Waikiki Aquarium - 12 pics

[Minh Nguyen]

Ninong,
Great pictures. I will see the Waikiki Aquarium in the future. Hopefully soon.
Barry and Scott,
Thanks.
Minh

[fragomatic]

very impressive...

[Barry N.]

Welcome to Reef Land Fragomatic.

[Renae]

WOw those are great shots. Thanks fro posting them I was there as a kid but would love to get back there again. Our gigas is groing like a weed as well. they are really a very cool animal.
Renae

[Barry N.]

Renae Welcome to Reef land.

How big is your gigas?

[Renae]

Barry...Big Hugs haven't talked to you in a while! Had a hell of a summer...LOL thats another story... I think she weighs about 25lbs (I call her she cuz its so perty...) Here is a better pic.
Renae

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally posted by Renae
Barry...Big Hugs haven't talked to you in a while! Had a hell of a summer...LOL thats another story... I think she weighs about 25lbs (I call her she cuz its so perty...) Here is a better pic.
Renae

Renae,
What is the shell lenght of your Gigas? How long have you had him? and where did you get him?
Sorry for the number of questions I asked
Minh

[dattack]

Thanks for the picture of the Waikiki aquarium. That surge looks awesome.

[Renae]

Minh,
I am sorry that should have read 15lbs I am typing on this little tiny lap top key board. It is about 15 inches long and about 5years old. We own a LFS and one of our friends traded him for a small maxi he just didn't fit in his tank anymore. We love him I figure if he grows out of this tank (300gallon) it gives us an excuse for a bigger tank...hehe
Renae

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally posted by dattack
Thanks for the picture of the Waikiki aquarium. That surge looks awesome.

I got a 450 g tank. I will need to rearange it soon so that my Gigas can have the whole area from front to back (32 inches). He is 18 inches now and does not fit into the area I have for him any more
Minh

[scubadude]

Man I love those scenery pics too....Hope you had as much fun as the pics portray

[Papa Doug]

Very nice pics Ninong. I could never get enough of the place. I think out of the 15 days we were there, I went 13.

[Ninong]

Rocky,

Yes, I had a very good time but it was exhausting. We tried to squeeze too much into one week. This was one of those package tour things and we signed up for just about everything they pitched at their Monday morning salespitch breakfast. We even signed up for a one day trip to the Big Island for Thursday. They neglected to mention to us that the bus would pick us up at 4:15 a.m. for the 7:00 a.m. flight. They just said "you leave in the morning and return late that same evening after a lovely tour of the exotic tropical splendors of the fascinating island of Hawaii, such as coffee plantations, orchid farms, pineapple fields, and an active volcano where you can take in the lovely aroma of sulphur dioxide."

Sometime late Tuesday afternoon we realized that we had bitten off more than we could chew, so I called the tour company and cancelled the Big Island trip in time to get a full refund. The very first full day (Monday) we were there, we left by bus at 10 a.m. (following the free breakfast sales pitch) for the Polynesian Cultural Center. We didn't get back to the hotel until 11:20 p.m. that night. Then, the following morning at 7:05 a.m. the bus picked us up for the Arizona Memorial visit and the City Tour. Then we took in a show, Magic of Polynesia, that evening--the kids absolutely loved that one--highly recommended. Of course, we were getting up at 5:30 a.m. so that we could take advantage of the hotel's free buffet breakfast (which was fantastic) before leaving on the day's excursions.

The submarine ride thing was a big bust. Not much to see where they took us. One interesting thing about that trip was watching my sister's red and white top turn to black and white as we descended from the surface. Cool! None of the pictures I took through the sub's 3" thick acrylic windows came out worth a damn.

The kids loved the snorkeling trip with Capt. Bob. And they loved swimming at Waikiki Beach. In fact, they loved it a little too much for my taste. It had been a very long time since I was in anything other than the backyard swimming pool.

Next time, if there is a next time, we will know better. I would love to visit Maui and the Big Island some day.

Doug,

I managed to squeeze in two visits to the aquarium while we were there. Most of the pictures were taken on the second visit Saturday morning, the day before we left. The first visit was later in the morning earlier in the week and it was impossible to get a clear shot of either the 5500-gal reeftank or the shark tank with the crowds of people standing in the way. You have to be there when they open if you want to avoid crowds. Also, on that visit we took a cab to get there from the hotel--I had my two godsons, ages 6 & 10, with me. The first time I went alone and actually walked there from the hotel. It took me about an hour because I had to stop and rest along the way. The guy at the hotel told me it was "about half a mile" from the hotel. It seemed like it was at least 3/4 mile. At least!

Anyway, the kids loved the aquarium and they loved the Honolulu Zoo, which is about 1/4 mile from the aquarium. It's a rather small aquarium but it is very well set up with lots of interactive computer displays and audio tour handheld thingys. There are a couple of dozen smaller marine tanks besides the large reeftank and two or three freshwater tanks. There were a few different tanks with really huge carpet anemones and clownfish. I saw a S. mertensii that was a minimum of 30" across. My photos of those other tanks did not turn out too good but I'll try to post a few here, even though they aren't that great.

Here is that really huge S. mertensii:

[Ninong]

Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) tank.

[Ninong]

Coris gaimard

[Ninong]

Another close-up of outdoor reeftank.

[Ninong]

Dendrobium orchids are everywhere.

[Ninong]

Buddhist temple.

[Biomanjcs72]

Ninong, looks like you had a blast. Glad you're doing well enough to travel. I haven't been down there since 1992, and we drove by the aquarium, but it was closed that day (either maintenance, or we got there too late, can't remember)

[Ninong]

Close-up of Buddhist temple.