Part 3 is finally here, and it contains some footage from the Go-Pro Hero 7 Black. While it is named Dive, there are a couple other videos that I wanted to throw in from other parts of our trip. This was easily the hardest blog to put together so far. Not the typing and explaining the trip, but the video editing. I can sit and go through photos for hours on the computer and it never gets old. However, video editing is another monster all on its’ own. I know the videos are not perfect by any means, but the footage still shows in great detail certain parts from our trip.
The first video I will be sharing is from our second day on the island where we had a catamaran dinner at sunset (you can see the beautiful sunset in part 1). But, on our way north going to calmer waters for the dinner we were standing at the bow, enjoying the warm ocean breeze. When, out of nowhere a pod of spinner dolphins comes to join the party! There was about a dozen of them just swimming right in front of the bow, and I manged to capture 2 of them jump out of the water. It’s crazy to think these animals have an entire language that is inconceivable to humans and their intelligence. The entire cruise was great, the crew was awesome and the food was delicious, not to mention the view while on the ocean.
Next up is some footage from the Road to Hana. As described in part 1, this road is extremely narrow and has some 600 turns. While I didn’t get any landscape photos from the black sands beach, I did have the Go-Pro with me to capture the sound of the water crashing over the pebbles and sand, and the soothing sounds it makes as it recedes back into the ocean. And the last bit of the video we were taking a stroll on the beach when a storm decided to roll in and get us a little more wet than we anticipated. That’s where wearing swim suits while you’re on an island useful. But watching, feeling, and listening to the power of the ocean as waves start to build and crash is amazing.
And now I will get to our dives. Since I got scuba certified in Japan almost 10 years ago the ocean has always amazed me with the sheer amount of life and diversity that can be seen. Luckily Chelsea shares that passion with me and decided to get certified as well before we got married so we could dive while in Fiji (which has some of the most amazing soft coral). That brings us to Hawaii, we knew that we had a lot to do while here, but diving had to fit in there somewhere. So we found a dive boat and booked our trip. To ensure that the footage was as accurate as possible while diving I was using a Backscatter dive filter kit. When going under water, the first spectrum of light to disappear is red. The dive kit places a red filter in front of the lens to bring those reds back into the footage and accurately reflect the actual colors of the ocean life.
Our first dive location is called The Lighthouse, and it’s located off the coast of Lanai. The water was warm and perfectly clear, able to see down 80’ to the bottom from the surface. We went down 80’ on this dive and something that we both noticed immediately was the lack of soft coral, you know, the stuff that you see in videos flowing back and forth with the current. After talking with our dive master (a marine biologist) he let us know that Hawaii doesn’t really have soft coral. But, there are many species of sea life that are endemic to the islands due to them being so far disconnected from any other land masses and these animals cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Also, saw 2 different eel’s while on this dive which was a first for the both of us.
After coming back up, we got back on the boat and had a small snack and headed 30 minutes to our next dive site known as the First Cathedral. And after going down and seeing it, it makes sense as to why its’ called that. We went into a cavern where there was numerous holes, but on the back side, there are a few big ones that let the sunlight in as it shined on what looked like the podium. Here we managed to see a big 6-7’ White Tipped Reef Shark just relaxing back underneath the rock in the darkness of the cavern. We also saw a large puffer fish that was bigger than a football as it slowly swam through the cavern. The best way out of the cavern was through a small hole on the back left corner. With the tide going in and out you could physically feel the flow in and out of that hole. So what you do is hold tight to the edges while it pushes you in, then as soon as it switches directions you push off and it sucks you through. Coming out on the other side into the sunlight and vastness of the ocean again.
First Cathedral
And that was it for our dives. We will definitely be planning more dive exclusive trips in the future to see what all the ocean has to offer. The experience was great, and if you are able I would highly recommend diving, or even snorkeling in the ocean to see the vastness of it all.
The last video is from our last day on the island. With time to kill before our flight we decided to drive the 10,000’ elevation climb to Haleakala National Park to see inside the crater. But, the weather had other plans for us. Driving up you could see the cloud cover and we were hoping we would punch through at the top but it just wasn’t in the card for us as it was nothing but clouds at the top. That’s not to say it wasn’t a good time though. It was a beautiful drive and amazing to see how the landscape changed from dense rain forest, to rolling plains, to a different kind of forest, then finally at the top it looked like we were on Mars.
And that is it for the 3 part Hawaii blog. I hope everyone enjoyed it and learned something new. If you have any questions at all please drop a comment below, or hit the contact me button on the side and I’ll do my best to answer. Can’t wait for more adventures and to see what this crazy world has to offer.