Capturing the Moment

  A school of goatfish glide next to the sunken hull of the shipwreck off the coast of Lana'i. Today was a blustery day in the Hawaiian Islands. All of the snorkel and whale watching boats canceled for the day, but not us. We are an expedition ship, so we can operate in conditions that others deem undoable. We spent the morning cruising under 3,000ft sea cliffs on the North side of Molokai. These cliffs are some of the tallest in the world, and there are numerous waterfalls tumbling off of them into the ocean. Snorkeling at a shipwreck off the coast of Lana'i. This is a rare adventure, as this coastline is usually pounded by surf and high winds. The wildlife was out in abundance. It is the time of year when humpback whales migrate here, so we had plenty of encounters throughout the day. We had several brown footed boobies flying by, as well as a mom and baby bottlenose dolphin swim over for a visit. But the big adventure of the day, was snorkeling at a huge shipwreck off the No...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI0QXtm22DQ Today I explored a new part of the island of Lana'i. While there are two fancy resorts on the island, there are very few people that ever travel here. There is a small town of about 3000 people, who live near the top of the island in Lana'i City. It has a plantation ghost town feel mixed with a burgeoning artisan community. The island itself used to be the world's largest pineapple plantation under Dole, but now is mostly empty fields and untouched adventures. I've explored some of these hard to reach places by mountain e-bikes, but today it was time for a hike. We drove from Manele small boat harbor, up through town, to the Lana'i Adventure Center. It is nestled under the high forest, just past the fancy health retreat called Sensei Lanai. Here we met our hiking guides for the day, Jerryan and KC. We loaded up into some cool all terrain vehicles, which reminded me of Jurassic Park. Then we blasted up the ridge to the star...

  Kayaking with the erosional sea stacks behind and beautiful colors of the sunrise off the coast of Lana'i Island.     When I'm working as an expedition leader onboard expedition cruises,  I try to take our intrepid guests to places they wouldn't normally be able to go, or even know about. Our ship, the Safari Explorer, is made for this kind of travel and exploration. We carry sea kayaks, stand up paddle boards, snorkel gear, and small boats, which we use to immerse ourselves in beautiful, but off-the-beaten-path places, in incredible destinations. During the winter we run trips among the Hawaiian Islands. And I like to think that we provide a very unique experience, that no one else really knows about. Check out these photos from our day, and see if you agree.     We spent the day exploring the rugged West coast of the little visited island of Lana'i. The west side of the island has steep lava rock cliffs that plunge down into the water below. There is on...