First time that I can think of that I have had to pay to go to the beach.  Parking was just $1 but then it was $7.50 each to go to the beach, and before you can go down to the beach you must watch a 12 minute video all about the wildlife and water safety.  Once this is completed you are then heralded down to the beach by your own feet or a tram as it is a steep hill.

We arrived just after 8 and were provided tickets for the 8.30 movie, even at this time there was masses of people wondering around, and by the time we left at 11.30 the car park was already full.

As we had been advised to do we asked the life guard about conditions further out in the bay as we had been advised this was where some of the best snorkelling was.  While we were advised that the current would be strong as the tide was going out we were told just to be aware of it and it would be safe to do.

So of we went, swam out past the buoys to the right of where we had entered, saw very few fish but lots of rubbish in the water, not looking too good at this stage.  Q decided we would turn back and head to the left, still outside the buoys, we had been doing this for about 10 mins or so when I heard one of the life guards (there were 3 stations along the beach in all) yelling something over the loud speaker.  Q popped his head up, couldn’t understand what they were saying so just stuck his head down and carried on.  The words that I could make out where “two snorkelers outside of the buoy…strong current…make your way back to the white markers….rescue you…” so thought it was probably best for us to turn around and alerted Q to the fact!

Once heading back into the more protected part we did see quite a few more fish and a turtle.  I found this gorgeous baby fish, normally you see them about 8-10 inches long but this one was only 1-2.  Very very cute!

The only issue with being inside the buoys was that so was everyone else, and it was chaotic in places.  Because it is an attraction to see when in Honolulu every man and his dog was there, even ones that couldn’t swim.  You see these swarms of Asian tourists who have probably never set foot in the water let alone snorkel, arrive with every flotation device known to man kind, noodles, life jackets, rubber rings, and there they are in the water with snorkel, mask and fully clothed.  Floundering around like nobodies business, panicking when they cant work out how to use their mask and snorkel and using their fins to walk everywhere therefore  breaking all the coral.  In some parts the water was only 3 feet deep, so really no need to panic.  Like on land these tourists travel in packs, and if they want to go from point A to B they do it even if you are in the middle, it was like being swarmed by bees!

After that we headed home, showers, feet up before heading back out for some more masalades, yummy.  Then a few chores, post office, shopping etc before we went down to the Kailua Farmers market.   This was a great market with lots of food stalls.  We had dinner down here, so much to chose from, Q ended up with curry and me a chicken wrap.  Then we had to have a lemonade because we had seen everyone walking around with these preserving jars drinking lemonade out of them.  It was very very yummy lemonade, finished by ice-cream.  WE could have been adventurous and had seaweed flavoured, or asparagus but I settled for passionfruit and Q for lychee sorbet.

Another day done and dusted.

As soon as we hopped in and before we had even put our fins on we came across a turtle, in the shallows, probably only a couple of feet deep.  Today was a bit more of a workout than our previous visit as it was high tide.  Our earlier start did however mean a lot less people in the water (although by the time we got out a couple of hours later there was peak traffic in the water!).

Once again lots of pretty fish, Q managed to spot an octopus but he disappeared before he could even say “calamari”, and I saw the cutest little fish ever.  Luckily Quentin managed to get lots of photos of it.

After our swim we were starving and headed off to Patz Pies for Pizza.  It was new york style pizza, huge in size, lovely thin crust, really yummy.  Really interesting restaurant, quite young staff except for the owner who was a bit of a card.  He was on the phone to his mum while we were there, having quite a loud personal conversation about business.  Then he came to chat to us about the talk with his mum and how she had made eggplant parmigiana for her neighbour who had broken her wrist.  The place had a great vibe and at the tables they had a whole lot of trivial pursuit cards so Q and I sat there asking each other questions.  Says it all about our relationship, he chose Science and Nature, I choose Entertainment!

Then back to the resort (about an hour drive) for icecream.  I had kept looking at these mochi icecream ball thingys and decided I wanted to try them.  They were icecream inside a sticky rice coating.   The smallest portion was 3 balls, so I got white chocolate with raspberry, cantaloupe, and passionfruit.  It is fair to say the ice-cream inside was really yummy, I could give or take the coating.  Q had a dragon fruit sorbet which was really yummy.

Lazy afternoon by the pool.  This is the first opportunity I have had to sit and relax by the pool.  Probably because it is the first day there were a few clouds and a bit of a breeze so the sun wasn’t as burning hot as it has been!

Lazy night, with left over pizza for dinner.  *sigh* Life is good.

The further out we got the more surge there was so we were bobbing up and down quite a bit.  The plan was to go out past the point and as far around to the next beach as we could, however after about an hour of being pummelled by the surge he who must be obeyed decided it was time to head back.

 

I confess to being rather pleased as my passionfruit jam, raspberry jam, and orange juice from breakfast where thinking about coming back up!  All in all we were in the water for a couple of hours and saw quite a few fish and got a good work out.

Headed back home for a shower and then down to the local shops for lunch, I had hoped to go to the Japanese restaurant but unfortunately they only do dinner so we ended up at Just Tacos.  Q ordered calamari as the starter, it would have fed about 20 people, it was huge, we both then ordered chicken tacos.  They were just okay, the food was very brown, brown tacos, brown rice and brown refried beans, not very appetising looking and nothing like the tacos we have at home.  But then they were probably much more authentic.

I only ended up eating one, luckily I loved the strawberry lemonade and filled up on a couple of glasses of that and then had room for an ice cream.

We then had a couple of hours at home before we headed off for a drive of about 75 minutes to go to Mauna Kea for the star gazing programme.  The plan was just to go to the Visitor Information Station where they kick off with a talk and video about the programme around 6.30ish and then the telescopes are rolled out and you look at the Stars.  The visitors station is at about 9000ft, the summit at 13000.  To do the summit you need to have a 4wd or do a special tour and need to acclimatise yourself on the way up etc.  Too much fuss for us!

We can see Mauna Kea from the resort and see the top of the summit and the observatories up there, it is quite a spectacular looking mountain.  All was looking good until about 50 mins into our drive when clouds arrived, blackened and rain started.  As we got to the base of the mount and started the 6mile drive up to the visitor station it got foggier and foggier, not looking good for star gazing at all.  On the way up there was the most interesting looking flora, it was like everything had been petrified.

The temperature changed by about 35F between the resort and the visitor centre.  We had packed thermals etc as everything we read said it can get very cold up there.  It wasn’t actually too bad, but it was very very foggy, raining and not looking good for star gazing at all.  After about 15 mins we decided to head back down while there was still a bit of daylight so that we could see where we were going as it was a pretty narrow windy road.

On our drive back we looked back towards Mauna Kea and could see the thick layer of cloud covering the visitors station however the summit was bathed in sunshine.  Crazy.

Headed back to the Beach Club where we had dinner last night.  Whilst all the beaches are available for public access, residents of the resort have special privileges at the parking lot at the beach club.  Meaning we only needed to walk a few steps to get to the beach as opposed to a mile.

We were on our way just before 9am and hit the water about 9.30ish.  Luckily there weren’t too many people around.  The sun was shining pretty strong and the water relatively warm.  After a couple of hours snorkelling (no sighting of turtles, manta rays and more importantly sharks!) we headed back to shore to dry off a little before heading home for lunch.

Got chatting to some elderly  (okay your age mum, dad and Wendy) people who were from Utah.  They were asking us all about NZ.  Very friendly.  One of the men had on a very attractive all in blue jump suit.  It looked like a prison type of jump suit.  Hoping he wasn’t one of the two prisoners that escaped here a couple of days ago, he didn’t look like their pictures, so think we were safe!  Just not your usual beach attire!

After lunch on the lani I had a quick 40 winks and Quentin investigated where we would go for our afternoon snorkel.  My 40 winks was disturbed at about 35 by Quentin coming down the stairs from the bedroom and loudly announcing “I’ve lubed myself up”.  Now for those of you that don’t know Quentin you are probably thinking that something dodgy was about to happen in the bedroom, for those that know him it just meant he had covered himself in sunscreen and was ready to hit the water again.

So off we went to Kukio Bay which was about 15 miles away, and known for being the beach to see turtles.  All good, except for a couple of things – Tiger sharks like turtles, and sharks cant see well so how do they know if that is a turtle or my leg!  The beach is in a gated community but given all beaches are public you head to the gatehouse, get a car park pass (there is only 27 parking spots available, so I suppose they keep out the riff raff that way!), and then when you reach the next gate you need to buzz the guard house so they can let you in.  It is then about a 300m walk to the actual beach along a paved footpath.

It was pretty windy when we parked so we decided to walk and check things out before unloading all our stuff.  Once we got there Quentin gave the nod and we headed back to the car to get our stuff.  Exhausting

Just as we were getting into the water one of the girls on the beach let us know that there was a turtle directly in front of her, only about 5m off the beach.  So we quickly hoped in and there was actually 3 of them frolicking in the shallows.  Q was a bit bummed because he had the wrong camera lens, he had thought that if you saw turtles they would be a couple of hundred metres away not one!

After playing a bit with the turtles we headed out a bit further but the water was really dirty, my head was playing the theme music to jaws (sharks like turtles and murky water), so we headed back to the shallows a bit more playing with the turtles.  By playing we actually had to keep swimming out of their way, you are supposed to stay 15ft (5m) away from them but it was pretty hard when they kept swimming up to you!

Then time to head home for showers and a wee rest before heading out somewhere cheap and cheerful for dinner.  Too lazy to cook tonight!

Decided to head to Wai’alea Beach Park (also known as beach 69 as it is by the 69^th lamp post!).  This looked like a great beach after reading our Snorkel Hawaii book.  It was a great beach, the only thing was that we didn’t realise you had to pay for the parking lot at the beach (and there was no where else to park), I had only taken a $50 or $20 note in case we needed anything, no credit cards, as we had been advised to leave nothing of value in the car or on the beach anywhere in Hawaii.  Parking was by cash or credit card and gave no change, at only $5 I really didn’t feel like using a $20.  So it was a quick head back towards the Shops at our resort, which was luckily only 10 mins away.  I sent Quentin into buy a bottle of water or something so we could get change, quicker than going back to the unit, unlocking everything, finding where we had safely stored our cash etc etc  Now I know how animals must feel when left in the car, even though Quentin had told me to put the window down there had been no point as there was no breeze, only hot burning sun.  Just when I thought I was going to die (slight exaggeration, only slight!) he returned.  Phew, could have been messy.

Back to the beach, which was just lovely, as well as sunny spots there was plenty of big trees offering shade.  Within seconds we were in the water swimming with the fishes and two hours later we were out.  It really was a lovely spot and the water very warm.

Home, lunch, relax, then get ready for dinner.  We had a lovely dinner at Napua Beach Club.  The atmosphere was divine.  Right on the beach, very small so not too many tables, a slack key guitar player and incredibly attentive staff.  Q had the calamari appetiser which was the tube of the squid kept whole, doused in panko crumbs, deep fried and then served with a tomato salsa, with a wasabi and chilli mayo.  It was very very good.

I just had a Caesar salad.  For our main we both had the slow roasted pork ribs with guava sauce on asian slaw and mash.  They were just beautiful.  When they arrived we were wondering how we would eat them as they didn’t come with a finger bowl or anything.  However the meat was so tender it just fell of the bones.  They were yummy.  After that we were pretty full and wanted dessert so decided to take a quiet stroll along the beach front for 15 mins or so in the hope that we could make room.  Surprise, surprise we did.  I had Turtle Cake which was chocolate cake with caramel and chocolate ganache.  I thought it would be rich, but boy it was ultra rich and I could only manage half.

Quentin had deep fried banana, vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.  All very very yummy and the perfect way to end our first anniversary.

On the drive back home we discovered a gorgeous wee tabby pussy cat waiting outside our villa on the warm concrete.  Lots and lots of pats later it decided it had enough and continued on it’s quest of catching cockroaches and eating them.  Lovely, NOT.

One of the animals that aren’t so great on the island especially on the east side is the Coqui Frog, we haven’t heard any here but when we were out on the lava it was all we could hear.  They have become a real pest, only tiny but their croak can reach 80 to 100 decibels.  So pretty damn loud, click here if you want to hear one.