Sea Turtles and Manta Rays

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There are a number of beaches within a 20-30 minute drive from our Kona resort. Our waitress at breakfast yesterday recommended Hapuna Beach (a white sand swimming beach). We were going to head there, but one of our priorities was seeing sea life. So, we decided to check out 'Alula Beach. From what I read, it's a good area for novice swimmers and also has sea turtles. Well, the second part was certainly true!

When we arrived, we were greeted by a rooster. I've heard people say that there are a lot of chickens that wander free throughout the islands of Hawaii, but this was the first one we saw. We've seen goats and cats wandering the big island, but not chickens (until now). We set down our beach gear. The sand wasn't very fine. In fact, it was rough and full of small lava rock and sea shells. We noticed a sign that said we had to stay 25 feet from sea turtles, but there were no sea turtles to be seen. We started into the water. We were in the water for about 3 minutes when we realized some of the large rock-like formations in the water were sea turtles! At first, my kids tried to bolt away from the turtles. Turtles would start to swim past them, and the kids would swim/run away as fast as they could. We told them we don't want to disturb the turtles, to stay away from them, but if a turtle swam past them, their job was to move slowly away.

The turtles were mostly near the shore. Andrew and the kids would navigate through them like land mines, keeping 25 feet away from the ones we spotted, and they made their way away from shore to an area with rough rocks that hurt their feet. The depth of the water stayed under 2 feet for about 30 yards, so swimming was not really happening at this beach. They came back for sandals and snorkel gear and ventured back out. Their second time out, using the snorkel gear, they noticed sea urchins between the rocks. Beyond that, they found tropical fish! We thought maybe the fish they spotted were angel fish, but a friend told us they are probably Moorish idol.

We spent about two hours at 'Alula Beach and loved our time there, but the kids felt like they didn't get to swim like they wanted to. So, we headed back to the resort for more swim time. Actually, we picked up coffee from Kona Mountain Coffee first, and then we headed back to the resort for more swim time!

We did lunch and naps at the resort after swimming. We needed to stay up late for a manta ray snorkel tour we scheduled through Sea Paradise. I kept oscillating on the manta ray snorkel. I really wanted to see manta rays, but we've had a really bad experience on a boat in the past (see our Monterey whale watching tour for reference). Two things finally pushed me to book. One, their 8:30 tour is only an hour and a half. I figured we weren't likely to get sick in such a short time, especially with part of the trip spent in the water. Two, Sea Paradise has restrooms available on their boats, something that made me feel less anxious about having the kids on a boat for 1.5 hours. So, we booked the 8:30pm tour. Of course, that's 12:30am Central time. Hence, we were preparing for the tour with rest and naps!

The Sea Paradise tour met at the docks by our resort. It was about a one block walk for us. First, we were fitted with a wet suit. Then, we took off our sandals and tossed them in a bin. Finally, we boarded the boat. The boat ride to the viewing spot was only a few minutes long. I breathed a small sigh of relief, relieved we wouldn't have to deal with sea sickness. Andrew decided to use his smart phone in the waterproof bag for photos, and I took the waterproof GoPro. The crew helped us get life vests for our kids, and then we got our snorkel masks on, grabbed a pool noodle, and headed out into the ocean. Each person jumped off the boat, one at a time, and held on to the poodle noodle as they paddled to the float attached to the boat by a cord. Once we were at the float, we held onto it, and one of the crew members move the poodle noodle to our ankles. This way, we stayed floating flat on the surface of the ocean. Then, using our snorkel gear, we could stay face down to look at all the manta rays below.

It was like another world down there! Our float had blue lights that shined down into the water, allowing us to see. Manta rays swam below us. Many came from deep below and swam upward directly at us. Some swam so close, they hit us! I started one video, and literally half a second later, a manta ray swam into me. I ended up with a half second video of a manta ray belly up close. After a few minutes, Joanna started freaking out that she had water in her mask. I misunderstood and thought it was water in her tube. I tried to talk her through it and told her to breathe out firmly to shoot the water out. She did it a few times but started panicking. Eventually, she insisted she had to go back to the boat. A crew member helped her. I was going to go back next, but there was a teen boy who started to panic. Before leaving the boat, I heard him share that he's afraid of fish. I decided to let him go first, but I expected to go next to be able to help Jo. The crew member must have forgotten about me, and she was helping a number of other people get back to the boat. Each time she took someone else, I took a moment to put my face back in the water to see the ocean world below. It was thrilling, crazy, and a little scary! I loved it, but I understood the people who felt afraid by it. When the crew member helped a third person before helping me, I finally gave up waiting on her and swam back to the boat myself. I'm glad I did, because Joanna was in tears.

On the calm of the boat, I finally understood that Joanna had water in her snorkel face mask. It had been in her eyes and nose, not in her breathing tube. I calmed her. We had about half an hour left in the tour. We got our wet suits off and dried off. I let her up to the boat rails to look out to avoid getting sea sick. She insisted she wanted to go back to the interior of the boat, but it wasn't long before she felt sick to her stomach. I felt so bad for her, and it was a long 20-30 minutes of her feeling sea sick before we were back on our way to shore. The crew members on the boat were great and brought her water. After ten minutes or so, Andrew and Oliver returned to the boat, and Andrew took over helping Jo. Oliver and I stood at the rail to get fresh air and watch the horizon. Neither of us (nor Andrew) ever felt sick. A few other people did... mostly people who were on the boat the longest.

Oliver kept talking about the experience. He loved snorkeling, and he loved seeing the manta rays. He said he couldn't wait to tell his classmates about it! I'm glad he had such a positive experience. It made it seem worth it. Andrew and I also enjoyed seeing the manta rays, although our experience was dampened by Joanna's feeling so miserable. Thankfully, Joanna felt better quickly after we returned to shore.

Andrew told me that his phone didn't work in the waterproof case. I checked the GoPro and found that I'd taken