Somewhere, Beyond the Sea

The great thing about islands is the incredible variety of activities that are available to keep an individual entertained. While yesterday focused on the land based activity of hiking, today centered squarely on the aquatic pastime of scuba diving, one of the most unique ways of viewing the world to be found anywhere. The great thing about scuba diving is, though it requires a fair amount of knowledge concerning equipment and a good level of comfort around water, it is an incredibly easy activity from a physical perspective, making it the perfect way to recover from our grueling hike yesterday. Or so it seemed…

To start the day, Andrew and my dad had to meet the instructors for an introductory lesson and pool dive at 9:45 down the road at the dive shop. Mom and I dropped them off then headed back to the resort to take care of a few things around the room, most notably a load of laundry and a few emails. Shortly after dropping the two compadres off at the dive shop, we received a call at the room from them notifying us that Andrew had left his swimsuit at home and would need it to be delivered for the pool dive portion of his lesson. I frantically searched the room to find my room key, finally locating it beneath my journal, and headed out to make my delivery to the Hyatt Regency. Unfortunately for me, the pool lesson was not being given at the Hyatt Regency but the Embassy Suites, something I only figured out after extensively searching the seemingly endless pools of the Hyatt and failing to locate even one scuba diver. Honestly, what hotel needs 12 pools?!?!

Eventually I realized my mistake and found the scuba divers in training in time for their pool dive. From there I headed back to the room, finished my email writing, and left to pick up the guys after their lesson. We grabbed a few burritos from a small taco stand, snarfed them down quick, and got ourselves ready for some sweet diving action! At 12:45, we met back up at the dive shop and went through a few pre-dive briefings before getting on the boat and heading out for our first of two dives.

The first dive we made was to a location known as Stone House, a relatively flat boat dive around 45-50 feet deep. Visibility on the day was incredibly, ranging anywhere from 80 to 90 feet of visibility with water temps right around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. As a small comparison, when I did my open water dives, the instructors were ecstatic that we had 20 feet of visibility and 65 degree surface temps, considering it one of the best days of diving they had ever seen on Perch Lake. Anyway, suffice to say the dive was spectacular with great views of colorful coral and unique endemic fish species such as the Millet Seed Butterfly, Frog Fish, Anemone Crabs, Hawaiian Cleaner Ras, and a cool little Octopus. After our first dive, we boated over to our second dive spot for the day, Sheraton Caverns, reputedly the best dives spot in all of Kauai. It was an amazing dive through lava tubes and archways with cool tunnels that opened into hidden underwater crevices. The coolest thing about the dive was the numerous Green Sea Turtles swimming about the area resting and other unique species such as Wire Coral Gobies and Ornate Butterflies.

Dad and Drew did very well on their first dives today, thoroughly enjoying their first experience underwater. Andrew got a little sea sick on the boat and generously donated his burrito to the fish, but the rest of the dive went off without a hitch and I have to say that it was one of the best dive operations I have experienced so far. After the dives, we headed back to the resort, showered up, and went to dinner at Brenekes down the street, savoring the delicious Mahi Mahi and other tasty seafood dishes. It’s been three great days of adventure in a row now, which has been nothing but wonderful to experience. Tomorrow we will do a few cleanup things such as Wailua Falls and some light shopping before heading back to Oahu in the evening and continuing our escapades in full force. Ciao ya’ll.