Aloha and Mahalo!

Aloha! I am no longer in Hawaii and that sucks! But my last few days were amazing. As I mentioned in my last post, we went to a luau on Thursday night. It was incredible. When we got there, we just followed people and went to the plantation train. We didn’t have tickets for it but the conductor let us on anyways because we were ohana (which means family). And the ride was awesome: we got to see the plantation with the hundreds of types of food and flowers that grow. We also saw fields of pigs and chickens. It was so cool. Then we went into the luau pavilion. Just as we walked in, Kaulana, the cruise’s Hawaiian ambassador invited us up to learn a hula. And of course I was not going to turn that down to I ran up on stage and performed “The Hukilau” hula dance. So much fun to perform in front of hundreds of strangers! Then we has dinned - the food was mostly traditional (kalua pig, poi, rice) with free drinks (yay for mai tai’s and blue hawaiian’s). But it was the show that was the best part. It was a theatrical presentation of the history of Hawaii. I think my favourite part was the fire dance – swinging a fiery baton around, tossing and catching it, lighting it with fire in his mouth. Unbelievable!!! All in all, it was a lot of fun.

So Friday morning, we were up early to go snorkelling for the day. We went to a beach close to Poipu beach on Kauai. When we first got there, I wasn’t sure this was a good idea as there were waves crashing into the shore. But once we got in the water, it was very peaceful. As long as you didn’t drift off. Which is kinda funny. We were told to stay with the group and just float. So I was hanging with our guide, Paul, when he said to stay put while he went to get 2 snorkellers who obviously thought they knew what they were doing, didn’t listen and who had drifted away from the group and were a minute away from getting caught out at sea. It was only once we were back on shore I found out those 2 snorkellers happened to be my parents. Yeesh! But for me, it was awesome. I saw a sea turtle right when I got in, saw Paul grab an octopus, swam through the ink, touched the octopus and saw dozens of types of fish and coral. It was a great 1.5 hours out in the wavy water. On our way back to the boat, we stopped to see some more turtles (this time from land) as well as some of the featured shots in Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones movies. What a beautiful island! Once we were back on board, I quickly ate so I could make the last hula class of the cruise. This was also our dry-run for our performance. At 3pm, we saw a few dances by Kaulana and Malu before we were invited up on stage to perform our 2 dances: "My Little Grass Shack" is about memories and "The Hukilau" is about a fishing party. It was so much fun and at the end, we received a “Masters” certificate in Hula. I feel so accomplished! The best part is we had a lot of people show up to support and cheer us on (thanks Daddy, Shannon, Lynn and Lyle!). After the dance and dinner, we went to the farewell show and then I caught the duets musical performance with Lynn and Lyle (thanks guys!). It was a long night by the time I got back and packed.

So this morning, we were up early again so we could eat and get off the boat. We rented a car for the day and drove out to the Dole Plantation where we completed the world’s largest maze (I finished in 37 minutes… well under the average 1 hour) then did the pineapple plantation train tour (did not know pineapples grew above ground on a bush). After we did some shopping and had our share of pineapple flavoured food, we drove out to the North Shore. From there we drove the beautifully scenic road along the coast from the North to the East and back south to Honolulu. What a gorgeous drive! Then we went to a couple of lookouts over the coast, saw some awesome waves, some great (and brave) surfers. But I think my favourite was the drive along Nu’uanu Pali road – it was through jungle and the views were just incredible. Definitely worth getting off the beaten path.

So now, I am home. Hawaii was incredible and I wish I didn’t have to come home. I could easily have stayed much longer (I mean much, much longer!). But I’m home and now ready to plan my next trip in Summer 2013!

Mahalo! Aloha!

Lisa