One of the most awesome things about living in Hawaii is how easy it is to island hop. From busy Oahu, I can be on lush Kauai or beautiful Maui in 30 minutes on an easy jumper flight. Each island has its own unique feel and personality. Oahu is the most crowded, but the big volcanic spine of the Ko'olau Mountains through the middle of the island keeps it full of intriguing wild spaces. Maui on the other hand feels like sunshine. It's energy is warm, serene, and wonderful. There are beautiful beaches, gorgeous reefs, and big mountains. Haleakala is the volcano in the middle of the island. While the rest of the island is green, Haleakala is barren with a moon scape at the top. One of these days, I will backpack across that crater.
This visit was with friends. We met Duane, Angie, and Taylor in the gorgeous west Maui coastal town of Lahaina. Mike and Duane were friends years ago in both the Army and civilian worlds. It's been really fun to reunite. Mike and I arrived early Saturday morning. We ate breakfast at the beautiful Sea House restaurant in Napili Bay. The restaurant is right on the water with big open windows and a fabulous view. We had the sweet potato frittata and Haleakala custard pancake. Both were gluten free and delicious.
Next we took a little hike up Mahana Ridge Trail. I thought I had read that it was a four mile roundtrip. Nope, that's Waihee Ridge. Oops. We ended up doing a nine mile roundtrip to the Arboretum. The full loop through the Arboretum adds and additional eight miles for a total of 17. I was not up for 17 miles. Our hike was fun though. We followed it up with some super tasty Mexican at Frida's Beach House. We split the Diego Plato with beef. It was super tasty and we were once again seated right on the water. However, the service was terrible and prices were very high. We stayed in a darling two bedroom condo close to everything in Lahaina. When our friends arrived, we took a walk to find dinner and entertainment for the night.
The next morning we had a dive trip to Lanai scheduled. At 0700, we boarded a boat and rode about 45 minutes to the neighboring island. On the way, we had to stop to watch whales jumping and playing in the ocean. Two even swam very close to our boat. So cool! The diving was ok. Visibility was over 100 feet and there were lots of swim-throughs and fish. I saw a huge lobster and a turtle. What made it not amazing was the number of divers on the trip. There were three groups of nine divers all hitting the same sites at the same time. The sites aren't big, so there weren't a lot of areas to enjoy without others bumping into you. The second site was First Cathedral which is a big cavern under the water. It's stunningly beautiful with light streaming in through smaller "windows". Again, ten people (a photographer had joined us) packed into a small space under water is not my favorite way to experience it. I think I was just spoiled rotten in Truk with our small dive groups. Lahaina Divers is a top notch company and provides muffins, sandwiches, chips, fruit and chocolate chip cookies. I had chips and fruit, but the guys loved the cookies. After everyone showered, napped and drank wine, we had a BBQ by the pool in the common area of the condos.
Our final morning we all hiked up to the Lahainaluna High School "L". This is only a 3ish mile hike if you know where you're going. We turned it into a 5.5 mile hike complete with GPS and drone reconnaissance to get us there. We'd gone the wrong way around a new solar power plant (which hadn't existed when the directions were written). So, adventure route, which I like. The path down was well marked except for right at the beginning. It also smelled wonderful. The trail wound down through lemon gum eucalyptus trees. Reading more about the hike, we may have been trespassing. Whoops!
Duane, Mike and I went spearfishing at Hanakao'o Park. We rented guns and went with a local guide. Keoki was awesome, but the price wasn't worth it to me. We go at home for free. So I struggle with paying someone to swim with me and put my fish in a bag. That's ok. We had a great time. I saw a bunch of octopi and almost caught one! We swam with a big eagle ray. I shot three fish, but one got away. Duane also shot three fish. The first was a porcupine or puffer fish and blew up like a spiky balloon. It was hilarious! Mike was unlucky but had a good time anyway.
I've been a scuba diver for about 10 years now. That's not to say I've done a ton of diving, or that I'm the best diver everrrrr, just that I've been in the process of becoming comfortable in the water for some time. Somewhere along the way I heard about Truk Lagoon, a World War II graveyard of Japanese ships to explore. Micronesia was occupied by the Japanese during WWII. On February 4, 1944, the US Navy did a reconnaissance fly by and were spotted, leading to the evacuation of most of the Japanese naval fleet occupying what is now the state of Chuuk. What remained two weeks later when the US launched Operation Hailstorm were mostly Maru, merchant class ships converted for wartime efforts. The US Navy bombed the hell out of these ships, sinking around 40 ships and several planes. Subsequently, Truk Lagoon was a cemetery until about 45 years ago when the human remains were removed and the lagoon was opened for diving. The wrecks are in great shape due to a protective barrier reef that prevents currents.
Many of the ships are super deep, meaning they are technical dives requiring a lot more experience and bravery than I have. Most of what I dove was in 90 to 120 feet of water at the deepest points. Mike did one dive to 160 feet, which is about 20 feet deeper than I've ever been. Diving is really good in Chuuk. There are some amazing soft and hard corals, huge schools of tiny fish and overall healthy ocean which is surprising for a few reasons. The first, of course, is the shear amount of iron and steel rotting in the depths. Next is the oil, coal, gunpowder and whatever else was released into the water 70-odd years ago. Lastly, the population of the state is low, which is its saving grace. Otherwise, there would be trash everywhere. Chuukese people are very very poor. There is not much work to be had and a lot of the population is unemployed with little pride in their community. Heaps of trash surround nearly every house. Old broken cars line the road of the town. Those who work at the resort which is the major employer on the island, along with the airport, work 12+ hour days every single day. The people here are very hard-working, shy but kind.
Blue Lagoon Resort is my type of place in a few regards: no phones, televisions, and nearly useless internet available only in the lobby. Rooms are simple and clean with amazing ocean views. Food is mediocre, which was great for preventing me from pigging out. Diving. We did 14 dives on 11 ships and 3 planes. Wreck diving can be dangerous and technical depending on where and how you penetrate the wreck. Yes, penetrate is the technical term, which makes for really ridiculous conversation. Most of what Mike and I did was simply dropping into open cargo holds and a bit of swimming through passage ways and upper deck spaces. Swimming into a hallway through a dark doorway would've once been more than I could psychologically handle, but experience has made me a bit more brave. Cautiously brave, not stupid. Many of the ships had huge torpedo holes ripping the hulls apart, which gave me a new perspective on the weapons I worked on at Keyport. It's hard not to picture the chaos and terror that the two days of bombs and fire must have brought.
During my underwater tourism, I saw lots of cool stuff. Spare periscopes on a submarine tender, a tank on a deck, huge bow guns encrusted with sea life, a cargo hold full of planes, another full of ammo, an expended torpedo engine and propeller, a huge bomb, an engine room that looked like the machinery could start, remnants of trucks from the late 30s and early 40s, and the general overtaking of machinery by the sea were just a few of the man made variety. As for natural, two sharks, several eagle rays, sting rays, pipe fish, soft corals, lion fish were just a few.
The first four days we dove with two brothers ages 68 and 71. They were fantastic! Bob is the elder and a firecracker of energy and excitement for all things adventure. Rick is his younger brother, more reserved with a presence about him that suggests he's used to running the show. Rick lives on Oahu so he let me borrow his regulator for the last two days. We met him and his wife for dinner when we returned to trade pictures and return the reg. It was so cool to me that even in their 70s they were out adventuring together and had such a tight relationship. I hope that's me and my sisters in 40 years. On that vein, it turns out most scuba divers are middle aged white guys with beer bellies. Maybe that's just who can afford dive trips. Without further ado, here are my favorite wrecks we did and what we saw:
Shinkoku Maru - an upright tanker wreck with beautiful sea life all over it. We saw a shark, an eagle ray, big schools of fish, lots of hard and soft corals. Swim through for operating table with bottles and bones, bathrooms with urinals attached. Super structure is covered in life. This was probably my favorite wreck.
Betty Bomber - This is an upright plane laying in the sand between islands. It's big enough to swim through the fuselage. I saw pipe fish for the first time. These are cousins to seahorses. The engines of the plane came to rest 20m away from the rest of the wreck.
Nippo Maru - Another favorite. This is an upright freighter with a small tank on deck. There are a few remnants of old trucks on the deck and the seafloor below. This boat also had a really cool sea life encrusted bow gun. The towers are still upright and covered in coral.
San Francisco Maru - Mike and Bob did this one. I chickened out. The wreck starts at 140 feet. There are three tanks strapped to the deck, some old trucks in the hold, and a bunch of marine mines on the bow. No pictures because it's too deep for the goPro housing.
Gosei Maru - Rick and I dove this freighter. It's another with a big torpedo hole on the starboard side. The hold contains the remains of the Mk 14 torpedo that took her down. A few small easy swim throughs, but mostly sea life on this one. The propeller was too cool. Mike did a bunch of free diving and didn't miss out on anything.
Emily Flying Boat - This awesome wreck finally settled upside down in the water. It's broken into several pieces, but still recognizable with lots of fish, coral, crabs, and other creatures.
Fujikawa Maru - Super cool passenger cargo ship. She's upright in the water with one hold full of Zero planes, another full of machine gun bullets and magazines. The bow and bow gun are covered in sea fans, coral, and anemones. So cool!
Sankisan Maru - Another favorite. This one is unbelievably awesome. It's an upright freighter that took a bomb straight to her aft hold that was full of weapons. So, the front end of the ship looks totally normal (for a shipwreck). Mid-ship and the holds have some cool old trucks that are mostly just chassis. One in the hold still had part of its motor and a steering wheel. As we swam to the back, the deck was ravaged and buckled and suddenly just ended. Part of the stern is upright a ways back. Apparently if you're intrepid you can find the rudder about 500 feet away. The wreck itself is covered in coral with lots of fish. We even saw a sleeping shark. This was a super powerful wreck. We ascended up one of the towers that was a stunning coral reef ending just above our safety stop. Fabulous! Normally safety stops are boring. Not this one.
Hoyo Maru - The last wreck we dove is upside down naval tanker. It had a bomb hole into the engine room so we swam in to take a peek. Otherwise the wreck is covered top to bottom in coral, sea fans, and anenomes. The bottom of the boat, which is the top of the wreck was covered in big coral heads. We spent the whole time looking for octopi.
