Day 18 Friday 14 November

Submarine day. An 8am start with a walk down to the Hilton Hotel beachside to book our tickets for the 11am adventure underwater on the Atlantis submarine. Atlantis operates two submarines out of Waikiki, an older 65 feet 48 passenger & a newer 100 feet 64 passenger submarine. We chose the newer larger submarine as it had larger viewing ports. After we booked we wandered back through the grounds & shops of the Hilton Beachside complex, they have done a great job with the landscaping, with ponds & waterfalls & tropical plants with pathways meandering amongst them all. After breakfast at Snapper’s again, it was another leisurely stroll through the Hilton gardens, out onto the Hilton wharf & await the transport boat out to the submarine, a vessel called, naturally enough “Atlantis”. Mostly Japanese passengers disembarked from the ferry boat Atlantis & most of them looked decidedly seedy, as though they had a touch of seasickness, there was hardly a smiling face amongst them. When it was our turn to board the crew told all on the speaker system that the water was a bit rough & they recommended people come onboard & buy some Dramamine, a motion sickness tablet. We were the first two on board as I thought it better to buy insurance than suffer.

The ocean was a bit choppy & once the boat stopped & waited for the submarine to surface it got decidedly rocky. The submarine looked spectacular as it surfaced, seeming to leap out of the water. Boarding was a straightforward matter, a near vertical ladder fore & aft & seating inside looking out either side through large portholes. The submarine was a lot more stable than the ferry boat on the surface & once we submerged all sense of motion disappeared, apart from the tilting down as the submarine dived to the ocean floor. As we descended a few large trevally (fish) came into view, investigating us. We followed a path on the ocean floor at about 80 feet past a collection of artificial reefs that had been built & deployed by the University of Hawaii as fish holding structure. They certainly had a collection of fish around each of them, with some large moray eels poking out of holes around the base of the structures. Next we passed the ends of some old lava flows that had some coral growth on the upper parts, with subsequent fish holding around the coral. We then passed the wreckage of an old aeroplane, then the wreckage of two ships that the Atlantis company had purchased & sunk on location to provide some interest & structure for fish to hold to. The aeroplane had some very large trevally holding under both the wings & both the ships had masses of a huge variety of fish all throughout the structures, there were some really big moray eels visible. A special treat was seeing two huge green sea turtles on the rear deck of the large sunken fishing boat. We touched the bottom a couple of times at 110 feet underwater. Amazing to see so clearly that far down, however, some of the colours were washed out because of the depth & the filtration of the different wavelengths of light. All too soon (aprox. 45 minutes) it was back to the surface with a rush of bubbles & back onto the ferry boat. We stopped & watched the smaller submarine surface & did the passenger swap over before heading back to shore, accompanied by the big Hilton sailing catamaran. It was still fairly choppy & a lot of people were violently seasick, I am glad we took the Dramamine.

We wandered back through the grounds & gardens of the Hilton complex & came across a collection of South American Macaw parrots, large & very colourful birds, sitting on perches next to the pathways. It was great to see them so close & get a real appreciation for the beauty of them. We browsed through a few of the Hilton attached shops before stopping for an outdoor lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the Hilton grounds. Back to our apartment & the drowsiness from the Dramamine overtook us (my excuse) & we had a siesta.

At 7.30pm we joined the large crowd that had gathered at the Hilton lagoon to watch the firework display (this was the second time for us). Again it started & ended with a thunderous bang, only setting off one car alarm this time. The firework display was fabulous & over all too soon & we joined the throng trudging back home. Walking past the Red Lobster Restaurant there were lots of people lined up outside waiting to get in, it must be really good but we have given up on it as it is always so busy.

Our excitement for the night didn’t end there, on our walk back to the apartment a fire truck went past heading to where we had just come from with sirens blaring, I thought it had something to do with the fireworks. Back on the 36^th floor of our apartment we could see a helicopter over the sea with a searchlight on. A sailing boat had run aground on the reef not far from where we were sitting & there were a couple of other boats nearby. I can only assume they rescued the people on the sailing boat as the helicopter & boats left after a while. The surfers in the morning are going to be upset with a sailing boat on its side in the middle of their favourite surfing spot, on a Saturday morning at that when it is extra busy with surfers.