Coming from the airport we pick up Julia and drive to the only WalMart on Kau'ai, we need some camping utensils. Beach mats, a cooler, mosquito repellent, beer and juices, snacks etc. I buy a telephone sim card and activate it only 3 days later (All posts starting from Raja Ampat part 2 on we uploaded through that sim card...).
Drive to a shore and have a beer, then back to the airport where we pick up Dan, another friend of Julia and Brad, he is going to dive with us tomorrow. Later we drive to the Dive shop for check-in and payment, where we meet Jeff, a friend of the three, he invites us for dinner, because it's his birthday.
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| at the dive shop |
We find a quiet place to park the U-Haul, on top of a cliff, and go to sleep.
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| Dan, Brad and Julia |
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| You don't need much... |
Dan sleeps in the driver compartment, the three of us use the beach mats as matrasses in the back of the truck.
Don't sleep too well, 44 hours of traveling from Indonesia to here still in my bones, get up at 5am, we're supposed to be at the dive shop at 6.
We load our gear into the vans, drive down to the pier, and start the two-hours cruise to Ni'ihau.
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| Brad escaping a kick by Julia, Jeff and Dan in the background |
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| Diveboats on the pier |
We will do three dives, I don't take the camera for the first one at the site "Vertical Awareness"(respect for new dive site and conditions), which I regret immediately after descending, diving into seals and sharks, over a perfectly horizontal ledge at 25 meters depth. The water is colder than in Asia, 26 dgrees Celsius, what a difference 4 degrees can make.
Brad borrows me a Neopren vest for the second dive at "Arches", I take the camera and plunge into a fantastic rock landscape. Rectangular structures, perfect 90 degree angles, looks almost artificial or manmade, nothing I have ever seen before when diving. Lots of swimthrus and a wide cave by the end of the dive.
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| Brad |
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| Explorers at work |
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| Cowry |
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| Clear as air |
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| No post without a Nudi... |
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| Dan in the cave |
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| Clear as air |
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| Lobster anyone? |
Surfave intervall
The third dive is at "Pyramid Point", with seals and sharks again, one of the seals seems to be posing for the photographers, not shy at all. The landscape is strange as on the second dive, vertical walls disappearing into the deep, an eagle ray crosses our path like some 20 meters below us. Visibility is so awesome it's getting hard to tell distances.
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| Julia and Brad |
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| Julia relaxing underwater |
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| Eagle Ray way down below |
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| Posing |
Two hours cruise back to Kau'ai, in not the best of weather,
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| Brad, Julia and me after the 3-tank-trip to Ni'ihau |
and back to the dive shop. We have a couple of beers with the two guides at the back of the shop, later the boat captain joins as well.
We stow away our gear bags in the back of the U-Haul parked in front of the dive shop and go for dinner, meeting the boat crew again.
For the second night of Camping we go to the same spot as the night before, I sleep better this time after three dives on air and some beers...
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| Good Morning Kau'ai |
On the third day we cruise around the island, taking pictures of the famous valley on Kau'ai,
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| The Valley |
stopping at The Hawaiian Tradepost, I buy a Hawaiian shirt and some Souvenirs, we take photos of each other on a surfboard installed in front of the Tradingpost.
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| Surf Lesson? |
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| Restroom at the "Hawaiian Tradepost" |
After lunch in picturesque little village we dry our equipment on a parking lot in Port Allen, until a guy pulls up in a car telling us to rather find a better place for that...
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| When your parking lot looks like this, you know you are on a dive trip and will travel soon... |
At the U-Haul station there is nobody, we visit Fred, a freelance sulptor and artist on the opposite side of the street. He makes weird things, being really into replicas of historic blades and daggers made of Basalt, combined with skulls and hands made of wood.
Have some shaved ice close to Fred's place, Dan shows off his new shirt from the Tradingpost ;-)
Julia and me take care of the bags at the airport, while Brad and Dan return the U-Haul. We all fly back to Oahu, drop off Dan at his place and drop me at my Hotel, the Marina Tower Waikiki. After finding the night reception, I go up to 11th floor, drop my bag, and take down to the street for a beer. I find a Sportsbar where you can smoke and have a beer at the same time (!). On my way back I enter the ABC Store on the corner, but I am 5 minutes late, no beer after midnight, I buy coffee, fruit and cookies for breakfast and sink into my bed in a spacious apartment.
What an epic trip...
See you under water
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