Snorkeling/diving: definitely my favored activity. Cool corals, countless colorful fish, clear water. In many places the reefs are close to the surface and unless you are Pete and want to see how deep you can dive, you can just float and watch. Big sea turtles gliding by. Moray eels poking their heads out of holes. Went to Richardson and Kukio (?) on the Hilo side. This is the wet (east) side of the Big Island. Fresh water from creeks mixes with the salty ocean water in bands of limited visibility. Once past (or below) these bands the water was clear and warm. We saw quite a few sea turtles. I almost didn’t notice one of these fellows on collision course while I was scanning the bottom for interesting sea live. Quite the surprise when I looked up and saw the turtle just a couple of meters in front of me. On the Kona side we explored Captain Cook (Kealakekua Bay) and the Place of Refuge. Amazing. We also went on a guided manta ray night dive near Kona. The dive was spectacular as well, but the rays didn’t show. An excellent excuse to come back next year.
Hiking, high altitude hiking, scrambling: A few hikes, including one that left us rather breathless on top of Mauna Kea (4200 meter). Even the little car had some problems getting up that high (the road goes almost to the top). Another hike lead us close to the active volcano, pu’u oo and involved some interesting scrambling over hollow lava (aa and pahoehoe).
Caving: we explored the long Kaumana lava tubes near Hilo
Other activities included riding mountain bikes (great that our friends have such a good selection of gear!) to Green Sands Beach at the very south tip of the island, body surfing, swimming, kite-flying, sailing at Hilo Bay, and paddling. We even managed the make use of our wings at Captain Cook. Local pilots were very helpful to get us in the air. Unfortunately a combination of smoke from a local wild fire and ‘vog’ (volcanic smog) prevented the formation of good thermals and we had to content ourselves with a couple of sled rides (short flights without altitude gain).
What else? It was great to spent the days with our friends and have them as tour-guides and to stay at their place. Nice to soak up some sun and heat before returning to the cold Canadian winter. Excellent views of stars at night (street lights are dimmed to reduce light pollution for the observatories on Maua Kea). Delicious food (for example at the traditional Manago Hotel in Captain Cook). A pre-Christmas trip to some place warm needs to be permanently added to our yearly schedule!
