Farewell to Paradise

Saturday morning was a sad day.  It was our final day in Hawaii, and Jason and Michelle had an early flight and needed to leave about 9:00.   Taryn and I bid our new friends farewell and Ryan and Amy bid their old friends farewell.

We had to check out of our beautiful house by 11:00.  We all packed up our suitcases, and did what we could to clean up the house a bit.  All this was finished by 10:00.  At that point, we all sat at the kitchen table, stretching out the time as long as we could.  None of us wanted to leave.  I pulled out the guest book and jotted down a note to the owners of the Falls at Reeds Island.  At about 10 minutes to 11:00 the owners showed up to begin cleaning the house for the next renters, and we decided it was best for us to leave.

Our flights were at 4:00pm.   Ryan and Amy went to the airport and decided to wait there until the flight.  Taryn and I decided to take advantage of a few hours, and decided to go to a vegan Indian restaurant down the street that we’d both been wanting to try.  We headed over to it at 11:30, to find that it was closed until 2:30.  Bummer.  Instead we went to a Thai restaurant right around the corner, called Chang Mai  Oddly we both were intrigued by the same dish, entitled “The Evil Dish.”   I ordered it with chicken, and of course Taryn ordered it with Tofu. 

After lunch, Taryn and I went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens.  This garden was nestled into a valley, and did not disappoint with its lush array of tropical plants.  It also had an aviary with several parrots in it.  We sat on a bench in front of it for a few minutes watching the birds and were pleasantly amused, when one of the parrots said very clearly, “Aloha.”  He seemed to like our reaction, so he repeatedly said it over and over again to maintain our attention, occasionally throwing in a “Hello” or a “pretty bird”.  Finally he said “Goodbye,” and we got up and continued walking through the gardens. 

After finishing our walk through the gardens, we headed over to the Hilo airport, checked our bags, and went through security.  This is a tiny airport, and there were more employees than passengers around it seemed.   We met up with Ryan and Amy, and did a little bit of souvenir shopping.  Finally it was time to board our flight to Honolulu.  We were spread throughout the plane on this flight, but it was only 45 minutes or so, so no one really cared. 

Upon landing in Honolulu,  we had another 4 hours to wait before our flight to Los Angeles.  Taryn and I had planned on heading  over to Pearl Harbor, while Ryan and Amy again planned to relax in the airport.  We exited and found a cab, however when we asked to go to the Pearl Harbor Memorial, he informed us that it was too late in the day, and it was closed.  I asked what other stops would be worthwhile for our 4 our layover, and he suggested dinner and drinks in Waikiki.  This sounded good to us, so we took the 20 minute drive, and found a bar/restaurant with live music, and a balcony over looking Waikiki beach, where we each enjoyed a MaiTai (and a few other drinks) as we took in the Hawaiian sunset for one  last time. 

Sunset over Waikiki Beach

After an hour and a half or so, it was time to head back to the airport.  We found a cab, and headed back.  The next 12 hours we knew would not be fun.  We had a 5 hour flight to LAX, landing at 5:00am Sunday morning.   Taryn and I had again gotten upgraded to first class.  Unfortunately, this plane did not have lie flat seats.  First class did of course come with free drinks so we had a few of those before pushing  the seats back and doing our best to sleep.  Ryan and Amy crammed themselves into coach, and also tried to get some rest.  When we landed in LA, I don’t think I ever quite woke up.  I stumbled off the plane, found a section of floor, and lay down and went back to sleep for a half an hour.  When it was time for the flight to DFW, I stumbled on the plane, and also got set to go to sleep. 

RJ came up to first class to give us crap for again flying with the first class snobs, but was quickly ushered away back to the little people by the flight attendant.  After this 3 hour flight, we landed in Dallas.  Taryn, RJ, and Amy were home.  I said goodbye to all of them, and went off to find my gate for the final flight to Nashville, noticing that the airport seemed exceptionally crowded today.   I pulled out my phone to check the American Airlines app to see what gate I was at, and was surprised to see the words: “Cancelled” after my flight.  Great.

I was exhausted and in no mood for this.  I looked for an American Airlines counter, and the first 3 I found each had a line of over 100 people.  Outside it was storming, and clearly many flights were being impacted.  I continued walking and finally found a desk at gate A29 with only a few people in line.  Meanwhile I let Taryn know that I was apparently stuck.  They were all still waiting for baggage, and offered to take me with them if I wanted, but I said I’d stick it out.  When I got to the front of the line, I gave the agent my ticket expecting the worst.  As he started typing on his computer, a surprised look crossed his face, and he said, “I can get you on a plane for Nashville….that is boarding now!  You will need to run like the wind.  It is at gate A8.”  People around me looked at me in shock and envy, and one actually said “Man are YOU lucky!!!”   I snatched the ticket, and took of running, screaming over my shoulder “You are my hero!!!”.

I ran top speed weaving through the sea of humanity in the airport with my 2 carry-on bags.  When I finally got to the gate sweaty, out of breath and exhausted, they had closed the door, and were in the process of removing people from the flight that hadn’t shown up, while  an eager line of stand-by’s hoped they’d get a seat.  They let me on, and I settled into my seat. 

An hour and a half later I landed in Nashville and headed to baggage claim.  I knew my bags would not show up given the last minute change, and this was proven correct.  I headed home, figuring I didn’t need anything from my bag anyway.  (It ultimately got delivered to my house over 24 hours later.)  I ordered an UberX car and jumped in. 

The driver was very quiet, and I spent the 15 minute drive home reflecting on what was a phenomenal week, spent under the ocean, climbing mountains, and flying over volcanoes.  In addition to leaving with hundreds of photos of places we’ve been and awesome memories, we also left with deeper friendships---something which you cannot put a price on.

Over the Trees and Along the Coast

Friday morning we were finally able to sleep in a bit.  Taryn and I had our third attempt at a Volcano and Rivers helicopter ride scheduled for 9:30am.  We repeated our drill of driving to the airport, checking in at the desk, walking around for 15 minutes, and then heading to the briefing room.  This time, when they called our names, they told us that while they were running a few minutes late, everything was a “go”.

Taryn and I were paired with a newlywed couple from England that were touring various parts of the US for their honeymoon.  The small helicopter seated only 5 people:  3 in the front (including the pilot) and 2 in the back.  I personally have a fear of heights, and a bit of a fear of flying.  However, in planning the trip, Taryn was very excited to elect the “doors off” option for the trip, and I hesitantly agreed.   We climbed in equipped with headsets so that we could all talk to each other while in flight.  Once we were buckled in, the helicopter began to lift off.  I watched the ground quickly fall away, as my toes stuck out over the edge of the cabin.  I looked over at Taryn, who had the biggest grin of excitement on her face that I’ve ever seen. 

Immediately one of the things I noticed would be a bit of a detraction from the experience was that the continual whoomp-whoomp-whoomp of the helicopter blades came with pulses of air that seemed to shoot directly in my eyes, and felt like they were trying to tear off my contacts.  I tried to find a way to shield my eyes, but couldn’t find an effective place to put my hand that would truly help.  This annoyance was quickly forgotten though, as we flew into the sky, and were able to look almost straight down at the island below us.  Fortunately my acrophobia did not kick in too strongly, and I was able to enjoy the experience. 

Macadamia Nut Farms

We immediately flew to the southern end of the island and over an active lava flow.  Some large areas of lava rock had been deposited just over the last 2 weeks, according to our pilot.  At one point, the
lava rock opened up to a section of rainforest where smoke was billowing up from the ground as the trees and shrubs were burning from the heat of the lava slowly creeping in around them.  During our discussion with our Volcanoes National Park tour guide the day before, we learned that many of these lava flows progress at very slow rates.  Often when there is a flow such as this, it is known several weeks in advance when and where the flow will be headed.  So in this case we did not necessarily see red lava overtaking trees, we simply saw the trees smoldering and burning from the heat.  We flew over to the Pu’u O’o crater, and here we COULD see a little bit of bright red lava splashing around in the back of it.

We continued over the 45 square miles of land covered in lava rock, and our guide pointed out a few other sites.  At two separate areas, there were “islands” within the lava where the original landscape peaked out.  Each of these had a section of road visible.  It was surreal to see the post-apocalyptic looking section of land peeking out from under the lava.

Next we flew back a bit over the lava tube that was transporting the molten lava to the burning section of forest we had seen earlier.  Every now and then, you could see a hole in the ground, where bright orange lava was visibly glowing underneath the surface. 

After 30-40 minutes over the lava fields, we flew back towards Hilo, spending some time over the Wailuku River looking at the falls from above.  This was the same river on which our house was located.  This river has many breathtakingly beautiful parts of it, with many waterfalls along its length.  At the same time, this creates a treacherous river which is infamous for causing 25% of the river drowning deaths in the state.  The name Wailuku means River of Destruction.

After our one hour tour, we returned to Hilo airport, both of us pumped up on the adrenaline of the awesome ride we had just had.  It was definitely worth the wait and persistence with all the cancellations of the previous flights.  

From here, we jumped in the car and drove to South Point, which is the southernmost part of the entire United States (and was the same location that Jason and Michelle spent some time the day before.)  This required a long drive of almost 2 hours around to the southern end of the island.  We made a quick stop to snap a picture of the Monkey Pod Tree that Mark Twain planted in 1866.  

Mark Twain Monkey Pod Tree (Planted 1866)

As we continued towards south point, once we got off the main road, we drove down a single lane road for another 5 miles.  There were a few small orchards and other business close to the intersection of this road and the main highway, but the last half had nothing around it but open fields of green.  We finally got to South Point itself, parked the car, and walked to the edge of the cliffs.  The cliff dropped straight down to crystal clear water, probably about 40-50 feet.  As we stood there, someone came climbing up the ladder who had likely made the plunge down into the ocean below minutes earlier.  Though it was tempting, neither of us attempted the leap. 

Just to the northeast of South Point is the green sand beach.  This is a remote location however that is not accessible by regular car.  There is a parking lot 3 miles away, and you can either hike to the beach, or locals will drive off-road vehicles back and forth for $10/per person round trip.  Taryn and I hiked the distance in about 45 minutes.  As is the case everywhere in Hawaii the scenery throughout the hike was captivating.  We followed the coast with waves breaking lavarock to one side.  To the other side and in front of us, were lush green fields  with ruts carved in them from the constant back and forth traffic of the vehicles carrying people back and forth to the beach.  These ruts exposed the bright orange dirt of which this area was made.  When we finally approached the beach, it began to drizzle again.  The beach was a very interesting landscape.  It was at the back of a horseshoe shaped bay, and lay at the bottom of 75 foot cliffs around it.  To enter the beach, one had to snake down the natural shelves along this wall. 

Today there were constant large waves coming into the shore that dozens of people were enjoying.  The beach was fairly small though, and couldn’t really hold a lot of people.  We spent about 45 minutes here, and decided to hitch a ride back to the parking lot, as we were quickly running out of time to get back to our house for a preplanned “final” dinner.

On the way back, we texted the rest of our party, and fortunately found that they were running behind the planned meeting time of 4:00 by at least an hour.  That was good news as we also were about an hour behind.   We jumped in the car and started heading back, though we were distracted by a roadside macadamia nut and honey orchard where we stopped and did a little shopping, after which we jumped back on the road and finished the long ride home.  We ended up arriving at the same time as Ryan, Amy, Michelle, and Jason. 

Jason had been planning a dinner for all of us, and made a delicious marinated Ahi Poke which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, except for Taryn of course.  For her, he made a vegan alternative of veggies in the same marinade in which the Ahi was prepared.  After dinner, a birthday cake was brought out for RJ.  Since my birthday is also in a few days, the celebration was expanded to both us, and RJ and I were serenaded with “Happy Birthday, two Ryans.  Happy Birthday, two Ryans...”

The remainder of the evening was filled with some more Cards Against Humanity, a bit of drinking, conversation, and good company which finally petered out at about 3:00am Hawaii time, completing our final full day on the island. 

Volcanoes!

While we did not have any official appointments Thursday morning, we did have a packed scheduled for the day.  We checked out of the Royal Kona, and met in the driveway to head off to the Place of Refuge, or Pu’uhonua O Honaunau.  This area was originally built more than 500 years ago by the local Hawaiians, and was a place where anyone being pursued could find refuge.  Our immediate point of comparison for this was Lapakahi, the old fishing village that we visited a few days earlier.  We immediately decided that this beautiful oasis was a far more hospitable place to live, and must have had much more friendly residents than the desolate and barren wasteland of Lapakahi.

Place of Refuge

Taryn Tiki

As we walked back out of the village, I noticed a sign at the beginning of the trail warning against vandalization such as writing names in white rocks on the lava rocks, stating that this is inappropriate.  For some reason this struck me as ironic.  We walk around ancient villages like this, and are amazed at the buildings and writings of those 500 years before us.  Do you suppose those in charge at that time warned against making permanent drawings and carvings?   What if the ancient societies had heeded these warning?  Are we cheating future societies centuries from now by discouraging the people of today from leaving their mark? 

From the Place of Refuge, we proceeded south to the Black Sand beach.  The four of us were scheduled to meet up with Jason and Michelle at this location.  We split up for a bit and walked around individually for a bit.  Taryn walked directly over to the beach, while I walked over to the rocky coast, and began making my way towards the beach admiring the coast.  I’ve always found the crashing of waves on the coast almost hypnotic.  I could sit for hours and watch the waves crashing as they come in. 

I continued to slowly walk on the very edge of the rocks, watching the waves crash and foam up to the tips of my toes.  Mesmerized,   I continued slowly towards the beach.  I finally reached the sand, and continued watching the large waves come crashing in. As I continued slowly walking along the coast, I saw something out of the corner of my eye that I was about to trip over, and had to quickly stop, almost losing my balance.  A large rock was in front of me, and I quickly regained my balance. After I regained my balance, I realized, this was not a rock, it was a turtle.  A BIG freaking turtle!!! About 18 inches across.  My jaw dropped in shock.  I looked up and saw Taryn and Michelle in front of me.  They’re eyes met mine, and I looked at them and pointed excitedly at the ground, to point out the huge turtles…not one, but three of them, right in front of me!!!!  

To my surprise, they didn’t seem excited, instead, they looked at me in shock and disgust.  Taryn screamed, “Ryan, what the hell are you doing!!!! Get out of there!!!!”  I looked back in confusion, not understanding why they were not sharing in my excitement at this random wildlife find, that I literally almost tripped over.  Taryn followed up with “You are not supposed to be in there!!!!”  This confused me.  I looked around, and realized, I was standing in the center of a section of beach outlined by a perfectly square border of rocks ranging in 8 to 12 inches in diameter.   Suddenly I realized, this section of beach was cordoned off to protect the turtles at my feet.  To make things worse, there were about 10 people around the outside border watching the turtles, looking aghast at the moron that just walked into the middle of the sea turtle sanctuary.  I quickly exited in complete shame, worried that Greenpeace and wildlife protection agents would be tackling me to the ground at any point.

After learning of my ecological faux pax, I quickly fled to the other side of the beach, where I met up with Jason, and found a vendor of frozen dairy confections.  We each grabbed one (the confections, not the vendors).  About this point it was time to head out towards Volcano National Park to meet our guide for our 7 hour guided tour of the park.  Taryn and I headed over to Ryan and Amy who were on the other side of the park. Ryan was taking advantage of the solid coastal winds, and was flying a kite.

Ryan and his Kite

We jumped in the car and headed towards the park, but before we met our guide and entered, we had planned a detour to stop and see the 2400 Farenheit glass studio.  This ended up being a bit more difficult than we had anticipated.  Our GPS brought us to a grove of trees between a couple streets, that clearly did not have a glass blowing studio.  After wandering for 10 minutes or so, we finally gave up searching and decided to call the studio.  RJ, who we had now officially dubbed the group’s resident curmudgeon, pulled out his phone and called them up.  In his most matter of fact voice when the studio answered, Ryan skipped any obligatory greeting, and immediately said “ We want to come and see you guys, and would like to spend some money, but you are very hard to find.”  In response, they provided directions, and we were quickly able to find them. 

Most of the building was dedicated to the glasswork studio itself, and had only a small glassworks studio.  This studio had a small, yet amazing display of pieces for sale.  We spent a half hour here, and collectively spent about $1,000 on various pieces, completely clearing off one shelf of similar looking pieces.

After doing some shopping, we headed over to the Volcanoes National Park visitor center, and met up with our guide Hank. Hank was a tall, thin, soft spoken man in his mid 50s from the state of Montana,working for LavaLand tours.   We followed him into the park, and he provided us a tremendous history of the Kilauea volcano.  In 1959, this volcano began erupting creating the landscape that we were about to tour.  We started at one end of the rim of the long solidified lava lake, and snaked our way down into the Kilauea Iki, the pit crater where the eruption occurred.  On the way in, we found a section of scattered lava rocks, where RJ, Jason, and myself decided it was time to cross off one of our goals for our trip:  The three of us laid in the rock, and began making the obligatory lava angels. 

From here, we traveled into the crater area, and found the source of the eruption, and walked across the lava lake that had resulted from the eruption.  Hank took us to a couple places where we could actually feel steam being generated from the heat that STILL remains  from this eruption 55 years ago.  It was quite amazing to stick your hand near a hole in the rock, and feel the steam shooting out that was coming from the geothermal heat below.  Jason pointed out how amazing it was to look at this landscape, and hear the history of something that was truly recent history, as opposed to geologically recent history measured in thousands of years.

Making Lava Angels

The Whole Crew

After hiking for a few hours around the crater, we took a walk through a small lava tube.  Unfortunately, this brief trip was tainted by several loud, screaming, children.  We determined they must be feral, and we contemplated various ways of silencing them, most of which would be frowned upon by modern society, so we restrained ourselves and persevered on.  After the lava tube, we gathered for a quick lunch that Hank provided, and then took a few tours of lava flows, and steam vents. 

The steam vents were quite amazing.  Hank took us to a field that had a guard rail around a deep hole, which had a tremendous amount of steam coming out of it.  Apparently, the rain from the recent hurricanes was just now reaching the underground heat pockets from the eruptions decades ago, and was now reaching the surface.  Our guide offered to take anyone back to more natural looking chasm (without the guardrail)  with steam coming from it.  We took a quick 1/10^th mile hike into the field and found a hole that was about 10 feet across, and 3 feet wide that had a huge plume of steam coming out of it.  The air was in the low 60s, but when we walked down wind of the vent, the air was about 95 decrease, and was full of steam blowing in our faces.   We’d walk out and instantly be freezing due to the severe temperature change, and the moisture that had collected on us.

After this, our guide took us to the museum and giftshop.  It was getting dark now, and the gift shop overlooked the main crater.   At night, this crater glows a bright orange, as if it is a portal directly to hell. Though it was far in the distance, it was still an amazing sight to see. On our way back to the visitor center, we had all gotten a little silly, and began discussing all the various applications of Vegan Beef Jerky that we had determined existed throughout the week.  In our best Billy Mays interpretations, we all practiced hawking Vegan Beef Jerky’s healing powers, building applications, and all the other problems that we knew could be solved by vegan beef jerky.  After spending some time here, our guide thanked us for being one of the most entertaining groups he had ever led. 

Overlooking the crater, is the Volcano House restaurant.  We headed here for Ryan’s birthday dinner, and enjoyed the orange glow of the volcano through the restaurant while we dined.  

Mantas and Dolphins

Wednesday had an early morning start, after a fairly long, and a late day on Tuesday.  We had a few errands to run before hitting the long road to Kona.  Most importantly, we needed to return our 4 wheel drive rental car from the day before.  As is so often the case, when you are in a hurry, the world around you seems to begin moving at its own pace.  What should have been a 10 minute trip to drop of the car using the overnight drop off, and gassing up RJ’s Sentra, ended up taking around 45 minutes because the office was open and they required us to wait while they inspected the car.  Additionally the gas station was crowded and the credit card readers were not working.

Mauna Kea from Near our House while Running Errands

We finally got back to the house, and scrambled to get everything and everyone in the car and on the road.  I took my turn driving the car on the cross island drive along Saddle Road, between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, past the access road to Mauna Kea that we had climbed the day before.  This morning Mauna Kea was completely absent all the clouds and fog that we had to drive through the day before. 

Saddle Road: Crossing the Island

The final 30 miles of this ride provides some breathtaking views of the ocean, and miles and miles of coast, as one drives down from the higher elevations down to sea level.  Though we had now made the cross-island drive a few times, the view of the ocean was still a captivating sight for all of us.  Up until this point we had made good time crossing the island.  The last few miles,  however, met us with fairly heavy traffic that ended up taking back a lot of the time we saved.  We made a quick trip to the Big Island Divers SCUBA shop to fill out Ryan and Amy’s paper work, and then headed to the boat launch.   Though it seemed we had gotten to the rendezvous point at the time communicated to us, no one else was there.  Amy in particular was quite concerned that we had missed the boat (in a very literal sense).  However, after another 10 minutes or so, additional tourists and our tour guides arrived and we boarded the boat. 

As we left the dock, we all admired the rising mountains jutting out of the Pacific Ocean that make up the Big Island.  While we were all quietly looking at the landscape just past the water’s edge, Taryn made the observation:  “It’s funny, when you are on the land, all you want to do is look at the Ocean, and when you are in the Ocean, all you want to do is look at the coast.”  This comment struck me, as it seems to describe so much of human nature.  Aren’t we always looking around us, and desiring that which we don’t have?  As is commonly said, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”  We complain about our own job, and talk about the job we’d like to have.  We look at houses around us that are nicer than ours.  We dream about visiting exotic places far from where we live.  Within the last several years, and the viral expansion of social networking, this is even more apparent.  Isn’t the entire allure of Facebook, the voyeuristic desire to look at your hundreds of friends and see the activities they are doing which you are not, feeding the innate jealousy that we all have?

Perhaps this is not a bad thing.  This ambition is what pushes many within the human race to advance themselves, to innovate, and improve our collective productivity, because we all aspire to achieve something greater. That may not be a bad thing.  A lot of inventions that have dramatically improved the human condition were developed as a result of this inherent discontent with the status quo.

However, this flies directly in the face of the traditional Hawaiian concept of ‘ohana:  the concept of focusing on the here and now, taking care of the community around you, and taking care of your broader family:  in other words, focusing on the here and now, as opposed to always worrying about what could be.  This is not unique to traditional Hawaiian culture and spirituality.  The Christian faith as well repeats similar themes.  “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”  (Matthew 6:34) Even the Israelites wandering in the desert were fed Manna and were told not to collect more than a days’ worth (Exodus 16:4).  Focus on today.

Who is to say which approach is better?  Is it the constant strive for advancement? Or is it the acceptance and embracing of what you have today and keeping the focus on that?

As I pondered all these things, we were approaching our first snorkeling sight.  Our guides explained that we will be somewhat chasing the dolphins, and that they will quickly send us out when we see them and call us back when the school leaves.  Our guides stopped the boat, asked us to put on our gear, and we jumped in the ocean.   The water was probably 30-50 feet deep, and you could actually hear the sounds of the dolphins communicating with their clicks and whistles through the water.  I was amazed at this. 

All of a sudden, a group of 4 dolphins swam by side by side about 20 feet to the side and 10 feet lower than me.  Behind them, another group of 3 swam by, and then disappeared in the azure abyss.  After a few minutes of no sightings, the guides called us back to the boat, we boarded, and moved on to the next sight. 

At the next sight, the routine repeated, we jumped in the water, and did it again.  At this location, a group of 4 dolphins perfectly side by side swam directly beneath me by about 15 feet.

In total, we stopped at 3 different locations to snorkel with these magnificent beings. 

After the final dolphin snorkel, they took us to a bay frequented by manta rays.  This would be a precursor to the snorkel/SCUBA dive we’d be doing that evening with the manta rays.  We jumped in the water and looked down over a coral reef populated with an abundance of fish.  The reef probably ranged from 20-40 feet deep.  Within seconds a huge manta ray, probably 10 feet wide, came gliding slowly over the reef.  Several of us, including myself, dove down, and were able to swim for a few seconds right along side the ray.  The manta didn’t seem to mind this at all, and would continue effortlessly gliding back and forth like an eagle soaring in slow motion around the  coral reef, ingesting its plankton meal. 

I was utterly captivated by the majestic creature, and would reach the surface just long enough to catch my breath, fill my lungs, and dive back down to swim along the ray.  At one point the ray and I were side by side swimming as the dolphins were earlier, with only about 6 feet between us. 

I returned to the surface, and took a quick look around again to see where the rest of the snorkelers were, but I could not find them.  I tried to use my fins to boost myself a little bit higher, so that I could see over the waves, but still saw no one.  Uh oh.  It had been a few minutes since the last time I ensured I was still with the group, and now all I saw was the boats a hundred yards behind me.  I began swimming in that direction to see if the swimmers were over there.  I got within about 20 yards, and saw no one, so I stopped for a minute.  As I did, the captain looked at me and gave me the “OK sign, to ensure I wasn’t in need of help.  I was fine, though wondering where everyone was, so I returned the OK sign.  At that point, the boat began to drift a bit, and I noticed that behind it, was a large crowd of snorkelers boarding.  I quickly swam over to the boat and boarded myself.  As it turns out, Taryn told me that one of our guides was about to go back out and do a rescue/recovery operation for me since I had disappeared from the group. 

While we were finishing our snorkeling tour, Michelle and Jason were having their own adventure to the southern side of the Island.  South Point Hawaii, is the lowest point of the entire United States.   This area, was a picturesque setting with high cliffs overlooking an ocean that was crystal as glass with large,  slow swells coming in.  Jason was somewhat alarmed to see a fairly young boy standing on the cliffs, looking down at the water below.  He was very near the edge, and Jason was concerned that he may fall.  As his anxiety grew about this, suddenly the boy lept off the ledge.  Jason’s fear allayed as the boy plunged into the water, surfaced, and then swam away.

Jason and Michelle had only planned on staying for a little while, but ended up mesmerized by the sights around them and stayed for quite some time.

South Point

South Point

Back in Kona,  Ryan, Amy, Taryn and I attempted to check into the hotel, The Royal Kona, but our rooms were not ready.  We spent a bit of time in the Don the Beachcomber bar, and Ryan and Amy began sampling Mai Tais, and deciding to begin Ryan’s birthday celebration a day early.  While they were supposed to join us for snorkeling with the manta rays at the same site that Taryn and I would be SCUBA diving, Ryan had learned that morning that snorkeling was definitely NOT an activity he enjoyed, and they decided to relax the rest of the evening watching the sunset from the beach, and enjoying some more tropical drinks.  They completed their evening by falling asleep while watching Godzilla in the hotel room.

Taryn and I on the other hand, headed back out to the Marina for another two tank dive with Big Island Divers.

The Royal Kona

RJ Enjoying his Birthday

Upon boarding the boat, there was an amorous couple from Japan across from Taryn and I.  The entire ride out to the dive site Dawna, who appeared to be in her mid twenties,  could NOT keep her hands off her beau Peng who looked to be late 30s/early 40s.  She constantly either had her arms wrapped twice around his neck or would be practically sitting on was giving us the orientation they were too busy talking to each other and snapping selfies to listen, and our dive master had to continually reel them back in.  As we were all suiting up for our dive our dive master, who was very jovial with a fairly goofy sense of humor, ran through the final guidelines and warnings.  Meanwhile, Peng and Dawna grabbed their expensive underwater cameras and lights, and jumped off the side of the boat in their dive equipment.  Mike, mid sentence turned in reaction to the sound of the splash, and without missing a beat, said “…. Please give me a sign when your tank is half empty, and when you are at about 700 PSI, I will send you back to the boat, or you can jump in without listening to anything I’m saying.”  Yet the smile never left his face.

Our first dive, was another coral reef that led down to a long white sand underground beach about 55 feet below the surface.  We had hoped to see a field of garden eels at this location; however they had all disappeared under the sand and were not visible to us unfortunately.  We continued to explore the reef for 45 minutes, and Peng and Dawna continued to be just as obnoxious under the surface.  Though we had an entire ocean to ourselves, they were extremely skilled at swimming directly into me no matter how far away I attempted to stay from them.  They also had no problem pushing people away when an exotic fish was seen so that they could take a picture of it.

Our second dive, was the highlight of the evening.  We resurfaced, and spent about an hour at the surface waiting for the sun to go down.  Once it did, we resuited, were given flashlights, and additional weight, and told that we would be diving to the floor, and sitting in a “campfire”.  We would then point our flashlights up, attracting plankton, which would in turn attract the manta rays.  As we executed these instructions, I unfortunately started to develop quite a bit of heartburn.  This was exacerbated by the BCD wrapped to tightly around me, additional weight pulling on me, and a wet suit which was creating uncomfortable pressure on my gut.  This increased my own anxiety quite a bit, to the point that I was considering requesting to go up early.  However more and more mantas started to appear, and I knew I couldn’t cut this experience short.  Several boats used this area, and there were about 50 divers with us at the bottom, and about 20 snorklers over our heads .  As we all sat, the rays, which ranged from about 6 feet wide to about 12 feet wide, glided back and forth over our heads. 

The rays had no problems getting extremely close to us, and occasionally brushed us.  Every know and then, from 20 feet away one would turn directly at me, slowly getting closer and closer, larger and larger.  Its tremendous gaping mouth opening.  A few times, I thought it was actually going to swallow me, and I could see all the way to the back of the stomach of the magnificent beast.  The ray would continue to glide towards me, and only inches from my face would slightly adjust its trajectory and grace right over the top of my head. A couple times, the belly of the ray would actually rub the to pof my head.  The experience was absolutely amazing.  As we came to the surface after the dive, Taryn looks at me and says with uncontrolled excitement “I just got bitch-slapped by a manta ray!!!!”

After this experience, Taryn and I were completely exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel, got a quick bite to eat and turned in for the night.