Turtle Tales: Day 25 - True Turtle Tales and Pipe Dreams!

Well, persistence does pay off! (Those of you that know me well, know that when I want something bad enough, I will do whatever it takes to get it - within reason and the law of course!) This morning we rose early and our tour guide (Jeremy) drove us back to Turtle Beach, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a turtle had just made its' way out of the water and unto the beach! He was your typical green sea turtle, but he was AWESOME! They are BIG and it amazes me that they can haul all that weight around so gracefully! There were several other turtles playing and bouncing around in the surf, but they never did made it all the way up on the beach! This turtle, once he made his way to where he wanted to sun-bathe, looked very much like just another rock on the beach! We stayed there for about 20-30 minutes waiting to see if any of the others would come to shore, but they did not, so we left. Later when we drove back by Turtle Beach, there were a couple of tour buses and many people at the same site we had been earlier. I'm glad we got to see them when we did, when it was quiet and we could simply observe the turtles in their element. There is a turtle protection group that comes daily to mark off the area to assure the turtles are not disturbed or harmed. It is sad that it has come to that, but it is also true that humans are one of the biggest threat to these magnificent creatures! It has been said the reason that the turtles come to this particular beach is that people are feeding them. And of course, they are feeding them things they should not be eating.........thus the necessary precautionary measures to protect them. I am so excited to have finally seen these magnificent animals in their natural habitat and not in an aquarium! Last year when we came to Hawaii with our grandchildren Jacob and Candace (Jeremy's children), they went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and got to swim with the turtles and meet them up close and personal! They couldn't stop talking aboout their turtle encounter, so I was determined to see them myself this trip! Mission accomplished!

From Turtle Beach we drove to Ehuaki Beach Park, to check out the surfers on the Pipeline. Again, we were not disappointed! It is so hard to discribe the waves and the adrenalin rush one receives just watching these expereinced surfers ride the wave! I can't begin to imagine how the surfers feel! There were several professional photographers there taking pictures with their huge, very expensive cameras ! I didn't ask, but I assume they were with various surfing publications. I could have stayed and watched the waves and the surfers all day, but we had other plans, plus my fair skin would have not liked that either! I did hear two young surfers talking about when they will be "seasoned" enough to take on the "Line". It appears you must have a lot of expereince surfing and a lot of respect for the water before one can simply ride the waves on the Pipeline. Today was not a high surf day, but the waves were still a good 15-20 feet high! I took a lot of pictures, but it is hard to do with my little instamatic camera, and fast moving water!

So in a period of less than an hour, we were able to accomplish all that we had set out to accomplish yesterday and couldn't because of the parking and the crowds! Just need to remember to get up early beat the crowd!

We then drove out to Kaena Point in hopes of doing some snorkeling, but the water was way too rough and the waves were breaking close to shore which made it difficult to stand in one spot safely. We did spend some time in the rocks looking for sea glass and found a few nice pieces. However, when we least expected it, a wave got both Jim and I and that was the end of that! We will try snorkeling another day!

Jeremy is back on Post - he has a busy week of training and studying for boards, so we probably won't see him again until next weekend. We did enjoy our time with him.........

Tomorrow is a new day, and a work day, so travel around the island should not be too difficult. Not sure what we have planned for tomorrow. We'll wait and see what the new day brings us and go from there!

Aloha!

Do you see the sea turtle?