Hawaii: Sharks Cove and LOST beach (Day 3)

One of the things I was looking forward to the most in Hawaii was snorkeling. I like the variety and resiliency that God created in animals, and with snorkeling you get to see them up-close and in their natural habitat (not an aquarium). I have never swum with fish before (aside from them being below my feet in a murky lake) so it was going to be a new experience. On our third day in Hawaii we had our first snorkeling experience.

We wanted to take videos of the snorkeling, so we looked up a waterproof housing for Alisha's work camera. To our shock, a full waterproof plastic housing was $1,500! We bought a GoPro camera instead for $200 because it comes with a waterproof housing. We originally intended to re-sell the GoPro after our trip, but now we may keep it for future adventures.

The first place we snorkeled on Oahu was called Shark's Cove. We rented our gear in the morning, drove up early enough to get a parking spot, and immediately started seeing fish. Here is a little bit of what we saw. We didn't upload many videos, since we had better success on the Big Island. Lots of the videos from this first day were shaky because we were getting used to using the camera.

Then I basically did the snorkeling version of a "pocket dial" (where you dial someone on your phone accidentally with the phone in your pocket). I turned ON the camera when I thought I was turning it off, then swam in toward shore where Alisha was. At the end I realized it was on and turned it off. Rookie.

Alisha and I were also fans of the show "LOST" (we watched through it on netflix after it originally aired). Alisha found a few filming locations from the show which were along the north shore, so we visited those after snorkeling. Here is the beach where much of the first season was filmed, where the passengers set up camp. We sat under a tree where Sawyer's tent was built. A few yards away, there was an old airplane seat covered with burlap. There was also a large bush that characters on the show would come running around when they came into camp.

Staged plane crash site

Location of Sawyer's tent (under the tree on the right)

Old airplane seat covered with burlap

Here are some still shots from the LOST show, showing the same locations:

We also saw this fake burial site (with the hole still dug)

A little further down the road, we drove past a YMCA camp with distinctive yellow-orange buildings. These buildings were used in Lost filming of the camp where "the others" lived. We took this picture from the road.

Here's a still shot from the show:

Nearby, we spotted 4-5 sea turtles in the water, so I put on my snorkel gear and went in after them. It was a little creepy because the water was so choppy and murky. When I finally stumbled upon a turtle, it scared me a little. It was the largest turtle I saw anywhere on the islands (about 3ft long):

It is illegal to touch a sea turtle, but the turtles are very friendly and curious. The waves kept pushing me towards him, but I had to keep backing away, while still staying close enough to see where he was. When I got out and stood on a rock ledge in the water, the turtle came up to investigate my blue flippers, almost like a dog sniffing your shoes (but I backed away before he touched me).

That night we went back to our last night in the condo and got pizza that was cooked in a wood-fired oven a few blocks from where we stayed. It was neat to watch the one guy (Agostino) roll out each circle of dough, cover it with toppings, and slide it into the oven. He only had a cashier to help him. We talked about how fun it is to see someone whose expertise is so specific, because they do the same thing repeatedly for years, so they become a master at their craft. His craft tasted good.