A Cruise to Hawaii

By Joan Kritzberg

My daughter Betzy and I spent Christmas and New Year's on a cruise to Hawaii. Our ship was Holland America's 1,400-passenger Zaandam, and we started and ended in San Diego, about two hours from home. It takes four and a half days to get to Hawaii. Some of the passengers, who should have known enough to fly to the islands, complained about heavy seas the first day or two, but after that it was smooth sailing. Except for a few flying fish, we were alone on the ocean. Betzy and I lay on deck chairs and watched the swaying horizon, sometimes through closed eyelids. There was, of course, a full schedule of activities designed to make the passengers forget they were at sea. Betzy and I dragged ourselves inside for lectures on Hawaiian geology, history, and culture, and daily team trivia. I participated in on-board art classes. Don't ask. And, of course, every few hours, they made us eat again. Somehow, Betzy managed to lose 11 pounds during the cruise, and, in accordance with the Law of Universal Mass, I gained most of them.

When we woke up on day 5, our ship was passing between Maui and the Big Island. We arrived at Lahaina a little before noon, and were met by my friend Lloyd who gave us a wonderful, personalized tour of his home island, including a walk to the Iao Needle and lunch at a shore-side golf course.

The next day, we were at Kauai, my favorite of the Hawaiian islands. We signed up for a bus tour to Waimea Canyon, Hawaii's Grand Canyon, more than 3,500 feet deep. We were close to one of the wettest spots on earth, so we were lucky to have a sunny day.

On the way back to the ship, Spouting Horn performed for us.

As we left the harbor, the clouds rolled in, creating a farewell photo opportunity.

The next morning we were in Honolulu, where we took a short circle tour on the eastern side of the island of Oahu. I had never been inside the crater at Diamond Head, which is a big grassy meadow surrounded by steep volcanic cliffs. We stopped at several viewpoints. The vog (volcanic smog) shortened our views...

..but the steep volcanic cliffs were impressive.

After three days on Hawaiian islands, we still hadn't been on a beach. Our fourth stop was Kona, on the Big Island, where Betzy finally got to wade for a few minutes at a short, crowded beach near the dock from which our whale-watching tour departed. We had been told that the morning whale watchers hadn't seen any whales, so we had low expectations for our afternoon trip. We intended to enjoy a boat ride, anyway. Within minutes after we left the dock, three young humpbacks appeared, who were as interested in us as we were in them. Every time our captain moved the required 100 yards away, the whales closed in again as soon as the tour boat stopped. They cavorted near us, breaching and diving, in view of our ship in the harbor and condos on shore, for our entire three hour tour. I was never quick enough to photograph more than big splashes when they breached, and I don't have a polarizing filter, so I got only glare when they skimmed under our boat. National Geographic probably isn't interested, but I like these pictures.

That night, we cruised slowly around the southern end of the Big Island, past the erupting Kilauea volcano. During the day, all you can see is the billowing steam where the lava reaches the sea, because the molten lava flows beneath a black crust . At night, you can see glowing red spots on the mountainside and in several places along the shore. The red-hot lava brightens and dims, and is sometimes reflected on steam clouds hundreds of feet high. Distance and darkness make this picture blurry, but you get the idea. Awesome!

On our last day in Hawaii we took yet another tour, this time from Hilo to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. There, we saw the source of the vog that reached the other islands. A huge toxic cloud of sulfur dioxide and other gases billowed out of the main Kilauea crater, closing part of the road and many trails. We were told if the wind shifted to get inside a building or rush back to the bus. Hawaiian volcanoes don't usually erupt explosively, like Mt. St. Helens, so we didn't have to worry much about hot ash or lava bombs.

We left Hawaii on New Year's Eve, and still had five days of our cruise to go before we reached Ensenada, Mexico.

We spent the time enjoying the warm weather on deck, eating way too much, creating more waste paper in art class, and playing more trivia. Our trivia team (different people every day) won five times in a row. Our exciting prizes included luggage tags, playing cards, a mug, and a baseball cap. Of course, fortunately, winning is all that really matters.

We were in Ensenada for three hours, 8-11 PM. There was an optional folklorico show, but Betzy and I didn't leave the ship. The next morning, we docked in San Diego, hating the end of the cruise, but eager to get home to our cats.

Tax season has begun, and I'll be home until April.

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