Wow what a day, we were on the road by 9am to ensure we got one of the 27 car park passes for the beach where we had seen the turtles last week. We were the first there so no worries about getting a pass. Hopped in the water and swam and swam and swam and no turtles. The water was a little clearer, there was plenty of other fish and Q had the right lens on his camera but no turtles.
As we headed back closer into shore there the turtles were, in the same spot as previously. We spent quite a bit of time swimming around with them, they were just gorgeous.
By they time we were ready to go (about 11.30ish) the park was pretty well full. It is a lovely wee beach area, a very shallow area that is perfect for family and kids, then a little walk along and there is a bit of a grassy area with trees for shade and then the beach that we enter the water at, it is a little deeper and no so many rocks. It backs on to another resort but you see hardly anyone around.
Just like the resort that we are staying at, it is massive but you really don’t see anyone. When we got back from the beach we hopped into the pool for a swim and we were it, no one else around.
After a couple of hours relaxing it was time to head back towards Kailua Kona to meet at Jacks Diving Locker for our Manta Ray dive. We were really lucky, they have two boats that go out, one for divers and one for snorkelers, since there was only two divers we the snorkelers got to take the bigger boat out. Even luckier still there was only 9 snorkelers (they can take up to about 20), so plenty of room, perfect.
The crew on the boat were great, even if they only looked like there were 12! One; Jeremy was a young surfer dude, long blonde hair, knitted hat, shorts and tank, and looked like he was still at school , the other Peter was also quite young but both really really nice and then there was our Capt.
We left around 5.30ish to head to the dive site and on our way Jeremy thought he saw dolphins coming out of the water so we headed for a look. It wasn’t dolphins it was one of those guys on those jet pack water things, so funny to watch. The boat trip out was great, there was a wee ledge at the front to sit on and the views were great, it was also so warm. Q and I also sat here when we headed home.
Beautiful sunset and then we arrived at the Manta Ray site with a million other boats, it is a very very popular activity! Waiting until it was dark we saw a couple of Manta’s near the surface so it was looking promising.
Manta Rays feed on plankton and plankton is attracted to light so the premise is if there is enough light you will get plankton and it follows that you will also get Manta Rays (of course this doesn’t always work). The light is achieved by divers that are on the bottom of the ocean (it is only about 10 meters) with strong lights looking up, and then all the snorkelers are on the top with lights looking down. In most cases the lights are attached to a surf or paddle board and then the snorkelers just gather around the board and use that as their guide.
Within seconds of us getting into the water we had a manta ray doing somersaults so close that we could have reached out and touched it, we are talking about 10cms (4 inches) from us. It was amazing.
As it got darker there was probably about 10 or more rays in the water, some small, some absolutely huge, there was also about a million snorkelers it he water, okay, okay, another exaggeration, but it was a madhouse, snorkelers everywhere, paddleboards everywhere, fins in your back, front and sides as everyone was floating around. Crazy. But then a manta ray would come close and all that was forgotten.
Jeremy and Peter had joined our two paddle boards together so we were travelling as one pack rather than two, how they managed to keep us all together was amazing, let alone following the rays and lights. After a little while most of the others in the group decided they had had enough and went in, leaving just Q, me and Stefan from Sweden along with our guide Jeremy. It was much easier once we got rid of the extra dead weight 
and we stayed in until we were told to get out! The water was incredibly warm even though it was dark. Just amazing.
Another once in a lifetime experience. How lucky are we. J