Topic: Hawaii Photos

[Mike]

So I spent last week in Hawaii on the big island.  Was a last minute (well we had like three weeks but still) trip.  Went with my brother, his wife, and his two kids.  My aunt had some expiring timeshare points so booked us a condo at a resort.  So I only had to pay for my plane ticket and expenses (car and food) on the island.

March 30
For the first day my brother and I scheduled a morning boat trip.  Turned out to be a good thing as it let the kids recover from the previous day's travel.  First dive was a bit hard as there was some good current, my brother and I both dropped into deep water so we sucked air pretty quick and both were a little light so didn't have the ascent I wanted.  For the second dive I got more weight and the boat moved to a calmer area.  We also found out we could get bigger tanks from the shop for the future trips.  We got to swim through some lava tubes which was pretty cool.




March 31
We wanted to see the waterfalls and do a zip line tour which was on the other side of the island.  Along the way we found a nice beach and hung out for a bit.



The zip line company was backed up so while we waited we explored the area and headed towards a waterfall nearby.


Due to size and age restrictions my niece and I didn't do the zip line tour.  So while they did it we went to a nearby nature walk.


April 1
We scheduled an afternoon/evening dive trip so in the morning we went on a free coffee plantation tour.  Was interesting.


The dive trip had two parts: a daylight dive where we explored the area and a night dive where they try and attract manta rays.


My strobe died before the manta dive (I think I left it on between dives) so most of my shots didn't come out.  It was a cool experience though.


April 2
We scheduled a morning dive and then left the afternoon for shopping and what not.


April 3
Since we are on an island with an active volcano we have to go see it.  On the way there we stopped for lunch at a beach and then shortly after found a black sands beach that had this cool plaque about the green sea turtle and the legend about it.



Sadly the lava stopped following on the surface back in January so all we really got to see was smoke pour out of a hole.  Still it was cool to watch.  The surrounding area is a giant rain forest with a huge lava tube.  After that we got dinner and then headed up to the observatory on top of Mauna Kea.  That was a lot of fun as there was just a shit ton of stars.  You could even make out some stellar gas.  Took a two minute exposure shot.


April 4
On our last day we book a catamaran "cruise" that took us to a bay with a monument to Captain Cook and some great snorkeling. 



We had so much fun snorkeling and we still wanted to see a turtle that we decided to go to a beach that everyone told us was where to go to see turtles.  The place was amazing, it went pretty far out but probably didn't get deeper than 7 feet.  The only thing that really kept us contained was that the coral got too shallow for us to swim over comfortably (aka not hurting us or the coral).  Even with all the people there the fish were doing their thing and the coral looked pretty healthy.


After an hour or so there I was getting pretty tired (I'd been in the water most of the day) and resigned myself to not seeing a turtle.  All of a sudden by brother yells "turtle" and the chase was on.  I had to abort the face shot because I thought it was going to run into me.


After the last shot we stopped following it as we were getting into an unprotected area and the waves were getting more intense (and the area wasn't getting any deeper).  It was the perfect bow to finish wrapping our vacation.

[Steve]

Mike those are amazing, LOVE the last one. Man i need a good dive