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Today we’re in Kona. We were here last week too, but I had to stay onboard, so today was my only chance to explore this side of the Big Island. I scuba dive and I also love snorkeling, so of course exploring the underwater world of Hawaii was on my list of things to do while I’m here. When taking budgeting into consideration, I decided to go snorkeling twice rather than diving once. I organized a tour for a group of friends and myself to go on in the afternoon. So this morning I was free to explore around the port.
I got off the ship with Emina and we spent some time just wandering around near the port. It’s a pretty town with a nice waterfront. I did some more gift shopping while we wandered. Then we met up with our other friends and took a trolley out of town to the dock where we met our snorkel guide.
It turned out that they only take small groups out - so it was only the five of us! A private tour felt so special!
We boarded a zodiac and headed out onto the water. I’d overheard in
one of the shops earlier that there had been an earthquake somewhere in Asia the day before; the result was that the water around Hawaii was extremely choppy. It made for an extra adventurous boat ride! We all had handles or ropes to grip onto as we bounced along the waves. The coastline was beautiful, but it was impossible to take good photos between our speed and the bouncing in the water.
Our snorkel destination was Kealakekua Bay, known for a memorial to Captain Cook at the base of the cliff, right by the water. When we reached the bay, our guide stopped the boat to tell us the story of Captain Cook as we looked at his memorial.
Then it was time to get in the water! It was cold because it was overcast and the water was so mixed up. But it was beautiful to see! There were so many fish, lots that I’d never seen before in my other snorkel/dive locations. There were lots of interesting coral and rock formations. Our guide could hear dolphins in the other side of the bay, but unfortunately they didn’t make their way over to us.
After about
an hour in the water, we got back on the boat for some snacks. Then we sped our way back up along the coast. This time, we made different stops along the way. We tore through a rocky area when the waves came in making it just deep enough for us to go through. It felt very 007. We watched a huge blowhole shoot sea water way up in the air. And we were shown all sorts of interesting rock and land formations - lava tubes, caves, places where the land had broken off and slid out to sea. It was fascinating. You learn in school about how the earth was formed; here, we could actually see it. Going along the coast, you could see layer upon layer upon layer of rock and earth formed over thousands of years and hundreds of lava flows. Our guide had so many interesting stories - of him cliff diving and scuba diving along the coast, of different disasters changing the coastline, of local legends and gossip - like where Oprah supposedly has a Hawaii home.
One of the coolest rock formations we saw was the War God - a spot in the
cliff where it looks like a face screaming a war cry with flames behind it. It was awesome. And I’m proud to say that I spotted it before the guide pointed it out!
But probably our best claim of the day came from one of the caves we went up to explore. It was an area where a huge piece of the land broke away and landed a couple miles out at sea. After it broke away, it left a cave-like opening. Our guide was able to navigate our zodiac so that we were sitting under the edge of the earth. We can now claim to have gone under the Big Island!
Back at the dock, our guide gave me a little fish made out of a piece of palm leaf. An extra little souvenir for me to take back from today. We then had to rush into the awaiting taxi to get back to the pier to tender back to the ship and get to work. I’ve done a lot of diving and snorkeling in some pretty great locations - today was definitely in my top 3. My top 3 are so different, it’s difficult to compare.
But today was certainly awesome. All of us agreed it was an incredible afternoon.
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