June 1984 Trip to Oahu, Kauai and Big Island

June 14th
I am now sitting near the pool at the shoreline on the Big Island of Hawaii at the Kanaloa at Keauhou resort. This place is great! It's really fancy and peaceful. We're spending our final days of the trip here. I love it here!

The first week of the trip was spent helping to escort a group of 120 college-age kids to places on Oahu, all of which I had already seen. The first night we went to a nice dinner show at the Ala Moana Hotel on Waikiki. However, it was one of the many Hawaiian entertainment shows I saw while here, so after the week was up I had more than enough.

I did couple of new things, including a fun dinner cruise but nothing too exciting. I just barely made it to the boat after going scuba diving – another new thing. There was a group of us that went for a ½ hour dive on the North Shore after a brief lesson. I really enjoyed scuba diving, seeing some fish and swimming through rock formations, but wished I could have stayed under longer and seen more. I couldn’t believe some of the wimps we had that were afraid of being and breathing under water. Oh well, I guess not everyone is a fish like me.

I was also able to find and talk with Verna Tonga again, the girl I met the first time I came over who dances at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was fun to see her again.

Saturday, June 9th was a good day. The tour arranged a hukilau and a luau with some LDS church members in Laie. It was fun to help pull in this humungous net and then see what we caught (though it wasn’t much). One weird looking fish was a stick fish that looked and felt like a snake with a spine and a long skinny beak. The song “Oh we’re going to a hukilau" was written after some LDS church members did some major hukilau projects in 1947 to raise funds to restore their ruined chapel. Somebody wrote this song about this activity which originated in Laie bay.

That evening we went to Mahana’s father’s house (The guy who played the role in the original Johnny Lingo movie) where he and his family put on a very enjoyable and personable luau with the pua (pig) in the pit, entertainment and everything. They had a beautiful yard and it was a lovely evening. I really had a great time. Dave put together a mean trip and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Early Sunday morning, I escorted a company of nine girls to Kauai – a very pretty island – for a two-day trip. First, we went to church in Lihue, in their open air chapel. I had fun introducing the girls as my nine wives.

We then headed up the north shore to stay at The Cliffs, a very nice resort area. Our condo was very nice – right on the shore. It was a big 3-bedroom condo – the girls shared the rooms and I got the living room couch. After resting, we took a nice drive to the NaPali coast. Lots of pretty places there- Lumahai beach where they filmed “South Pacific”, Hanalei Valley where the largest crop of taro is grown (beautiful valley), and lots of pretty countryside and shoreline. I took a short hike at the beginning of the NaPali coast (Kalalau Trail), which only whetted my appetite to see more of it. They also have boat and helicopter rides that take you into it. I’m going to have to go back someday and see it better.  (I finally did!  See My Journey to Kalalau)


The next day, we saw some waterfalls and the Fern Grotto, and more pretty countryside. We didn’t have enough time to see the Waimea Canyon, but it was a nice visit on the island. I also want to go on the kayak river trip that we missed there.

Last night, here on the Big Island, I spent nearly an hour in the jacuzzi, and have had a relaxing morning in the sun and hiking around on the shore.

June 16th
My last ½ day in Hawaii. I feel ready to go home now. No money left, and I’ve seen and done quite a bit. I’ve been here 11 days now, so I think that’s fine. Yesterday morning I took off by myself at 6:30 to go sightseeing. The other guys were taking scuba lessons to certify from this guy named Mike who came over to certify them. So I went and saw the Volcanoes National Park. It was about a 2 hour drive from here (this island is big!) It was neat to see all these craters with steam coming out, but I wished I could have seen the bubbling fire pit that Halemaumau used to be.

Places I thought were really neat were the fern jungle and the lava tube. Of course, it rained on me while walking through this dense tropical jungle, like it did on Kauai at the Fern Grotto. It just adds to the atmosphere and makes it more fun. I also enjoyed the bird park, which had many plants native to Hawaii. I went on a very beautiful one mile hike through a tropical forest with lots of chirping and tweeting birds overhead. It would be a perfect spot for a romantic walk.

I just love driving through miles of narrow, winding roads lined with all sorts of tropical greenery like that I drove through yesterday. All the islands have some beautiful driving.

When I came back, I helped the other guys with one of their dives, and then that evening, after a brief yet interesting visit to the City of Refuge, I went with them on a night dive. It was kind of scary and all, but our lights lit up the bottom pretty well, and it was fun swimming around down there watching Mike spear some fish, and seeing the beady eyes of shrimp in their shells. I was with Mike since I was not certified, and got the assignment to be his speared fish-catch line holder. After I got over being nervous, I had a good time. Except for when I came up to the top – I switched to my snorkel mask and got a big gulp of salt water. Gross! I almost threw up a couple of times on the way in because of that. But the real fun part was not being able to find the cord to pull that would inflate my vest. Without its help, keeping afloat with heaving scuba gear is very difficult. So, there I was thrashing around, holding a line of bloody fish, knowing I was perfect bait for shark. I almost panicked. Mike finally came up and helped me find the cord. Whew! But, all in all I had a great time and I’m glad I did it. I may never have that chance again. ALOHA.