Punahou Reunion Finale

We rose very early to catch the fish auction breakfast and tour on Pier 38.  We toured the fish auction first.  One of the classmates owns 3 state of the art fishing boats and the Diamondhead Ice plant.

As you might guess, the fishing industry in Hawaii is huge and Hawaiians eat 3 times the national average of fish (42 lbs.).  Fishermen fish within 50 nautical miles of Hawaii and boats come in to unload their catch which has been iced, not frozen, about 1 AM six days a week.  Each fish is weighed, tagged with the vessel name, displayed on pallets, and kept clean and cold.  Before offered for sale, each fish is inspected to insure quality.  Buyers arrive before the start of the auction to inspect the day’s landings and at 5:30 AM a brass bell is rung to start the auction and bidding begins.  Fish are sold individually, buyers are invoiced and fishermen are paid that day for their fish.  Some of the fish are packed immediately and shipped to distant markets. 

A small portion of the fish is cut to show the color and quality of the fish. 

There are many rules and practices that govern the fishing in Hawaii to insure a high quality and sustainable industry.  I was impressed.  One thing of note was that many of the fishermen are foreigners and are not allowed off the boat when it comes in to port.

Later that morning we drove back to the hotel to freshen up and then walked outside to watch the 95^th annual King Kamehameha Floral parade. 

That afternoon, the class attended the Punahou president’s reception and after cocktails and pupu, the class matched down to the grand luau preceded by the Oahu College Band leading the way to seat the class of 1961.



Thus came to an end of the class of 1961’s 50^th high school reunion for us.  We passed on the family picnic the next day, being guilty of reunion burn out and spent some time around the hotel pool with occasional Mai-Tais protected from occasional light sprinkles under our umbrella. The next day we returned the rental car after some confusion on where to go and flew home.  This was some adventure.