Day 5: Tide Pools and Sea Kayaking

The Hardenburgs, like I had on my first full day on HI time, awoke bright and early, ready for action of Friday. We killed time until the kayak rental place opened, then headed over to pick up two tandems and a single, which we piled three high on Derrick's car (your car is fine, Derrick!)with the help of some foam rack tops and securing belts. Seats, life vests, and oars shoved into the trunk, we carefully picked our way along the local streets to Kailua Beach, where we got them in the water and began the 45 minute trek to Nā Mokulua, also known at "The Mokes" or "The Twin Islands".

Nā Mokulua as seen from the Lanikai Pill Boxes

These two islets are located about 3/4 mile off the windward coast of Lanikai,O'ahu, and have long been visible to me from my favorite spot on Kailua Beach. Only one of the islands is actually available to land on, Moku Nui. The other, Moku Iki, is off-limits to visitors as the entire island is a State Seabird Sanctuary. Locals surf and spear fish on either side of the islands and rumor has it that at least one tiger shark lives between them.

The ride out, while not especially strenuous, was long. Instead of opting to put our kayaks in the water directly across from the islands, we put them in the water about a mile further down the beach, where we were able to find parking for our cars, meaning that we had to approach the islands at a diagonal. This was made more complicated by the fact that the shortest distance to the island from this angle, a straight line, was littered with high reefs that we needed to navigate around.In most places the water was so clear that we could see to the ocean floor. There were many calls of "watch out!", "Don't come over here!" and "Iceberg, straight ahead!" as we picked our way through and around the reef.

As we approached the islands the waves took on a life of their own, coming in at all directions and occasionally ricocheting off of the islands and meeting in the middle, then rushing out in opposite directions to chase our boats away from the shore. With help from each other and a few friendly strangers who had already made it out to the island, we beached our vehicles, reapplied sunscreen, and took off to explore.

View of beached kayaks, looking back toward the shore

 In our excitement and haste to get in the water, we had made one crucial error when we pushed off from the shore - we assumed we wouldn't need shoes. This is normally a resonable assumption, given that the majority of places you can walk on the island are covered in sand or dirt, but what we did not know was that Moku Nui, largely untouched by humans, was covered in jagged volcanic rocks.

As none of us were wearing shoes, this made for slow, sometimes painful climbing as we picked our way around the perimeter of the island. Only the twins emerged completely unharmed - clambering over a rock Justin cut his foot, climbing up a ridge Jesse cut his arm, easing down a ledge, I scraped my hip. Alicia would later suffer a loss of another kind to the island but it would not involve blood.

J9 snaps a pic of me from a high ledge

Determined to find the hidden tide pools, we clambered on determinedly. Along the way we saw crabs, sea urchins, and birds. Of course, the agile Janine found it first, just as I was longingly thinking of fluffly slippers and the healing pedicures we had received just the day before. As is the case with most things on this island, the outcome was worth the discomfort (and shredded feet).

Nestled between two crops of rock was a tide pool with a perfect view of the ocean. We scoped it out for a few minutes, noticing spiky sea urchins in some spots, chunks of algae in others, and two large (and friendly) fish lazily drifting about 5 feet down. The pool was at least 15 feet deep, some 10 feet wide, and at least 15 feet long. We did not try to touch the bottom, not knowing what was down there.

Carefully maneuvering around the sea urchins, we took turns gracefully plopping into the icy water. It was at this time that Jesse unknowingly sacrificed Alicia's iPhone to the tide pool. In response to a casual question about the location of Alicia's phone, Jesse hastily removed a ziplock bag from the back pocket of his bathing suit, containing one iPhone floating in a pool of salt water.

Treading water in one of the tide pools we found. The ocean is behind us.

Around this time the coast guard flew by at an unusually low altitude, which Janine said was a warning to us to move away from that section of the island. Gingerly we picked our way back among the sharp rocks and began the process of timing our push off with the crazily unpredictable waves. We watched a boat in front of us try unsuccessfully to take off in a swell that drove him back toward shore, then out toward the rocks, and quickly pushed off after a set of four waves, booking it until we were a safe distance away from the islands.

(Left to right) Justin, Jesse, Alicia, and me on Moku Nui Island

After returning the kayaks we topped off the day with acai bowls and poke in Kailua, then enjoyed some quiet movie time together at home. Later that night Janine made dinner, we talked, and hung out with the puppies. As I had on my first full day, The Hardenburgs struggled to stay awake until the end of the day.