Day #8 - Friday - Ko Olina Catamaran - My Favorite Day Yet

Today was absolutely incredible! We began the day packing and checking out of our condo. It was a bit sad to leave, but exciting at the same time because we will get to spend a bit more time with Adam and Jenni by staying with them in their apartment and being on the north side of the island where they are. Ko Olina has a wonderful thing called "linger longer". We have to check out at 10:00 a.m. but many people don't catch their flight until late in the evening and so they give you a new key for the day and we were able to use the pools, showers, and anything else on the facilities that we wanted. So we played in the pool until lunch, ate a wonderful lunch around the pool and then headed to the marina. We had tickets for a 1:00 catamaran ride.
This is the cat that we rode. It was amazing! Things got a little tricky right off because they didn't tell us to be there at 12:30. So we almost missed the boat. Because we were trying to run to the boat, I forgot the camera. But luckily for us, we boarded at the very last minute - they actually held it for us while the condo took us there in a golf cart!
They also didn't tell us that it was a 3-4 hour trip and that we were going out into the ocean to SNORKEL! Due to the strength of the ocean currents, I had NO intentions of snorkeling in the ocean - and no way was I going to snorkel OUT in the ocean (as opposed to along the shore!) however, there were 14 of us on this trip with 3 divers. They gave us "state of the art" equiptment that fit perfectly. They got in the water with us with life rings and they took us to the PREMIER spot to snorkel on the whole island. We were in the area where they film commercials and film etc because there is so much wild life to see.
So seriously at $120 each, the best spot, and wonderful guides how could we resist. However, the other problem was that the lady who signed us up for this trip didn't tell us that we were getting IN the water and that we should wear our suits. . . we thought we were going to WATCH! So, after a bit of debate about garments and the ocean. . . we decided that this was a once in a life time opportunity and we should just GO FOR IT! In we jumped - ocean here I come!!

This is a moorish idol. We saw lots of these. It is a type of angel fish.
This was bright purple and green fish called a parrot fish. These were really large and beautiful.

This long skinny fish is called a trumpet fish. There is also a smaller one called a cornet fish. We saw several of both kinds. This photo from the innernet doesn't do this fish justice. They are long and beautiful. The ones I saw and swam with were about 2 feet. This black, white, and yellow stripped fish is called a convict tang. We saw hundreds of these and I fed one of them a tiny bread crumb from my hand. They swam around us, over us, under us in huge schools of fish.

The photos of us and the boat above were taken AFTER we returned and docked and I went to the car to get my camera and then went back to the boat. We did get two photos on the boat - we traded our drink (alchohol) tickets to a guy who agreed to take our picture and e-mail them to us in a week or two. We'll see if he really does it. Any way. . . we saw hundreds of fish! These photos were taken off the internet but they were even more beautiful in person. We saw many more kinds but I can't list them all there. They were bright, beautiful colors and amazing shapes. They were all around us close enough to touch. We saw puffer fish, trumpet fish, yellow tangs, several kinds of coral, moorish idol, etc. It was breathtaking and once again caused tears of joy. I can't even begin to tell you. . . how amazing it was. We were in the ocean for an HOUR and then we boarded the cat again and they had a beautiful dinner for us. We continued to sail about another hour and then returned to dock. I am SO GLAD that I took this opportunity and didn't chicken out. It was the most amazing experience of my life to swim with the wild, beautiful fish.