Kayaking in Kailua
Trip Start
Apr 16, 2008
1
5
7
Trip End
Apr 23, 2008
Kailua,
Hawaii,
United States
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
We were unsure at first if the weather would be up to a day of kayaking, but after some hesitation (after driving through the mountainous area that was filled with clouds, and then having it lightly sprinkle with rain), we decided to go for it anyways, and that was a very good choice. April is Hawaii's "winter", and I was told by the people at the kayak store that the weather is always like this here in April - cloudy and a bit rainy in the mornings, especially in the middle of the island, but warm and sunny on the coast. I could see the clear blue sky out by the beach and, wow, did it ever turn out to be a nice day!
We rented a double kayak for 4 hours, which we picked up near the beach, at a canal that
Straight ahead from the kayak
we first had to paddle through for a bit, then pick up onto a short stretch of sandy beach, and then drag over to the ocean. The ocean's water was a beautiful turquoise blue and the water was pretty warm! Very nice and refreshing. It was fairly wavy, however, which is not the kind of water that I've ever kayaked in before. Thank goodness Ben was there, as he is an experienced kayaker and knew exactly what to do to paddle successfully through the waves, or else we would have surely capsized many times, I think!
Little island view
There was a small island directly across from the beach, and the guy who gave us the kayak said it would take 20 minutes to kayak out there, and one hour to paddle to the 2 big "Twin Islands" that were somewhat further down, in front of the adjacent Lanakai beach. Both of them had bird sanctuaries on them. We decided to go to the smaller (closer) one first, and made it there in only about 10 minutes! You could walk around the circumference of the island in about 15 minutes, but we took our time, stopping for photo ops and to precariously make our way around the rocky edges of the island that were covered in holes, looking like coral.
Birdies
Only the edges of the island were accessible to walk over as the rest of it was roped off as it is a bird sanctuary, and we saw lots of sea birds in there nesting, which were very cute. Ben was fascinated by the medium-sized black crabs that were all over the rocks on one side of the island.
After our tour around the island, we decided that the two big Twin islands (Mokulua Islands, I think they're officially named, or something like that) were way too far (and dangerous) to go out to. The paddling out to the small island had been really hard work with all of the waves to go through, and I couldn't imagine doing that for 60 minutes straight to get there, and then another 60 to get back!
Lanakai - Clear blue ocean
In any case, I wanted to kayak out to the Lanakai beach, which was across from the Twin islands, as there was supposed to be a reef just in front of it, and thus, snorkelling. With all of the waves to fight through, it too was a lot of muscle power to make our way there, as we were going against the waves. Ben found it too difficult and when we were more than halfway there he declared that he was quitting, but then decided to keep going with me. I thought it was fun! What an adventure! I was I the front of the kayak and the waves kept splashing on me, but the water was so nice and fresh and I didn't mind at all. If this had been back on Vancouver Island, yes, I would have minded, but it's a totally different experience here. The blue ocean is inviting and you want it to splash all over you, and even just jump right into it. Oh, and when we were leaving the small island, Ben said he saw a sea turtle in the ocean beside us! (but I didn't see it) 
Lanakai - view of the twin islands
We finally made it to the beach there - what a victory! It only took us 23 minutes, but it was 23 minutes of very hard work. We both collapsed on our towels on the sand and laid there catching the sun for about an hour. The weather was so nice at this point - it was really hot, but there was also a breeze which complemented the heat perfectly. Ben was very happy to be there and even said he would like to return again this week, but drive there next time! After sunbathing, I jumped into the water. Again, like Waikiki, it was not too cold so you could easily get into it. Wavy, but not too wavy near the shoreline. I could see the reef further down and people were snorkelling there, but we decided not to try snorkelling as it seemed like it was too wavy to really snorkel successfully. We quickly ate our lunch that we had packed along, and then it was time to head back and return the kayak.
Lanakai - our kayak on the beach
Ben said it would be an easy trip back to the beach further down that we had started from, which I was looking forward to. Getting out into the ocean from this beach though was not that easy, because, again, we had to fight past the waves coming in. Ben got the kayak out to the height of my chest and then I was supposed to get myself in the front, but that wasn't going to happen and it almost capsized the kayak! So we tried again by starting from closer to the beach and it worked, but then had to fight our way through the waves there to get out. After using our muscle power again to get out far enough, we were able to let the kayak just calmly sail towards our destination. We held the paddles out horizontally and used them like sails to carry the kayaks along with the wind. It only took us 15 minutes to get back, though it was quite a ways to go.After returning the kayak, we drove around the area and the coastline there a bit, and ran into the Marine Corps base, but we couldn't get on the base to look around since we didn't have our ID on us.
Ala Moana beach park
We started to make our way back across the island to Honolulu and passed by the Ala Moana beach park, which I'd like to swim at one day. It was a large bay area with very calm waters, so perfect for snorkelling. We called it a day when we got back to the hotel. Despite spraying the sun block on all day, we were still burned, but not too bad. But it was a long day and very tiring! Very worth it though to do the kayaking and exploring of the area. 
