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Flumin Da Ditch

By Kaitlyn Davis

"Ready to Flume the Ditch?" Our guide called out from the front of the small inflatable boat my family rested upon.

"Yes!" We yelled, and our boat shuttered into movement. The tropical forests of the "big island" surrounded me and I sat peacefully, looking at the plants that were completely foreign me. A life vest hugged my chest in a squeezing embrace, but I had no fear that I would need to use it.

Our guide was a young native Hawaiian, probably in his twenties, which seemed incalculably old to me at the time. He was telling us stories of surfing on the coast, snorkeling with friends, other trips he made down the ditch. He said that as children, before the ditch was turned into a tourist attraction, he and his friends would sneak on and float down the track. Even further back, when Hawaii was used for labor, the ditch served as a road of sorts, for irrigation and other things. Sugar cane would be put in the water and would float down the volcanic mountain to where it could be processed into real sugar.

I looked down at the dirty water below me and almost vowed to never eat sugar again, but my sweet tooth wouldn't allow such thoughts for long.

"Alright, we've reached the first cave, is everyone ready?"

Cave? I thought. I didn't remember anything about a cave, but I had only enough time to duck under a looming rock before everything was dark. The light receded from behind, and there was a small dot of white in the distance I could make out only if I squinted.

"Watch for some low rocks," our guide said, and flicked on his light so the interior was illuminated. I laid back, resting on my sisters legs, and my father leaned back towards me. He had an impressive height of 6'3", and I saw that his head was sometimes getting perilously close to the roof of the cave.

In a minute or so, we had reemerged into the light of the day and continued cruising down the ditch. Our guide reached into the water and pulled out a fruit that had been floating on the surface. He wiped off the surface and told us to each take a bite, it was some tropical food native to Hawaii. I was a little skeptical but as soon as I sunk my teeth into the leathery hide and a sweet juice came pouring into my mouth, my doubts fled.

"Like it?" he asked, and we all nodded. He reached in a few more times, and came out with one for each of us. We had lunch for the day, in an extremely hawaiian way!

"Watch your heads!"

We entered another cave, but this one was even gloomier than the previous one because we sat in complete darkness, except for the small artificial glow of our guide's flashlight. I looked ahead but couldn't see any speck of the outside world to comfort me. I had begun to think that I spent far too much time reading scary books and watching scary movies when suddenly the boat turned around a small bend. Instantly, a gaping hole of sunlight appeared, and we were done with the cave.

I laughed when I realized my over active imagination had gotten the best of me. We continued to cruise, passing old hawaiian buildings, rivers and trees. Waterfalls crashed around us, and below us, and my New York home seemed very far off.

"Alright, picture time!" Our guide yelled out, and my mom gave him our water camera. We smiled, surrounded by the lush hawaiian forest, and he snapped our picture. Soon after, our boat rounded a bend and the dock appeared.

"I hope you all had an awesome time, and will come Flume Da Ditch with me again!" We all thanked him as he helped us off the boat, and walked over to our cars, ready to go back to the hotel.

If you're ever in Hawaii, make sure to Flume Da Ditch, because the sights are absolutely beautiful and you will get a whole new appreciation for Hawaii and its culture!