Big Island Part 2

The 2nd half of the trip was equally memorable.

We rented a kayak early in the morning and drove to the dock at Kealakekua Bay. It was so early that the local boys were not there to help us so we had to load the kayak ourselves but it turned out to be pretty easy. Half way down the Bay, we saw a crowd of kayaks, then splashes, then some fish like creatures jump in and out of the water. As we expected, they were Spinner dolphins showing off in front of a crowd of kayakers. After observing them for 15 minutes, I decided that it was way too hot to sit in the kayak and jumped into the water. At times, I was seeing the dolphins swimming beneath me about 25 feet below. It was pretty exhilarating. Liam joined me shortly after. It was a pretty cool experience for him as well. Around 10am, the dolphins went out to the ocean to feed and we went back to the kayak and headed toward Captain Cook Monument.

The snorkeling at the monument was absolutely the best we have had on the island. The water was clear, corals were colorful, and the fish was plentiful. We often ran into big groups of brightly yellow tangs and other tropical fishes.

After we returned to the dock at the Kealakekua Bay, we drove down to the Place of Refuge to do more snorkeling. We didn't see as many fish there but got to swim with a big turtle so that was fun.

On Saturday we went whale watching with Captain Dan McSweeney. We saw quite a few Humpback whales and got pretty close to a few of them. It was a good trip but I got a bit seasick.

We spent the rest of the day snorkeling in Waikoloa. The fish wasn't as plentiful but we again swam with a big green turtle. That was always a treat. They are such beautiful creatures.

On Sunday before our flight back to SF, we spent the day hanging out at the Waikoloa Hilton. It's a theme park with boat, train, a dophin pool, etc. It's not all that interesting because everything was man-made but it's pretty impressive to see what they built.

All good things must come to an end. We took a red eye flight back to San Francisco and back to rainy Northern California.

More photos here.

Big Island

This is around the half way point in our vacation. So far, it has been fun and relaxing.

The Volcano National Park delivered what it promised, a great view of the flowing lava into the ocean. The lava was very active the time we went, it was spectular. It probably would've been better if we hiked all the way to the end. We were about 20 min from it but it was still great. We could even see the lava flowing down the volcano. If you go, you should definitley go at dusk, the lava was much more visible (red against the black) and the stars were amazing.

We did a lot of hiking the 1st 2 days. The rain forest was very pretty and the air was sweet. We particularly enjoyed our hike through the Lava Tunnel in the park. At one point, we turned off our flashlights and experienced complete darkness. I couldn't even see my hand when I placed it an inch from my face. It was neat. Some say complete darkness is going away with all the lights around us. I guess you can still find it.

We're now in the beach side of town. We had a great day of snorkeling and swimming yesterday. We were swimming with a big school of tangs (dark body with blue stripes) and saw a big sea turtle having lunch chomping at the moss. We also saw pufferfish, butterfly fish and other colorful tangs.

We're likely to spend the next 4 days snorkeling and roaming up and down the west coast. Tomorrow we're planning to go kayaking at the Place of Refuge, then Whale Watching the day after.

More to come.

Cynthia