Hawaii: Days Forty Three to Forty Six - Oahu

After our thirty minute flight back to Oahu we had checked into our hotel and headed down towards the beach. We had to wait awhile but soon we were at a table right on the beach by the shore. We watched the sunset after dinner then went back to the hotel to settle in.

With two days left in our trip we went to Diamond Head. A large volcanic cone that formed in Oahu somewhere around 400,000 years ago.

We hiked up the side of the mountain and reached a lookout point at the top of the crater. You could see all the way down and in the centre where we started it was surrounded by mountains.

The crater or volcanic cone was much larger than I thought it was and when you are in the centre you can't even tell that it is a crater. We kept going just a minute more to a nice view of the city right on the turquoise water.

We hiked back down the crowded path and had famous Hawaiian shaved ice to cool down after the hike. We had seen a lot of stores and carts selling it in Maui so we decided to try it before we left. It was pretty much a snow cone with Hawaiian flavours but it still tasted great. While we ate our shaved ice we saw some mongoose darting all over the place.

They were invasive species that were intentionally brought to Hawaii to kill the rats and pest that fed on the sugarcane crops but soon became a pest themselves by killing a majority of Hawaii's native wildlife. It was still cool to see them though. We left Diamond Head and went back to the hotel for the rest of the day.

In the morning we were picked up in a van and were taken to our snorkelling trip outside the city. Unlike the other trips this one was more about the marine mammals as in spinner dolphins and a chance to see humpback whales and manta rays. Once we were out on the boat we saw a bunch of spinner dolphins right off the shore. We even saw them jump out of the water and spin int the air just like their name implies. After they came close to the boat and the captain decided they were comfortable we jumped in to swim with them. They are wild dolphins so we waited for them to get closer because dolphins are known to be quite playful. Soon the whole pod swam right by us and after a while they looped around again to get a closer look. It was really cool.

After a bit the pod left and we headed out to more open ocean to try and see a humpback. Only a few minutes later a guide spotted a spray of mist from a humpback coming up for air. We boated closer to it and cut the engines so that we wouldn't scare it away. After ten minutes it finally came up for air and it was huge and at the same time another one right behind it.

 It was really cool to see and I got a really cool picture with the first ones tail and the other ones back making it look like one whale.

When they both went back underwater we waited another 10 minutes and saw one of their tails as it was about to hit the water and dove back down.

After that we had to go to the last stop of the tour where we snorkelled the reef in search of a manta ray they had seen there frequently over the last week. We didn't see the manta ray but we saw a few sea turtles and some tropical fish. It was a great way to end the trip.

Our last day in Hawaii we walked down to the beach and had lunch, watched some people trying to surf and checked out some of the shops along a boardwalk. We had to stay at the hotel later because our flight was delayed until midnight so it was a long wait but finally we were on our way home and excited for Christmas in a few days.

Total planes: 1 small and 1 very large

Total vans: 3

Total boats: 1

Total miles walked: 9.8 miles over 3 days