Another beautiful day draws to a close. We started late this morning, grabbing the hotel’s breakfast buffet before heading to Lawai’i Beach for SNUBA. SNUBA is similar to SCUBA, except instead of carrying the oxygen tanks on your back, you have an air line connected to a raft that floats above you. The air line goes for about 30 feet.

Doolies is a certified SCUBA diver, which just means she went through the boring lessons that are required before SCUBA diving. The way she describes SNUBA is like SCUBA but with instant gratification--no lessons required. We went with an older couple, and the dive master took video. We watched it at the end of the tour, and purchased it. I’ll upload a slightly edited version when I return to Seattle.

I’m not a strong swimmer and I was a bit concerned when going down for our thirty minutes of diving. Except for a brief panic about halfway through, I did rather well. Even when the panic almost overtook me, I remained calm, remembered to breathe out (which is supposedly the secret of diving: force yourself to breathe out slowly; breathing in will be done automatically), and regained control. The water moved from cold to warm depending on the currents. There were schools of fish and some coral under the water. It looks as it does on television. The colors are brilliant when seen up close, but look washed out when you move any distance away from the object.

After it was over, I was very cold and a bit confused. I didn’t remember time passing during the dive. I had to ask how long we were down because I had no idea. I’m not used to breathing so deeply or deliberately. Doolies thinks too much oxygen went to my brain—something it’s not used to, which does explain an awful lot.

After we finished SNUBA diving, we caught a late lunch and headed to the Maha’ulepu Beaches. The dirt road leading to the beaches was full of pot holes and tested our not-so-fancy Jeep and my sensitive stomach. We took many photos of this beautiful beach. It took a bit of hiking but not nearly as grueling as yesterday. The beach is covered with lithified rocks, which look like Swiss cheese after the years of seawater beating against them. The waves were vicious, and except for a few brave para-surfers on the tamer part of the beach, nobody was in the water.

After Doolies finishes showering we’ll head out to dinner. I plan to sleep well again tonight.

Here are a few shots from today using Doolies's new fancy camera: