Back in December, after grading the last of my final exams, I headed off to Hawai’i for 10 days of scuba diving, hiking, resting, and catching up with friends. I made it to two islands – Hawai’i (Big Island) and Oahu. Read on for a recap and lots of photos!
Big Island
I spent the bulk of my trip on the island of Hawai’i. It’s such a versatile island that it’s easy to spend a week there and never be bored. I stayed with several friends in a vacation rental about a 30-minute drive north of Kona, which gave us good access to the city as well as some great hiking spots.
Scuba Diving
Over the first 3 days of my trip, I did 8 boat dives with Big Island Divers. This included 2 boat dives on the reefs each day, and an additional manta and blackwater dive on the 2nd day.
All in all, the diving was unfortunately underwhelming. This wasn’t due to Big Island Divers – they were excellent – but rather due to the state of the reefs. There are lots of beautiful and colorful fish, but the reefs are not very healthy, with lots of dead coral. It was pretty disheartening to see the shape they’re in.
The highlights were the manta dive and the blackwater dive. The manta dive is a Kona classic, and most nights divers (and snorkelers) will get to see the surprisingly graceful giant rays. We spent about 40 minutes at 30 feet, watching a single manta swim back and forth over our lights, eating the plankton the lights attracted. The only downside is the number of other divers on this sort of dive – it makes it pretty difficult to get good photos of the manta without their dive lights in the shot!
Manta ray.
Manta ray.
Manta ray.
The blackwater dive is also a Kona specialty. Since the ocean floor drops off quickly as you move away from the island, you can easily get to thousands of feet depth in just a 30-minute boat ride. Blackwater dives are at night, when the plankton migrate up from the ocean depths, so it’s pitch black except for the boat lights and your dive light. The dive operator tethers you to the boat (so you don’t chase some critter to unsafe depths) and you wait under the boat with a dive light, watching all sorts of strange creatures drift by. I’ve included a few shots below – I have no idea what the subjects are! We also heard, then saw a bottlenose dolphin hunting – it was neat to hear all the clicking as it used its sonar to hunt.
A jellyfish on the blackwater dive.
Two unidentified blobs on the blackwater dive.
Unknown critter on the blackwater dive.
Some of the best moments from the 6 reef dives included a manta soaring overhead, a white-tip reef shark, some cool boxfish, and many eels.
A blenny checking me out.
Female boxfish.
Male boxfish.
Male boxfish (different species than the other one).
Butterflyfish.
Fish looking out into the blue.
Frogfish!
Eel.
Eel.
A large sea star balances carefully on a head of coral.
Trumpetfish.
Hiking
After 3 days in the water, I was ready for some time on my feet. Feeling a bit ambitious, I decided to start early and fit two stunning hikes into one day.
I started off with the more famous hike, Waipi’o Valley, in the hopes of getting there before the crowds. This strategy seemed to work, as there were a ton of people hiking down at 11 when I was hiking back up out of the valley.
The road down is very steep (average grade about 25%!), but it’s worth it because the valley is spectacular. If you walk inland a bit, you can see waterfalls, and then if you walk back out to the ocean you will find yourself at a black sand beach. I probably walked about 7 miles total, and was able to do a lot of thinking/reflecting while I was in the valley.
Selfie with Waipi’o Valley in the background. You can tell from the sweat I had just hiked up!
View of Waipi’o Valley without my sweaty face in the way.
Waterfalls at the interior of Waipi’o Valley.
After grabbing lunch in Waimea, I headed for my second hike of the day, Pololu Valley. Like Waipi’o Valley, Pololu has a black sand beach, but this beach is significantly smaller. The hike down is also much shorter – maybe 1.5 miles roundtrip and less strenuous than Waipi’o.
Looking into Pololu valley.
Resting
Not much to say here. On my 5th day, I napped, looked at my underwater photos, called a few friends, and generally lazed around the condo. It was perfect!
More Scuba Diving
Since the Hawai’i reefs are really close to shore, my friends and I wanted to explore a bit with a couple shore dives. This is much cheaper than boat diving, since you only have to pay for tanks, weights, and any other equipment you need to rent. Since I have all my own equipment, this worked out to just $20 total for the two dives.
First, we headed to Two Step at Honaunau Beach. This is one of the most popular shore dives on the Big Island, so we wanted to get there early. It was a nice dive, with lots of reef fish and eels. I was hoping to see an eagle ray or manta ray or shark, but no such luck.
Sea turtle grazing in the shallows at Two Step.
After lunch, we got new tanks and went further north to Alua Beach (locals also called it Crescent Beach). Apparently tiger sharks are pretty common here, but we didn’t see any. The highlight was a large pod of spinner dolphins swimming back and forth overhead, which was a real treat.
Underwater vista at Crescent Beach.
Spinner dolphins passing overhead.
I’d definitely recommend shore diving over boat diving if you want to check out the reefs on Hawai’i’s leeward side. You have just as good of a chance at seeing cool stuff, and it’s WAY cheaper. Just make sure to tow a dive flag!
Porcelain crab.
Eel.
Octopus.
Racoon butterflyfish.
Eel.
Kailua-Kona
At this point, I had spent tons of time in nature but very little in town. So before my flight to Oahu in the afternoon, I walked around downtown Kailua-Kona. It’s really touristy, and geared more toward cruise ship passengers than wanderers like me. I’m not much of a shopper, but I did buy some postcards and magnets before heading to the airport.
A lizard hanging out in the sun.
Oahu
Hiking and Snorkeling
On my first full day on Oahu, I wanted to snorkel Hanauma Bay. I’ve been there before, 4 years ago, and I had great memories of all the colorful fish so close to shore.
It’s a really popular place, and by the time I got there the parking lot was full. Fortunately I had brought shoes suitable for hiking, and I decided to hike Koko Head instead.
The hike was TOUGH.
The “trail” follows disused train tracks to WWII era bunkers at the top. It’s only 1.5 miles roundtrip, but is incredibly steep and has about 1050 steps (though it takes more steps than that to get up). If you’ve ever done stadiums, you know that’s a lot of steps. I’m pretty fit, running over 10 miles fairly regularly, but I had to stop and rest several times. The view at the top was worth it though – just look at the photos below for proof.
View from near the top of Koko Head, with Hanauma Bay in the background.
After the hike I tried Hanauma Bay again and this time the parking lot was open! The bay is still beautiful above land, but sadly is not as I remembered it below the surface. The coral was almost all dead, and there were very few fish compared to four years ago. I wasn’t sure at first if I had just built up my expectations too much, but a quick internet search confirmed that the reef had indeed experienced bleaching since I had last been there. What a shame.
Seeing Friends
I got to see four friends on Oahu! One was a woman I knew from age-group swimming, one was a friend from my time in Oxford, and two were friends from my 3 months living in Hawai’i right after I finished my PhD. I loved seeing all of them and it was great to catch up. Definitely the highlight of the whole trip.
With my friend La’akea.
Next Up
Next up: Florida! Well, kind of. I did stop by Albuquerque for a few days to celebrate Christmas with my family. And I have a few short trips in the next few months, including one to Sedona. But the next big trip will be in Miami with my sister Alex in March.
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