Today was another early start, we were on the road by 8am so we could hit todays snorkelling spot early, given it was an 80-90 minute drive. Todays spot was a little further down than where we went yesterday. Another popular spot known as two step. So called because you walk across lava (luckily relatively smooth lava) sit on one of the two lava steps and then dive into the water, there is no other way to get in.
As the photos show it was pretty congested getting in even at 9.30 in the morning! Todays spot was the coolest water we have experienced, not freezing but certainly a bit of a “argh” as you jumped in. Key reason being it was one of the deepest spots we have been to so far. There was lots of fish, some amazing coral and he who needs to be kept happy was.
After a couple of hours we got out of the water (the same way you get in) and headed to the National Park which was right next door – Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Park. It is a spot of national significance and also known as the Place of Refuge. Built in the 1500’s there was a temple that commoners that had committed kabu (taboo) by doing something such as looking at someone in the royal family, could swim to to seek refuge. Here they would be absolved by the priests and be able to live a normal life. Well as normal as commoners could! Only thing was they had to survive the swim, which wasn’t that easy, the channel to the refuge was shark invested with treacherous currents. Really if you survived the swim you had every right to be forgiven!
From here we headed back towards our resort, stopping for lunch on the way. Funnily enough as we were driving down to Two Step this morning what should I see on the way but Annies Burgers, the place we had been looking for yesterday. What made this rather amusing (for want of a better word) is that it was right next to the Gelato shop that I had pointed out yesterday saying that I had heard they did really good Gelato! They do because we stopped for one after we had a burger at Annies, which funnily enough was right next store!
Then home for a swim in the pool. We couldn’t believe it, today we had to share with about 6 other people, it is the first time we have really seen others at “our” pool. Still it didn’t take long for them to get out once we had gotten in. Quentin thinks they may have needed to get their sunglasses so as not to be blinded by his white body!
After a little rest we took a walk around the Fairways complex given we had yet to do so and by 6pm it was starting to cool down. If you can call 25ish cool! On the walk it looked like there was going to be a stunning sunset so we got in the car and headed towards the access to the beach that we thought would give us the best views. What we didn’t realise was it was about a mile walk from the car park to the beach and by the time we got there the sun had gone down! Talk about false advertising, how can you say shoreline access and not actually tell you you have to walk for 20 minutes to get there. Thank goodness we didn’t do it with all our dive gear. Carole would not have been happy. :-(
In saying that the walk was very interesting as it was through a historical park that had lava tubes, fish ponds etc and was a very pretty walk.
Loving reading your blog Carole!