My Perfect Day

Today is the one-year anniversary of my perfect day - 25th November 2010. The kind of day where you expect it to be good but are astounded at how amazing it turns out to be. We don't get a lot of these and I wanted to put it down in writing so that I can remind myself of it every now and then.

This time last year I was on my Honeymoon in Maui with my new Husband Phil (I might have mentioned him before). We got married in Leek in Staffordshire on 20th November and had a fantastic day with only a couple of hitches that got sorted out relatively painlessly. We had two wedding songs - These Foolish Things by Frank Sinatra and Somewhere Over The Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. The second is played at the very end of my favourite film 50 First Dates and I fell in love with it the moment I heard it.

For our Honeymoon we were going to Maui for one week and then Hawaii The Big Island for the second week. We'd made our mission to see a turtle whilst we were there and we had even agreed that get turtle tattoos if we saw one. On this particular day we woke up in our gorgeous private villa and after breakfast, we packed our things into our red convertible Mustang and headed out. I'd read about a small cove at the top of the island that sounded amazing so we gave it a go. We swam quite far out - Phil in particular - and found some amazing fish. There was lots of frantic pointing and OK signs to each other when we saw a new and vibrant species. After we had spent some time there we went back to the villa and packed our things for the beach. We were staying at a place called Kaplua Golf Resort and there was a beach within the resort called Kapalua Bay Beach.

It was idyllic - gorgeous white sand, fairly quiet and the sea was calm. We sat in one corner of the beach but then moved to the other end to get more of the late afternoon sun. We went into the sea to do some more snorkelling (Phil is a bit of an addict) and were amazed at the how clear the sea was. We'd thought that the water at the Cove was great earlier that day but we were in for a huge treat with what awaited us at the Bay. You could see individual grains of sand, every arm of the amazing coral and an abundance of colourful fish. We saw many of Hawaii's national species - the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

We really wanted to take some pictures so Phil went to ask if he could rent an underwater camera from the hut at the end of the beach as unfortunately, his waterproof camera had proved itself to be a not-so-waterproof camera. He was unable to rent one as it was too late in the day but he asked the man if he knew where we could find a turtle. He came back and told me that there was a turtle really close to the beach so I let him go and investigate. The wild hand-waving about 5 minutes later told me that he'd found it so I headed in.

When you are snorkelling you can only really hear your own breathing and the echos of other sounds. It's quite relaxing and a little bit eerie. I was swimming to where Phil was snorkelling hoping that I'd get to see the turtle before it was too late. It was only when I was about 6 feet from it that I saw it. I'd been expecting a little turtle nibbling away at the coral but this one was about 5 feet long and I was instantly frozen to the spot. We couldn't take our eyes off it - it looked so sleepy eyed and just mesmerising. It would go to the bottom to nibble at the coral with it's bum in the air, come to the surface to breathe and then bob along to another bit to eat some more. At one point I drifted into it's path and we nearly touched. I panicked, stuck my head out of the water and decided that if I couldn't see it it wasn't there. We'd wanted to see a turtle but we had no idea that it would be that impressive.

I have to point out that this is not the turtle that we saw - as I mentioned earlier, Phil's camera had been put out of action at the Cove.

After watching him for about 20 minutes we decided to give him some space so went back on the beach to dry out and talk about what we'd just experienced. Once on the beach we saw a collection of people in the corner where we were originally sitting. A Groom was awaiting his bride and within a few minutes she walked down to meet him. The Hawaiian Ceremonial Pu Horn sounded and we watched them get married. If this had happened a week earlier it wouldn't have affected me but since we had just got married I knew exactly how they must have been feeling and it is the best feeling in the world.

Not long after, a man settled his chair about 20 feet from us, set his music out and started playing the Ukulele. He played a few chords and I instantly knew that it was Somewhere Over the Rainbow. He played and sang the song and we listened. He wasn't busking and he wasn't putting on a show - he was a guy that had come to the beach to practice playing. Phil and I were sitting next to each other holding hands just listening and it was at that moment that I cried. It felt like everything was just right - we were right where we were supposed to be doing exactly what we were supposed to be doing. I hope that everybody gets to experience that feeling because you will never forget it. It is nothing that I can describe and I would be doing it an injustice to try. As we left I went up to him to tell him that he had played our wedding song and to thank him for playing so beautifully. He told me that he was still learning and that he wasn't very good but I insisted that we'd really enjoyed it.

After our memorable day we went back to our villa and opened the bottle of champagne that we'd bought and watched the sun behind the sea. When we had finished the champagne we got ourselves ready to go out for dinner. It was Thanksgiving so most of the restaurants were full but we were able to get a table in a place in walking distance from the villa. I had a pasta that had more garlic in it than anything I had ever tasted. I LOVE garlic. I think I spent the whole meal dancing, which I do when I am enjoying food. We ate our food, had a couple of drinks and then left to walk back to the villa, both of us glowing - a little from the day in the sun and a lot from our perfect day.

So did we get the turtle tattoos? Well, that would be telling...