfaced into a mild thunderstorm. Realize this is a somewhat dangerous situation, as we are the highest point out there besides the Calypso, and we have on our backs metal pressurized containers sticking up out of the water. Everyone was hurried aboard and the skipper made a quick departure for deeper water away from the reef.

Once out of the water and in the Calypso, I had fun bouncing on the waves and watching the lightning. Most of the rest of the craft, like the Osprey V, were European or Australian. To them this was a major storm. It even made the front page of the papers the next morning. I love Wisconsin, but if I ever had to leave, it would be for a boat on the open water.

The dive pictures will be added to www.klavdivs.com/DiveList/DiveList.html on our next lazy day.

[Connie]
I went shopping. Took the bus up to Smithfield to find a scrapbook store. Found out it was closed on Mondays. Looked over the mall anyway. Found a few interesting stores. Didn't buy much though. Came back to the hotel and sat by the pool and was really lazy.

Sunday in Kuranda

It's a miracle! I'm actually in a sky tram. Rob took this picture to prove it actually happened. I even had my eyes open for some of it. The only problem I had was on the last leg when we shared the car with someone who insisted on jumping up to take a picture. Eeeeeeeeeee.

The outing was to a remote village that specialized in rainforest experiences. They also had a bird sanctuary where we saw a cassowary, a petting zoo where I held a koala and a butterfly enclosure where they were everywhere. We have a lot more pictures for the ol' scrapbook.

The day started with a train ride up the Barron river with many scenic views of the Barron Falls. The weather was perfect.

The village itself had a lot of souvenir stands and we were really tempted by the digeridoo seller. We did consider that without someone to teach us to play the thing, it would probably just end up as a dusty stick in the corner.

We finished the tour early because neither of us needed any of the odd things that were being sold in the extensive market. I'm sure they were wonderful in their own way, but not really what we were interested in. Anyway, we went to the skyrail early and got down before the buses had arrived to take us back to our hotel. We only had to wait a little and they showed up. It was a very tiring day.

Quiet Saturday

CHANGED hotels. The Tropical Gardens refused to fix the air conditioning. The dryers didn't work and something large and insect-like invaded our room at night. My hero, Rob, smacked it. He also swept the remains where I couldn't see them.

We are now staying at the newly opened Hilton Hotel. The a/c works beautifully and there are no critters in the rooms.

Rob got his photos developed. We didn't do a whole lot otherwise. Explored the town a little. Scheduled a trip to Kuranda Village tomorrow. Rob is diving again Monday. Can't seem to get him out of the water.

Check out www.klavdivs.com/DiveList/DiveList.html to see some of Rob's pictures. Woo Hoo!

On The Reef

We got up early today to catch a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. The sun was shining and the seas were virtually calm.

We started at Saxon Reef and Rob got in two dives there. The photo at left is a giant clam he saw. His pictures were really spectacular. You'll have to wait for the scrapbook to see the rest of them.

We moved on from there to Hastings Reef. (When Rob wakes up I will double-check the names of the reefs.) Rob got another dive in and I took the semi-submersible on a little tour of the bommies (coral heads near the surface with lots of fish.) It was a little murky because of all the rain they have been having. It washes silt down from the mountains into the sea and the tides wash it out over the reef.

The reef colors weren't at their best either because of the lack of sunshine recently. This week was shaping up to be sunny though, so the color should be better in a couple of days. Rob saw cuttlefish, sea cucumbers, a small sea turtle, etc.

It's really hot here. There was a light rain when we came back to port. Rob saw lightning in the hills above Cairns. We met a nice couple from Spain. Rob dove with him. He didn't have a camera so we got a second CD of Rob's pictures and will send one of them to him. They kept counting us and asking for our safety numbers (52 and 53) so no one got left behind. That incident they made a movie out of really hurt the industry. Everyone is sensitive about it. Turns out there is evidence that the couple that disappeared actually had a suicide pact and they had shed their bouyancy devices.

We both got back OK. Really had a nice time....but the air conditioning still doesn't work in our hotel room. Will do something about it tomorrow.

Connie

Found Cairns

We both got up at about 5:00 am local time even without an alarm clock. After some back and forth about whether or not to try to sleep some more, we made our way to the airport. It is spring in Sydney and the weather was a rainy 50's sort of thing like we usually get in spring. At the last minute our gate was changed from 1 to gate 16, in a manner that would make an O'hare traffic controller proud. We arrived out of breath to realize that all those other people running were going the same place we were. Once we got there they delayed the departure of the flight for about 15 minutes to allow the plane to arrive. When the line finally queued up, I was almost done with my Sudoku, so I sat there and finished it while Connie stood in line debating whether strangling me was worth risking missing the flight.

All but the last 15 minutes was clouded over and bumpy. They get a mild kind of thunderstorm here and the pilots were clearing the cloud tops by a lot less than the FAA would tolerate in the midwest.

Upon arriving in Cairns (it's pronounced "caaans"), we grabbed a taxi and took the scenic route to our hotel. Our cabbie was friendly and knowledgable. He warned us several times about crocodiles and gave us the option of choosing the scenic route, which is usually a mandatory extra expense upon the realization that you have no idea where he is taking you in towns like this. The feel of Cairns is a lot like the Dells back home -- over commercialized, but with stuff worth seeing nearby, if only one can figure out where it is.

Unfortunately, our hotel dosen't have an internet connection. On the plus side, the beaches ARE open. We had heard along the way that they might be closed due to box jelly fish. Apparently, it is still too late in the season for them here in Cairns.

We are using an internet cafe to post this and will try to check in over the next couple of days. We will try to burn CDs to bring with us for future postings.

We did a walking tour of Sydney today. We saw the Opera House of course, and walked partially across the Harbor Bridge. We'll have to save the walk over the top of the bridge for a future trip when we have more time.

We saw the Australian Museum and a food fair in a local park.

Rob bought me the most beautiful opal pendant. We stopped at a shop named Opals on the Rocks. It was located on Harrington St. in an area of Sydney called "The Rocks". It's an historic district around the harbor. The owner was very knowledgable about opals and described exactly why some were priced at $40,000 and why some were only $175. I never knew all those details, but she explained it in a way that made perfect sense. I would highly recommend her shop to anyone who is lucky enough to travel to Australia.

We will be leaving early tomorrow morning for Cairns. More to come.

What a Trip!

It is October 18 here in Sydney, but back home it is still the 17th. All our entries will be one day off and very confusing. Sorry.

Our day started at about 10:00 am Sunday when we arrived at the airport. We managed to get in line behind someone who was complaining about having his flight leave without him. He was re-ticketed to another flight but spent so much time arguing about why the first flight left that his second flight left without him also. His next flight was for 7:00 that evening. He finally left the counter. ( I felt like cheering but didn't)

We left around 1:00 pm Honolulu time and flew for 5 hours to LAX. Then we waited four hours for the next flight. That one took 10 hours to Fiji where we waited another four hours for another flight. That one took 5 hours and we arrived in Sydney on Tuesday, October 18 at noon. Monday just didn't happen. You've gotta love that International Date Line.

We got to our hotel and just crashed. More later after we explore the city tomorrow.

Pearl Harbor - Saturday

We disembarked from the ship at about 8:00 am and went directly to Pearl Harbor for a tour. Our tickets were for 12:15 so we had a few hours to look around. We toured the submarine Bowfin that was anchored in the harbor as a permanent display. There were some navy divers doing an underwater inspection of the hull while we were there. They were also playing with a remote controlled submersible.

After finally getting to the video presentation, we were surprised at how moving the story still was all these years later. The gentleman who introduced the video was a survivor of the attack and had spent 9 months recovering before going back to active duty. It was very interesting listening to him give his first-person account. Then we went over on a launch to the actual memorial. We walked around and took pictures. There were 6 or 7 Thomases on the list of casualties.

Afterwards, we went by bus to the Missouri, a battleship anchored in the same harbor. It was built shortly after Pearl Harbor and was the ship on which the Japanese surrender was signed. There is a permanent plaque embedded in the deck where the document was signed.

Then we were taken to the airport, we claimed our luggage from the bus and tried to find our hotel. More of a problem than we thought it would be. It certainly was no Marriott, but it served the purpose.

We have a wild journey ahead tomorrow.

Nothing Happened Today

Today we were at sea. Despite desparate attempts by the cruise director, we did NOTHING (Well, we breathed and ate and Rob went swimming in the pool, but beyond that we did nothing).

Thursday in Kauai

We landed in Nawiliwili, Kauai early on Thursday morning. This is a much more lush island than the others we have seen. It's nickname is The Garden Isle. The wettest climate on earth is the Waimea Canyon just inland from where we landed.

We took a shore excursion up the Wailua River to Fern Grotto. On the way, our bus driver drove us past the old port where several movies were filmed. She also showed us a beautiful waterfall.

Once we got to the boats to go upriver, everyone piled in and we set off. Little did we know we were about to have some criminal music committed on us. Maybe it was the fact that we were in an open boat that shifted the notes down a half pitch. Maybe not. The hula dancer was extremely serious about what she was doing, but the Tahiti style hula (all hip action) works better on someone who actually has hips. (Sorry - skinny joke.)

Fern Grotto was really pretty once we got past the construction areas. Someday it will be very nice. It looked like they were installing teak decking for a viewing area. Rob made some bad jokes about paving over paradise. It was a mess. We couldn't hear the guy talking about the history of the place, so we went back to the boats early.

We seriously considered getting on the other boat. Lucky for us we didn't. The musicians/dancer were on the other boat for the return trip. A couple we were with managed to get the "entertainment" both ways. The boat captain said he was descended from royalty.

Our bus driver dropped us off at a little shopping center on the way back. There were shuttles from there to the boat. We bought some contraband (Pepsi) to bring back to the boat and put in our refrigerator. No other way to get a soda late at night if we wake up for some reason (ex: rocking, pitching, etc. of the boat). The boat didn't leave until 6 a.m. Friday so those who wanted to could grab a dinner at one of the local places. We were tired and just slept.

We both finished reading a copy of Thud! by Terry Pratchett. I picked one up for the trip so I didn't have to bring my signed copy along. We left the extra copy with the ship's librarian so someone else could enjoy it.

Chocolate Tour

On Wednesday, I (Connie) went on a tour from Kona to several small family-owned businesses. Rob did another dive.

The first was a coffee farm that produced the famous Kona coffee. I learned about grading coffee beans and what a 'peaberry' is. Usually the coffee fruit produces two beans that are separated and dried. about 5% of the time it is a single round bean. This is the peaberry and is highly prized. They usually roast it and cover it in chocolate and sell it separately. I tried one and it was really good. I also picked up some coffee to take back to NCCD. Wait till you try this stuff!

The next place we stopped was a chocolate factory. They grow the beans and produce the chocolate all at one farm. The owners didn't know anything about the process when they started. They had to modify or create machines to do on a small scale what big producers do on a very large scale. Their sorting machine is a used treadmill (honest). The whole process from bean to candy is lengthy and complicated. The end result is delicious.

The last place we visited was a vanilla factory. The family of 7 plus grandpa run the whole thing by themselves. Each vanilla orchid bloom must be hand-pollinated and the blooms only last for a day. Once they get the beans to grow, they are allowed to mature and then are dried. We had lunch at the factory and everything from the lemonade to the ice cream was flavored with vanilla.

We got back really late to the ship. Rob had already returned from his dive when I returned. Yes, I shared some of the chocolate with him. [Not enough--Rob ; )] I didn't tell him how much was actually left. He'll probably find out soon.

Diving Kona

When I got up in the morning, my scratchy throat and watery eyes told me right away that our captain had parked in the vog. For the folks from LA, it was probably reminiscent of home. Many remarked that it made for a nice ambiance after the volcano. I almost didn't go on the dive which would have been a mistake. The dive sites were just outside the vog and I ended up breathing easier and having a lot of fun!

The first dive was a location known as the "golden" arches. These are two tan underwater arches. Now I like diving and I like caves, but it took some fortitude to dive in a cave full of urchins and other pointy things. While everyone else went through the arch, I went over it and got to watch a panicked eel scramble to find a new hole. Apparently, he/she didn't appreciate the sudden visitors and it made a good show. The rest of the divers also riled up the crustaceans and they were clicking away like chattering squirrels. There were lots of fish as always, and I managed to get myself through the second arch.

The second dive, was at a place the dive master called "The Big Arch." This was a very large arch and lava tube network and he made sure to note that we were to follow him. The lava tube ended in a bend and there was an urchin at just the wrong spot. It took some creativity to make the turn. I briefly touched the ceiling while trying to avoid getting a belly full of spines. This was a shallower dive and, in addition to the clicking, I got to hear the "Pig fish" (Humuhumu... ah you know which one) grunting at us. There were several more eels along the way and a couple of flat fish which I took pictures of but will probably disappear because they blend so well with the bottom.

Got back to the ship and took a nap.

Rob & Connie vs. The Volcano!

The ship pulled into Hilo at around 6am. By 8:30 we were dockside and waiting for our tour guide who never showed up. The cruise director did some fast thinking, one of the other tour companies got a bonus contract, and we got Garry! To the cruise director's credit, he pulled it off so smoothly that Connie didn't realize we suddenly had a guy from the bird watcher tour doing our volcano tour.

We started out at the rim of Kilauea. After a short visit to the visitor center, Garry took us out to a up close and personal look at some of the steam vents. They were spewing some rather unique gases. This was not a "normal" stop, but it was a great place to look at the birds who nest in the rim. We also learned the meaning of, "I wouldn't stand there if I were you." There was a large crack near the lip and one of the other guests started to step over there to take a picture. Garry quickly hauled him back. Apparently chunks of the rim break off regularly and a trained eye can spot the borderline pieces. I (Rob), to Connie's horror, laid down on a safe spot on the edge [yeah, right -- Connie] and peered straight down into the caldera. Took a couple of pictures too.
Garry noted that, unlike most geology, everything within view was less than 30 years old. I cautiously [yeah, right -- Connie] backed off the edge.

We then went to a spot couple miles away where Garry showed us how to find Pele's tears and Pele's hair. Pele's tears are small tear shaped bits of lava which cooled in the air and landed intact. Pele's hair is a naturally formed strand of silica no thicker than a human hair. It bore a striking resemblance to a single strand of fiber optic cable. Apparently, they are formed behind a Pele's tear like a comet's tail.

Then we had lunch at a spot with no bathrooms, but a fantastic view of the coastline. At lunch Garry pointed out the vog, which is the cloud of volcanic gas and mist which flows from the Pu'u O'o vent on the island. This was to play a large part of our evening (more later).

Then we went down to see where the lava was entering the ocean. Because there was a period where the government was continuously rebuilding the ranger station, it now consists of a mobile home and cheap asphalt turnaround about two miles from the lava tubes. Connie started out with Rob, but decided it was too far and went back to the ranger station. I (Rob) pushed on, and found out no one could go the last half mile because a section of the shelf was about to collapse. So I got as close as I could, took a couple of pictures, and asked enough questions to figure out Garry knew a lot more about birds than geology. After running around on the lava flows a little more, my throat started to get sore, so I turned around and headed back to Connie. At this point, we both were feeling a little ill.

Then we went back up the volcano to the Thurston Lava Tube. Garry pointed out and told us about several birds and their history. We also learned about pigs and their impact on the birds' habitat. Apparently, they have an open hunting season on the animals. Considering how expensive it is to live on the Big Island, I would bet a fair number of people make them a free staple of their diet. We also heard about the Pig god and Pele (they had this love-hate thing) and I was the only person to know the name of the fish form of the god. Humuhumu nukunuku apua'a is the Hawaiian state fish which makes a pig grunting noise underwater (more on that in the next entry).

By the time Connie and I got back to the ship neither of us was feeling OK. Apparently, some people are more sensitive to vog than others and we were a couple of canaries. We ended up sleeping through the ship's evening view of the lava glow which we heard was quite spectacular. We bought a photo.

Maui Day 2 (Sorry No Pictures)

We have been having trouble uploading pictures since we came on board ship. Either the connection is too heavily loaded, or it just isn't powerful enough to let us load them.

We will put up some pictures again when we can.

Connie and I went up to Iao Needle in the Iao Valley in the morning. Iao is pronounced like eyaooow. The tour guide said the name came from the end of the battle to unify Hawaii when King Kamehameha pushed the last guy off the needle and he made that sound on the way down! She was a native and we are not entirely sure how much of that was a joke. Apparently, Kamehameha fought a fairly modern conflict for the early 1800's complete with cannon and massive bloodshed. Today, the area of the battle is a park with beautiful gardens which we enjoyed immensely.

Afterwards, we went to the Maui Ocean Center where we saw most of the fish I had seen diving plus several others, including a young tiger shark. We got to walk through a clear tunnel under the large aquarium and watch a diver feed the rays.

We have been wondering about a mystery fish I spotted on my first dive and got pictures of on my second. According to a book of Hawaiian fish I bought, there are no anemones nor any anemone fish in Hawaii because they would have to survive a 1200 mile journey and it is just too far. At the Ocean Center, we found out that is not entirely the case. It turns out that there is a variety of coral that fills the anemone niche which does exist in the Hawaiian chain. The species of clown fish Cassie mentioned in a comment a few days ago has a symbiotic relationship with the coral just like anemone fish (clown fish) have with the "true" anemones. At that point, we figured that the fish I had seen was a baby one of them. Eventually, however, we came to the Hawaiian Dascyllus exhibit. In the exhibit were examples of the fish at all stages in its life cycle. As babies, they are almost exactly identical to the saddlebag clownfish. The babies even hang out in corals. When they get older, first the grey band and then the white spots expand. The adults look nothing like the babies. According the naturalist on hand, current speculation is this prevents the adults from identifying the babies as future competitors and eating them. Thanks again, Cassie for the suggestion. That was a really good guess from a physical description.

In addition to the fish exhibit, there were whale (pictures) and live sea turtle exhibits.

In the evening, Connie and I went to a luau. Our bus driver told us how to eat poi. Poi is the infamous "goo" that is a staple of the Hawaiian diet. It is nearly pure starch and is made from the taro root. Eaten by itself, it tastes like paste which also is basically pure starch. It is more typically a food additive or a dipping sauce. I found it to enhance the flavor I was eating very nicely and tried it with roast pig, pineapple, cantaloupe, and some stuff I had never seen before. Don't try it with rice -- it enhances the starchiness! It was also in the sweet potatoes, which Connie tried and I didn't get to, and baked into the buns which tasted good even though both were kind of purple.

There was much hula dancing and a real cool fire dance.

Maui Day 1

Overnight, we sailed to Maui and docked at Kahului at around 8:00 am. Rob spent most of today in bed. He wasn’t feeling too good. I brought him things to eat.

I also read my book, “Thud!” by Terry Pratchett. Good Read! When I was practicing my Hawaiian quilting someone stopped to look and said I was doing a good job. She obviously didn’t see the work of the master quilter who tried to teach me. Ah well, practice makes mediocre.

Rob felt better by evening and we went to a comedy show in the theater. The comic’s name was Chris Alpine. Evidently he has been on TV, but I hadn’t seen him before. We really enjoyed the show. Tomorrow we have some excursions planned.

Saturday Oct 8

We got up late today just because we could.

We had signed up for a submarine tour with the Atlantis. Was that ever a neat thing. They had sunk several objects to make artificial reefs with great success. We saw nearly every fish on the identification card plus sea turtles and a black-tipped reef shark. Wow! What is really neat is that this is what Rob sees when he dives here. I got to see what he had been talking about

I did not get seasick on the boat out to the submarine. The waves were about 4 – 8 feet tall. Not really bad.

We got to the docks at about 4:00 p.m. The ship didn’t sail until 8:00 pm, so we had plenty of time to check in. We went through several security searches and photo taking. We each have a card with our names on them. Whenever we leave the ship, we have to show photo id plus this card to get back on. How embarrassing if we lose them.

More From Thursday

The competition we've been hearing so much about is called the 2005 ITU Honolulu World Age Group Triathlon Championship. It will be held here in Honolulu on Sunday, October 9.

This is the beginning of the Parade of Nations. Rob took this from our balcony. They started with A, so the USA was near the back. By the time they came by, the light had faded so much we couldn't get a good picture.

Thursday Fun

We did something a little unusual today. We both took a class in Hawaiian quilting from a master quilter. She was very patient with us and we managed to do a little applique. You'd be surprised at the results.

Afterward we walked down Kalakaua Ave. to a Chinese restaurant we were told was really good. It was called Lau Yee Chai and the rumors were right. The waiter even took our picture at the table. (Above)

Then we walked by the post office to pick up some stamps and continued on to the U.S. Army Museum at Fort De Russey. We took a few pictures there and then caught the bus back to the hotel.

We started hearing loudspeaker annuncements a few minutes ago. Seems the participants in Sunday's triathalon were lining up for a parade of nations. Last we heard, they still haven't found Kyrgyzstan. But then, who could? Sounds like they might be starting soon. Rob is out on the balcony with the camera.

More soon. And yes, Rob will finish writing about his second dive. Probably after he completes his third tomorrow morning.

[Connie]

We woke up to a rainbow this morning. What a sight. The rain moved on quickly, but I managed to get a shot of it before it faded.

Wednesday's Dive 1

The first dive of the day was to view a Corsair airplane that had hit the water just off the coast of Oahu. It was in 1946 just after the end of WWII. A newbie on a training flight ran out of gas and set it down very nicely in the water. It must have been a whole lot calmer than I went out.

The waves were very choppy. We were getting 12 - 15 foot waves and we were in a little 20-foot boat. We all got somewhat seasick and I was one of only three who kept their lunch. Once I was in the water my stomach settled down.

The airplane lies in 105 feet of water. It's fuselage was relatively intact and the wings were still in place. The skin however was gone in many places. There were skipjacks everywhere! That's a kind of fish. The bottom was mostly flat and sandy with the odd coral popping out around the wreck. Although there was a fair current on the way down, it disappeared near the bottom so the view was at least 50 meters (150 feet). I sped up acclimating to the salt water with a couple of bouyancy excersizes to get used to the density difference. It really ends up saving air even on a deep dive like this. Once that was out of the way, I started looking around proper and did a lap around the plane.

The fish were everywhere inside and immediately around the wreck. It actually made them hard to differentiate they were so thick. We had been informed/warned about two large eels living in the wings but I didn't see either. Others did. Surrounding the wreck were little green garden eels, thick as grass. The moment one of us would try to get close, they would duck down into their holes. A look at the bottom made me think that they must run almost all the way to the wreck when divers aren't about. Squirrel fish, scorpion fish, puffers, and yellow tangs were amongst the varieties I identified.

One fish I remembered distinctly, but can't find a name for, was a little guy hanging out in one of the rusty brown finger(?) corals. The fish was about the length of my middle finger. The face and tail were black with a narrow grey stripe running vertically just in front of the dorsal fin. Within the grey stripe and at the top, there was a white inverted chevron. It was all alone but a very playful little fellow nonetheless. I asked about the fish back up on the boat, but no one knew what it was. If anyone has an idea, please post a comment and let me know.

At 100 plus feet, one doesn't get a lot of bottom time and I had sucked some major air getting over the seasickness at the beginning of the dive. At 12 minutes, I was down to 1000 psi and just as I was about to signal the dive master that I was heading up, he turned and motioned for Russel ( a cop from Kentucky ) and me to start up. Russ started up fast (must have been doing some heavy breathing too), but I slowed down after my dive computer started screaming at me. I bought a Suunto Mosquito just before leaving on our honeymoon. It turns out to be a tad sensitive and I can set off the "slow down" alarm just by moving my arm too quickly, but it turned out to be a boon here. When I stopped and looked down, I saw a starfish resting on the sand about 2 wingspans starboard of the plane. I was about 30 feet up the dive rope from the bottom so it must have been HUGE. I started looking around as I continued to rise up to my safety stop. There was a cluster of several more star fish just a few feet away. I didn't see any clams to feed on, but they must be nearby, or the starfish were probably between sites. They don't move very fast after all. As I got higher, I did see some dark patches near by and it looked like the plane was in a shallow bowl, which explains why we didn't see the rest near the bottom.

After a good 5 minutes at 15 ft, I climbed aboard again, undressed, got some water to steady my stomache, and kept my eyes on the horizon. Russ followed me on board, made the mistake of looking down at his fins to take them off and lost his breakfast a minute or two later. The fish love that stuff, and when they come to the surface it tends to attract preditors. It can be a great show for the others still waiting on their safety stop. Felt sorry for Russ though. I will put in the details on the second dive when I get the pictures about 2pm today local time.

[Connie] Yes there will be sea turtles.

Adventures On Wednesday

Rob went diving this morning and I learned to make ribbon leis. I'll let Rob tell you about his dives.

I went shopping and spent several hours making ribbon leis. The Marriott has craft classes every day in the main lobby. Tomorrow I'm going to try Hawaiian quilting.

We are seeing signs all over saying roads will be closed for a few hours tomorrow. It seems there is going to be a huge triathalon event. We have been seeing people with bicycles in the elevators. I hope they don't get on the same elevator as the guys with the surfboards.

We took a walk this evening. We get light rain showers late each evening. We walked until we started to get wet and then we walked the other way. We made it to the War Memorial just below Diamond Head on the west side of the Waikiki area.

My feet were really sore by the time we got back to the hotel. Then we had a good dinner at the steak house on the third floor and now I'm ready to crash.

Rob might be able to do his part of the blog tomorrow. All I will say is that there were sea turtles.

Ahhhhhhh. Sunset in paradise.

First Full Day in Paradise

The weather is perfect. We've finally memorized our room number. (Jet lag can do strange things to a person.) We went swimming at Waikiki Beach and got ambushed by waves. It was really fun.
We're both a little sunburned, but happy. Connie got her mai tai.

Hawaii Arrival

We started our great adventure today. We walked across the street to the terminal and checked everything in. We had time for breakfast before boarding. They don't give a person much food on flights anymore.

We left O'hare at about 10:30 Central Daylight time. We arrived at LAX about 1:00 pm local time and lost two hours in the process. It was a 4 1/2 hour flight. Rob watched the landscape and I read a book. He saw some strange greenish smoke somewhere in Colorado. We also saw Shiprock NM. That really looks cool from the air. The landscape was spectacular.

We had about four hours to kill in LA before our next flight. We unfortunately got the dreaded "S" on our boarding pass which means an extra search. It really wasn't that bad. We even talked to the TSA people a little about our honeymoon and they wished us a good trip.


We also met some nice ladies at the Burger King. They were on their way to Paris. They mentioned leaving from gate 27, which was a good thing. Just after they left in a hurry to board their plane, I noticed one of them had left her jacket on the back of the chair. I took it to gate 27 and they were just in line to board. I got hugs for bringing it to them.

The picture above is the listing for our flight to Honolulu.

We left LAX at about 6:00pm Pacific Time and arrived in Hawaii five hours later. We lost another 3 hours and some of our lunch. The airplane set down with a mighty thump and wild swaying. Probably the worst landing I have ever experienced. As we exited, the pilot's door was firmly shut. They probably didn't want to hear the comments.

We checked into the Marriott and were informed that due to Rob's platinum status, we had been upgraded to an ocean view room with a king bed instead of the standard. We spent the first hour out on the balcony just breathing the wonderful air.

Now we're going to bed.

Aloha.

We'll try to keep our blogs on CDT time. We might get a little confused though.

O'hare Hilton

We arrived at about 9:00 pm in Chicago and checked into the Hilton. There were really long lines because so many flights had been delayed due to bad weather.

We used the automated check-in. I had never tried it before but Rob has. It was really slick.

I ordered room service and then collapsed. Nice room. Very comfortable.

OK.... We did it! We are now officially married according to the American Old Catholic Church and the State of Wisconsin. Amen! Connie was wearing a beautiful ivory dress with an original lace hemline that many raved over. I [Rob] was in a matching tux and tails. The weather was perfect. The japanese garden was cool, green and beautiful.