Hawaii By Sea
But that's just a bit of nostalgia, which is already way overdone in Hawaii in my opinion. For me, the highlights of the trip all came at sea. Pulling into Oahu early on a Monday morning revealed a gorgeous sunrise over Diamond Head, with the sun an orange disk rising above the trademark volcanic peak and the high-rise hotels of Waikiki Beach. When we pulled out of Hilo the previous evening, the last hours of daylight revealed the incredible sights of whale spouts and tails all around us, and porpoises leaping ahead of the ship. The same thing happened in Maui, where we anchored outside of Lahaina, with views of the islands of Lanai, Molokai and Kahoolawe surrounding us, and whales coming and going like it was a Los Angeles freeway. On a bus transfer to the excellent Maui Ocean Center, an aquarium with hundreds of native fish species, my wife saw one whale leap out of the water and I watched another smacking a fin over and over just offshore.
The grand finale came when we left Kona on a Thursday evening and started the long voyage home. That night, at about 10:30 p.m., nearly everyone on the ship rushed to the decks and to their stateroom windows, where we were treated to the sight of live lava flowing into the sea from renewed activity of the Kilauea volcano. For nearly a half-hour we sailed past bright orange landscapes that looked like huge charcoal braziers that were glowing from the molten lava.
Nice to see that they're making more Hawaii as we watch. For all of the crass commercialism that Hawaii unfortunately delivers at every port, for all the traffic congestion and over-development, the islands still retain considerable charm and beauty when viewed from the sea. That in itself is reason enough to take the long voyage from the mainland to the islands.