Its Christmas in Kailua, With All of the Fish At Home

   Christmas Eve came to Kailua this year as gentle as a lamb.  The weather was not too hot or humid and,

Can the Green Flash Be Far Away?

 although many of our friends and family are scattered around the lower 48, we still had a very special evening of companionship.

     Sandra and I met our friends Ross and Donna down at Alii Villas. We participated in the nightly Alii  Villas sunset ceremony.   There were no whales this evening, but I was lucky to catch a sailboat as it cruised beneath the setting sun.  I was even luckier to catch two aspiring super-models in their Christmas finery.  To make the evening complete, we all were treated to a green flash.   Très Hawaiian!

    As the light crept from the Hawaiian sky we made our way back up past the condos, many of the balconies were decorated for the season.  Our friend Sandy came out

Super Models: Donna and Sandra on Christmas Eve 2015

and danced on her lanai with here life size singing Santa,  It made for quite a show, but heaven only knows where Saint Nick is going to live the remainder of the year in a tiny condo.   Perhaps she will perch him in the corner and give him a Mai Tai. 

    Soon we left our friends behind for the lights of village and the Christmas eve service at the church.  We arrived in Kailua about half an hour early for service, so Sandra and I wandered around taking pictures of the lights. The village is beautiful every night of the year, a few Christmas touches make it even more so.

   Last Christmas Eve, while we were waiting in line to get into the church, I had serendipitously discovered that one need not belong to the Moku'aikua church (the oldest church in Hawaii) to sing in their caroling  choir.  The choir congregates

Christmas Eve in Kailua  2015

on the lawn outside the church and sings our favorite carols as the parishioners enter for the service.  The previous year I had sort of walked around the front wall, through the parking area and edged my way in, joining a dozen of what I assumed were the regulation church choir.  This year, as the choir started to sing, many more people joined in.  Soon we were two dozen willing voices greeting the faithful and the birth of our lord.  O Come All Ye Faithful, indeed.

    If anything, this year the singing was even better.  The highlight came when we sang Silent Night.  A gentleman songster behind me suggested that we sing the well known verse in German, enough of us agreed and it was included as the last stanza to

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!  Alles Schläft; Einsam Wacht.

this Weihnachtszeit classic.  The first verse was sung in Hawaiian...even knowing the melody did not permit me to fit all the written syllables into the song.  The German verse was not so disadvantaged, as it was not in the song book.  We all sang our hearts out and it was ausgezeichnet, if I do say so myself.

   About 4 AM, while visions of sugarplums danced in the head of my slumbering sweetie, it started to rain.  In fact, it rained pretty hard for about three hours.  This was unexpected, as it had not rained for about two weeks.  And it put a new twist in our Christmas tradition, the hunt for the Christmas wrasse.

    In general, we don't swim the day after a first rain, as it seems a bit unsanitary.  Not only that, rain water percolates through the lava and makes the bay cold.  With all this in mind, Sandra was given permission to opt out of the search for the Christmas wrasse on Christmas Day.  To

The Christmas Wrasse by the Rescue Kiosk  Kahalu'u, December 25, 2015

combat the cold, I cut up one of her old wet suits and made myself a bit of a snorkeling vest.  In deference to your sensibilities, I am not including a picture of myself in this erzatz vest, which I wore beneath my swim shirt. I would like to note at this juncture that all the pictures included in this blog, with the exception of my classic and enhanced picture of the palace with the church behind, were taken on this very day.  No file pictures, or (shudder) pirated pictures, in the Christmas Eve blog.

     Down at Kahalu'u a group of locals were setting up for a Christmas morning party.  While this was no surprise, we were relegated to a rain spattered outer table under a cloudy sky to don our gay, er, snorkeling, apparel.  Soon your faithful Tyro was afloat, his new vest buoying him up.  Flouting my usual strategy (to head out towards the Menehune Breakwater), I swam to the right, over by the rescue

Male Pearl Wrasse by the Rescue Kiosk 2015

kiosk.  While the water there is always less clear there, experience suggested that this area would provide the best chance for a Christmas wrasse.

    As the sun broke free above Hualalai, the Gods of Old Hawaii smiled upon us.  Over a lava outcrop, in about a foot of water, was a young Christmas wrasse.  He was small, but already bore the adult markings.  Driven along by a helpful eddy, I chased him over the reef taking a score of pictures.  Frequently I was in water less than a foot deep, but riding the current, I was able to stay flat and enjoy the chase.  Mostly I got pictures of the wrasse swimming away, but luckily he turned a couple times, looking back as if to say, "Oh.  Are you still there?"  Which I was, until he dodged around the reef, never to be seen again.

     So how lucky was this?  We had found our Christmas wrasse not fifteen minutes into the swim.  It seemed wrong to abort the swim so early and the water really wasn't all that cold.  With that in mind, I pushed on.  Immediately I saw a Star (of  Bethlehem) eyed

Juvenile Surge Wrasse near the exit, K Bay Christmas 2015

 Parrotfish.  Like the Christmas Star for which he may or may not be named, this old brute guided me, in very short order, over field and fountain, moor and mountain to a male Pearl Wrasse.  (I suppose if you read a Christmas Blog, you have to expect some schmaltzy Yuletide lyrics.)  In any event, the Pearl Wrasse was in a patch of clearer water and we nabbed the picture you see here. 

    I proceeded counter clockwise out to Surfer's Rock and then turned for home.  I saw nothing of much interest until I made it almost all the way in.  There, I saw a very young Surge Wrasse.  First cousin to the Christmas wrasse, we see the juvenile surge less commonly and the adult surge wrasse only rarely.  These are fast moving fish, always a challenge to photograph.  I took lots of pictures, but still felt lucky to get one usable photo. While I watched, this dark young trout captured a small urchin. He proceeded to bash the urchin against a rock and then chomped him down.  Do you ever wonder how the wrasses digest those spines?  I guess the urchin was a bit like the crunchy almond roca you might hope to find in your Christmas stocking. What a great foil to the Christmas wrasse, not to mention a fine conclusion to our Christmas snorkel.

    As I conclude this Christmas blog, I'm going to leave you with lyrics to my own version of Little Town of Bethlehem, which I confess to singing soto voce along with the Moku'aikua choir.

O little town Kailuaville, how still we see thee rise,

Upon thy deep and dreamless reef, the silent fish swim by.

How Brave On Christmas Day!

Yet in the dark depths shineth, the phosphorescent light.

The sharks and rays who sleep by day, will swim with us tonight.

The Keiki dream of sugar cane, while Maui seeks the sun.

Please save the fish and grant this wish:

God bless us everyone.

O little town Kailuaville, how brave on Christmas Day.

While pilgrims pray and palm trees sway, the dolphins swim the bay.

Yet ‘neath your shining waters, the Christmas wrasse doth dwell.

His brilliant colors herald in Our Lord, Emmanuel.

May the Christmas Season find you happy and safe with good friends and family,

jeff