Capturing the Moment

    There were some pretty amazing view driving around the east part of Oahu on our way to the North Shore. China Man's Hat is the local name for the beautiful island just offshore in the picture above. The water is very shallow and I hear that on really low tides you can walk all the way to the island, but it was just deep enough for us to snorkel on this day. It was hard to see in the shallow, silty water but we did have a great find, a green lionfish hanging onto this rock (above right).     We stopped at Sunset Beach and Pipeline just to see the famous wave breaks. It was a very mellow day on the north shore but still some surfers were out. I jumped in for a quick surf session at Chun's Beach with my buddy Mark and scored some fun rights. Turtles were popping up all around me here.     The real underwater magic happened when we strapped on some scuba tanks and dove a site called Firehouse. It is named this because the entry is right behind an actual firehouse but

 The underwater world in Maui is pretty breathtaking but there is somewhere a hop, skip, and jump away that can provide all kinds of new, fun sights even for the seasoned hawaiian sealife hunter. The island of Hawaii, or known here as 'the Big Island', has an incredible amount of dive sites, mostly along the Kona coastline. It is the only place in the Hawaiian Islands that has enough sites for a year round live-aboard dive charter to exist. Even though I had been there ten years ago while going to school in Hilo I did not really experience all it had to offer. It was time. Heidi and I flew over and after a quick breakfast immediately grabbed some tanks and hit the water with my good friend Erica. Beautiful coral right off the beach, caves, and beautiful fish abounded. But we were on a mission. We were looking for fish and other creatures that are much rarer or not on Maui altogether but could be found here. We eventually went on four dives along the Kona coast includi

  Heidi and I had big expectations of diving on the Big Island. There are fish there that you just can't find on Maui even though they are geographically very close. We did a couple of shore dives through some beautiful, healthy reefs but the big dive was this Manta Ray Night Dive we had heard so much about. Going into it I was hoping my expectations weren't too high.   We signed up with Kona Honu Divers who came recommended by several people in Kona. We did a 2 tank dive so one dive before sunset on a nearby reef and then one after sunset with the mantas. I will cover the first dive in another post just because we saw so many cool, new things.   After the first dive we gathered back on board to warm up with hot shower water in our wetsuits and some food in our bellies. It got dark fast and that is when I noticed something moving in the water behind the boat. We had a manta feeding right off of our stern! Here is our first feeding manta and we haven't even gotten

 A graceful 10ft manta ray seems to dance a night time ballet. Silhouetted by the lights of our scuba boat this incredible animal glides through the water with open mouth to feed on plankton.

   This is a glimpse at what the Big Island has to offer the underwater adventurer. It is a scuba diver's playground. It is no wonder that the Kona coast of the island of Hawaii has the only 'live aboard' dive boat in the Hawaiian Islands. The reefs are magnificent, the sand incredibly white, and the fish plentiful.    This photo was taken at night on the popular Manta Ray Night Dive. This is one of those wildlife spectacles that must be seen to believe. Definite top 10 dive in the world. But more to come on that and many others when I get home and get to a solid internet connection. It took 20 minutes just to upload this one picture but I had to get it out there.

Kihei and Wailea coast of Maui with Molokini and Kaho'olawe in the distance. Looking back at Ma'alaea Bay and the island of Lanai in the distance. Down the southwest slope of Haleakala Another rare view of some of the ancient cinder cones and pressure vents on the slopes of Haleakala The wild south side of Haleakala Looking back at Haleakala with all of its ridges and valleys cut into the slope after thousands of years of erosion. My kind of view. Looking over the shallow coral reefs.

A very rare encounter with a huge 100+ pod of melon headed whales! We got word over the marine radio as we left Molokini that a pod of false killer whales or short finned pilot whales had been spotted near our second snorkel site. We jetted over to find a huge group of what turned out to be melon headed whales ( Peponocephala electra), lazily swimming near the surface in a pretty tight formation. They would roll at the surface showing off their curved dorsal fins and every once in a while give us a peak at the funny, blunt heads. It was my first time seeing these whales. They frequent the deeper waters farther off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands so we hardly ever see them in this close to shore. When we met up with the pod we were in about 200ft of water only a couple miles off south Kihei shoreline. We drifted slowly, taking in this rare experience, and the whales swam about 30 yards off of us as they headed back out to deeper water.

  The Commando Hike, cont. After making it through the vines and swimming through the little waterfall pool things really got interesting. A large downed tree signified the start of our waterfall climbing section of the hike. We ducked through a small tunnel, bored out of the rock by the water and then climbed our way up about twelve feet, chimney style. This is where some people turn back. But you don't want to miss whats ahead.   The cave entrance was way bigger than I expected. The creek was running pretty low but looking up at the cave ceiling 35 feet above was a good reminder how fast and powerful this water can run. Much more waterfall/rock climbing greeted us inside. I was surprised at the nice foot and hand holds in the slick rock face.     Just as the light from the entrance disappeared I caught a glimpse of the exit. Rock hopping the creek through the cave was not just exciting because of the dark, but also because deep filled in sinkholes were interspaced so