One of the most anticipated activity I had planned for my Hawaii trip would be the submarine tour.
Yes, you heard right!
SUBMARINE…

Water related activities take prominence in Hawaii. And with their waters being so pristine, it is also a paradise for marine animals.

Shore of Wakiki

So one of the days, I decided I was going for this submarine thing.

Dubbed by the company as ‘Eco-tourism’, what they did was to buy interesting objects and structures and submerge them into the ocean to rebuild coral reef.

They have a trolley service that picks you up from the hotels on their route, so mine stop was a hotel just 2 streets away.  Once all stops were completed, they brought us to a dock near Hilton hotel at the gorgeous Wakiki beach!

Wakiki beach with the Hilton Port (at the left)

After a programme briefing and safety briefing at the dock, we were off towards the great blue!

I must say, besides Bahamas, Wakiki really has the most beautiful beaches around.
The colours of nature just gives your retinas a good dose of “vitamins and minerals”.

Upon boarding the ferry, we were given a boarding pass — to be handed over to the guide at the point when you board the submarine. Red is for the smaller sub and yellow is for the bigger sub. (Oh yeah!)

I also took advantage of a coupon in the local travel guide and to get a free gift from Atlantis Submarines!

Save money! Ka-Ching!
I always have a habit to buy a small memorabilia when I go to a place, so for Atlantis, I saved some money thanks to a free coupon!!

I will touch on coupons later in another post. Just remember that USA is big on using coupons. So knowing where to get them and how to use them to your advantage does save you some money on your holidays~

The submarine ticket also includes a Dive Log that describes the submarine fleet, the dive site of the submarine and a list of the different types of fishes (with pictures of course) you can be expected to see so you can check them off one by one as you see them during the dive.

The surface teams were the first things I see upon reaching the dive site. Besides acting as ushers for passengers to embark and disembark the boat, they are also first response team for the submarines in case of emergencies.

Here it comes!

Here comes the submarine! Whoosh! and it comes to the surface. Pretty surreal, really.

How do you board the submarine?? You maybe wondering~
Well, vertically of course!

The submarines have two “doors” on each end of the sub; each has a vertical ladder, sort of like those emergency ladders that firemen uses, literally, vertically..

SUBMARINE!

You can see that circular upright disc, that’s the door opening for passengers to get on. There’s another one at the other end.

Inside the Submarine

The guide (whom I had forgot his name) is AWESOME. I’m like, downright serious. He is fantastic!!
Why? well…. He welcomes you with lame jokes —

“Which side of the submarine is the best side??”
Someone will shout — “The Inside!”
That’s true, considering it’s safe inside.

“Which side of the submarine is the best side??” He asked again.
Ermm.. I thought hard.
He replied, “The other side. The turtle, is on the other side.”  (-.-|||)

When we are all locked in, watertight, he would play the star wars (I think) main theme as the submarine submerge down into the deep blue ocean… making all very interesting for me; and for those annoyed, he would say, “switch to channel 2.”

Artificial coral reef for the fishies

Can you recognize some of the fishes in this picture above?
Trust me, I didn’t. I was all “wah~ and woah~” that I didn’t even look at my dive log while I was inside  — “the best side of the submarine”.

Ok, now off-hand, I can see the following fishes (by referring to the dive log):
Pennantfish (the black and white stripes)
Milletseed Butterflyfish (the bright yellow ones)
Bullethead Parrotfish

It’s pretty hard to see the colours of some, as the UV lights just changes their colours to the human eye.

Green Sea Turtle

Can you spot the Green Sea Turtle?
He’s there, I’m sure!!

2 eagle rays

We also spotted Eagle Rays, which according to the dive log, is a non-reef resident.

Our captain managed to take us below 100 feet, with a record of 109 feet! (which is about 33 metres deep) and while we were there diving deep, he called out to the couples to give their wife/girlfriend/spouse a smooch.
and added,

“Ladies, that’s the deepest kiss your man will ever give you.”

OMG! Hilarious! but… lol~
Our guide kept us entertained throughout the entire submarine adventure that I didn’t even realised that the one and half hour dive was up!
That’s was fast!

A very nice photo taken by the ferry crew

Soon we were out of the submarine and onto the ferry again headed back to shore.

It was one of the best mornings I ever had; and one of the deepest venues I ever went!
Too bad there’s no reception under the sea for me to check-in to my social media! (lol~)
Nevertheless, it was a great experience.

Back to shore

Keychain
= Free! (Made use of coupon!)

A picture with Diamond Head Crater (extinct volcano)

I had booked my tickets from the Hawaiian local tour group:
http://www.affordabletours.net/

You can find more information about the Atlantis Submarines here:
http://www.atlantissubmarines.com/

More stories soon!