Kona, we love you!

Hey travel fans, it’s your intrepid explorer back out in the wilds…this time, Hawaii.  Stacy and I, along with friends, Tam and Sophia, are in Hawaii for a little relaxing, a little diving, and hopefully a little basketball in the form of KU playing the Maui Invitational.

We left rainy Portland this past Wednesday heading for Kona.  There is a night time Manta Ray dive that has been on Stacy’s list o’ things to do for a long time.  Sophia and I saw some Mantas in Thailand when we were there (scroll into the history on this site if you want more) but were always down for some more.  We stayed in Kona until yesterday (Saturday) before flying to Maui in the hopes of securing tickets to the Maui Invitational.  We couldn’t score tickets outside the crazy $2000+ per person travel packages so we figured we would try to get them here through scalping or mugging (kidding).  Plus if we can’t score tickets, we are still in Hawaii so it’s win/win either way!

First, let’s start out with: it is humid here.  Tropical island, humid, big surprise, right?  Yeah…it’s still humid and when away from the waterfront where there is no breeze, it’s pretty miserable.  But tech shirts prevail and my sweat is getting wicked away!

We went through VRBO for all our accommodations and the place in Kona was pretty sweet.  2 bedroom right on the water with a killer view.  Cannot complain at all.  It was about a mile down from where the cruise ships would dock so there was all kinds of touristy shops and restaurants there for the choosing.  Sadly, no one seconded my Bubba Gump Shrimp suggestion so we did not dine there.  We did hit the Kona Brewing Company brewpub and I can highly recommend it.  Good beer, good food, and super nice staff.  If you are ever in Kona and like beer, go for it!  For pictures, remember: click to embiggen

 

View from the Condo...not bad :)

We really only had one day to tour around (Thursday) because Friday, Stacy, Sophia and I were going to do 2 morning dives and then 2 night dives with only a 3 hour break between.  For Thursday we went to Volcano National Park which was pretty much on the other side of the island from Kona.  It was about a 2 and a half hour drive but the drive wasn’t too bad as far as scenery goes.  Saw some wild peacocks and other critters along the way. 

Of course, it started to rain as soon as we got to the park.  Luckily the information center conveniently sold plastic ponchos so we got at least some protection.  The info center also has wall displays with time categories.  Starting with “if you have 2-3 hours, see these 3 things” and “if you have 4-6 hours, see these extra things” and so on.  The 3 we did see were pretty cool: the caldera, the steam vents and the lava tube.

The clouds sort of parted when we got to the caldera so you can definitely see the steam rising up.  If we had been able to stay until after dark, you can see it glow from the magma inside, but we had to get back to Kona to check in for the dives the following day.

 

Caldera with the steam coming up

The steam vents are just what they sound like: vents where steam, nice warm steam, comes out.  The crazy thing is you can see the vents through trees on the side of the hill too.  Crazy.

 

Stacy, getting some steam action

Those whisps of "clouds" are steam coming up through the trees

The lava tube was sort of nice, but also flooded midway through and it was DUMPING rain when we got there.  So, neat to see, but could have skipped it.

 

Blurry, but best photo I got of the lava tube

On the way back to Kona we stopped off at the Punalu’u sweet bread factory.  They had these fried, cinnamon & sugar covered sweet breads that were donut like.  They also had guava flavored (pretty good) and a cinnamon swirl loaf that Stacy grabbed which was awesome.

 

Want some bread?

Friday saw us at the harbor heading out for a couple of dives with Big Island Divers.  They were great.  Super nice crew and very helpful, etc.  The two morning dives were pretty good.  Saw a manta on the first dive of the day as well as TONS of fish, eels, coral, etc.  Sadly, no turtles.  I tried to convince Stacy that was enough manta to last so we could skip the night manta dive, but she wasn’t buying that.  The one downer was a fairly rookie diver had issues with buoyancy and shot to the surface and back down WAY to fast on the first dive.  We got back to the boat and found her breathing on the oxygen bottle which is never a good sign.  Her throwing up shortly afterwards had us heading back to the harbor to get her to medical help because you don’t mess around with that kind of stuff.  We had a brief stop there to get her to the paramedics before we headed back out for the second dive.  I guess the crew had to do a litmus test for alcohol (which they passed) I guess for liability. 

 

Hermit Crab in the middle

Sohpia and Stacy left to right closest to me

Fire Angel fish...supposedly only found in Hawaii.

What's going on out here?

Stacy super excited after the manta swam by (seen in the background)

After the two morning dives, we ate at the Big Island Grill.  Crap I forget the name of the dish, but I had the beef patty on rice with 2 eggs covered with gravy.  I had heard about it before and boy was it good.  Set me up for the night dives.

Back at the harbor with Big Island Divers, we set out for the 2 night dives with a new but still awesome crew.  Mikey, the captain, did a pretty awesome trick of keeping an orange off the ground with only the air from a tank.  You get it spinning in the airflow off you hand and if it spins fast enough, the air flow and spinning keeps it floating.  You have to see it. 

Anyway, the first dive was the manta night dive.  You can also do this as a snorkeler if you want to.  The dive is the #1 rated night dive in the world and also the #1 rated night snorkel (actually the only night snorkel) so we were pretty excited.  They basically use a lot of bright lights to make the plankton think its day time and start getting active.  Manta’s feed on the plankton so they come around and then swim all around you.  Each of the divers also get a pretty bright light to hold onto for more plankton.

I guess the one downside of the dive was there was a ton of surge pushing you back and forth.  We had to hold onto the remaining coral chunks (they do this dive a LOT but always in the same spot so it’s sort of been crunched down by all the divers) in order to not roll around into our fellow divers.  Plus the first spot we started at only had one manta in about 20 minutes.  I was worried we weren’t going to see much, but out dive master (DM) came and got us and took us to another spot where 6 mantas were frolicking and feeding for the rest of the dive.  It was pretty spectacular.  Highly recommend it if you get the chance.  I didn’t talk to any of the snorkelers that also went but if they even saw half of what we did, it would be worth it.  Super cool dive.

Blurry Manta...I got more movies than pictures, but they are long

Movie is pixilated due to the site's massaging...and you can see me shooting all over the place due to the surge, but at least you can see some of the manta action

We went back to the harbor to drop off the snorkelers before heading out to the 2^nd dive of the evening: the black water dive.  For this one, they take you out to where the depth is around 2 miles and then have 6 weighted ropes about 40 feet long: 2 at either side of the boat in the front, middle, and back.  Then they hook you onto a 10 foot tether that they then attach to one of the ropes and you basically drift along and check out anything that comes along….like a hungry shark looking for 6 idiots hanging like bait from the bottom of a boat.  We each had a pretty good light but that was all the illumination that was there.  Really usually you see things about the size of the last digit of your thumb, but they are translucent and alien looking. 

I volunteered to go in first…which was scary exciting.  I did the stride into the water and then the captain walked me around to the rope I was going to be tethered to and tethered me up.  I then descended where the DM, Dillon, made sure I was okay before going to look after the next person in the water.  I got to admit I was a little freaked at this point about being the only person in there (Dillon was far enough away he didn’t count) in pitch black water but I calmed myself and then started to see these tiny creatures that were awesome.  Sadly, I didn’t get many good photos mainly because you have to hold the light across it and then take a picture perpendicular to that light and it turns out they move fairly quickly in the current and I am not very coordinated.  But I did get a couple that look pretty cool.

The head was about thumb size...had the rainbow light effect

about the size of a thimble.  Pretty cool looking

Its coming right at us!.  No idea what it is and blurry but whatareyougoingtodo?

Another shot of a critter like the first one

Short film of a spidery critter

We all survived and got back to shore around 12:30 or so.  Very late and we were super tired after 4 dives.  The next day, we got up, packed, ate lunch and then flew on an island jumper over to Maui.  The plane was hands down the smallest I have ever been on, but it was pretty cool and fairly cheap so I can’t complain.  Plus no TSA (we left from the commuter terminal) so even better.

Anyone see Buddy Holly or the Big Bopper?  Yes, I am old....whatever

No, the wheels do not retract in flight

No locking cockpit doors on this plane!

We made it to our condo and hit Maui Brewing company last night.  While they have awesome beer, their service sort of blew (like they were doing us a favor by waiting on us) and the food was just okay.  One funny bit was Tam convinced us to try these Japanese peppers where supposedly 1 in 10 is super hot but the rest are mild.  Shishido peppers.  Someone messed up the ratio or we got “lucky” because for us is was more like 1:2 and damn those things were HOT.  I don’t think I will be trying them again J

That’s it for now.  We are going to try to figure out the best way to try to get tickets tomorrow and explore a little bit.  Stacy and I are here through the week while Tam and Sophia head back on Turkey Day.  More to follow…

Love to all!

Our time, the people’s time,

Jim