Hawaii Day 5: Kayaking to the Mokes

Our neighbor in Korea came from Hawaii, and she highly recommended renting some kayaks, and kayaking to the Mokes. The Mokes are the Na Mokulua Islets off Lanikai Beach.  We packed our bag full of water and our lunches, and went off to find a kayaking rental company.  The company is a few hundred yards from the ocean, so they give you the kayaks on these little trailers and you pull the kayaks over to the ocean.  Kevin did the honors of tugging the kayak, we opts to do a double kayak, just to make it easier to stay together.

Once we got to the ocean, we had to figure out how to get the kayak into the ocean between the waves.  We have gone kayaking many times before.  We actually owned kayaks while living in Texas, so we considered ourselves pretty experiences kayakers, however the waves coming straight at use while trying to get out into the ocean, definitely humbled us.  It only took us a few tries, but we got out without flipping the kayak or getting too wet.

The kayak rental company said it would take more then an hour and half to get to the Mokes, but we made it in about an hour.  There were full waves, currents and rocks on our little adventure.  At one point you are directly above some monstrous coral reefs, and I felt we would smash into them at any second.  The ocean was crystal clear and absolutely mysteriously beautiful!

We made it to the Mokes and docked our kayak on the first try.  There isn't much that you can see on the Isle, because it is a bird sanctuary, the island is fenced off except for a little beach area.  We took about a 45 min rest as we ate lunch, relaxed and enjoyed the sun, waves, and each other.

As we were getting ready to launch back into the ocean, a seal came up on the the island to sunbathe! We were able to enjoy the seal from afar for a few minutes until we went back into the ocean.  The tide was in our favor, so the trip back we made extremely good time!  Directly in front of our docking beach was a second island, called the flat island.  We had plenty of time, so we made a second stop at the flat island.  This island is exactly as named, it is just a long flat strip of land in the middle of the ocean.  This island is also a bird sanctuary, was was fenced off except for the perimeter of the island.  We didn't see any birds, go figure.

We got back in our kayak, now feeling like professionals at launching in and out of the ocean!  We made it back to the beach in less than 15 minutes because Kevin and I would time our rowing just right so we would ride the waves.  It only took about three waves to make it back.  It was a thrill to paddle as fast as we could to keep up with the waves, then paddle as we kept at the very top of the wave, feeling our speed increase and the kayak rocking on top of the waves!

This was another great day in Hawaii!  We are both very much outdoor enthusiast, so we loved our day in the ocean and on the different islands!

Since our arms were pretty shot from kayaking all afternoon, we decided to relax next to the beach the rest of the evening.

We both enjoyed resting and reading next to the ocean until the sun went down.  It was a pretty good sunset to an amazing day!