Puna

We had a great weekend over labor day, spent saturday through monday in Puna on the east side of Big Island. Audrey was kind enough to let us stay at her Purple House, which was absolutely incredible. We have a bunch of pictures to show you, and I know that Stacey really wants to tell you about the house and some of the things that we did. This is just a preview. I havent had as much free time as I used to (both a good and bad thing ;) because I recently got a job working as a crewman on a snorkel/dive boat. More about that later. Enjoy the pics and look for this story to unfold a little more in the near future.

Hanging out on the lanai.

The view down the street.

This whole shoreline is incredible.

Me and Mike at Kehena, burying River. Kehena is a very unique beach for several reasons, some of which will be revealed to you very soon! ;0

Im not sure why, but River totally seemed to enjoy this. She just sat there and waited for us to bury her. After she got out, she kept digging the hole deeper and laying in it.

Saddle Road

Several weeks ago Stacey and I took a trip on Saddle Road from Hilo over to the west side/Waimea area. This was our first trip on this road. We have heard a lot of stories about it, apparently it hasn't always been the safest road to travel on. Much work has been done on it over the last several decades. The road was constructed very quickly in 1942 by the military. Civilian traffic was not considered during construction, only military vehicles would be using the road. It basically connects the west side to the east side through Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. It's crest is at just over 6500 ft elevation. Basically the road is the straightest shot from one side to the other. There are no lights on this road, so travelling at night is not smart. Most rental car companies do not even allow you to take their vehicle on this road!

The clouds were THICK on the Hilo side on this particular day.

As we made our journey up the Saddle Road, the sky began to clear up. It rained a few times (as it always does in Hilo) and the sky was beautiful.

There are rolling hills with cattle grazing on them that make you feel like you are anywhere but in Hawaii. This is the most fascinating thing about the Big Island; how the scenery constantly changes on different parts of the island.

The Saddle Road is one of the neatest drives on the Big Island. All traffic headed west must yield to Eastbound traffic at several one-lane bridges/drainage areas. Some spots are completely full of potholes, slowing your speed to 30mph. The weather is significantly cooler, probably low 60's at the highest point. Definitely a great way to spend an afternoon.....

Kiholo Bay

We spent the weekend at a new spot to us called Kiholo Bay. It was a birthday party for a friend of ours, Nicki, and she turned 40 on saturday. Nicki and her husband Mike own a charter business doing diving and fishing, so they brought their boat up north to the bay and anchored just offshore. It was a blast, and this place is beautiful! On saturday a large group spent the day on the boat fishing and diving, and Stacey and River and I stayed around camp to greet those who would slowly show up over the course of the day.

Stacey and I had a great time snorkeling in the bay. I have never seen a coral reef as large as this. The bay was dead calm, and the water was ridiculously clear. We spearfished for awhile with no luck. It's usually easier to sneak up on fish when the water is rough, so with all the clear water they could see you coming from a mile away.

Along this beach are a few homes that are absolutely extravagant. One is owned by the person who apparently invented the pacemaker, and another owned by Paul Mitchell. The latter was hand carved in Bali by supposedly 200 Balinese workers who were paid 1.50 a day. The home was brought in pieces to the Big Island and assembled.

There are several "Queen's Baths" located at this spot, which are freshwater ponds. This is one of my favorite things about the Big Island, all the freshwater so close to the beach. Here you can see all the palms that thrive off the freshwater springs clustered together in the middle of a barren lava field. The water is super cool and feels great!

Some of you might remember the post when I mentioned the tiger shark that our friend Tracey saw from a helicopter. This is where that took place. Unfortunately we weren't able to observe a tiger shark this trip ;).

On the way out on sunday, Mike took us to a lava tube off the beaten path. We hiked over jagged lava to get to this spot. He was shown this spot by one of the caretakers of the Bali house. It is incredible! We crawled way into this cave and came upon more freshwater. It was really neat to see. Probably 100 yards into this cave is a deep (20ft) spring of cold, fresh water. And it is completely pitch black in there if you turn off your flashlight. The water felt great, and it was a great ending to the weekend. We will have to take some of you to this spot when you come visit.

This trip was a blast, not surprisingly. Next week we are celebrating my birthday, as well as a Alan's bday, by heading to the east side (Puna) and camping at a friends cabin. It should be a good time and good story to come.......

Local Kine Crittahs

See if you can find the critter in this picture. It is very good at blending in.

It is a praying mantis that I saw from our lanai. It was on the mailbox when I first saw it, and by the time I got the camera and got downstairs it had moved to the bushes. I almost couldnt find it. Very cool creatures, but it did creep me out a bit when it turned it's head and looked at me!

This little guy crawled inside River's water bucket and took a drink. No wonder they get so big, they have plenty of bugs and water to eat and drink.

This is Mashtun, our neighbor Ryan's cat. It has taken awhile for him and River to become friends, and they still have their moments. But things are getting better between them with each day.

Heres a shot of River and DiDi, who is Matt's kitty. Right after this, DiDi got a little too close to River's food and River chased her off. Not very fair considering that River eats both cat's food every chance she gets.

Hope you enjoyed the critter report.

Manta Dive

I know most of you have already seen the video from this trip, but I thought I would put it up on the blog so that the people not on facebook could see as well.

We left out of Honokohau Harbor around 3:30pm heading north toward the airport. After we arrived, we spent some time snorkeling around and checking the place out. As the sun set, we were briefed on what we should expect to see. Our group were the only ones that weren't diving, so we let everyone get geared up and in the water first. We were each given a dive light that would help attract the plankton that the mantas eat. There were several other boats in the same spot, and everyone else had lights as well. One boat set up a few lights on the bottom. Everyone sits in a circle on the sea floor and shines their lights upward. The mantas came around quickly, some were even swimming around the boat before it got dark.

Some of these mantas have been coming to this spot for over thirty years. Each one has been filmed, identified, and named. Some of them have distinctive markings, like missing cephalic lobes (the fin near their mouth), fish hooks stuck in them, missing tails, etc.. The largest we saw had a wingspan of nearly 15ft. These creatures can grow to have almost double that further offshore. Despite their size, they are incredibly graceful and harmless. They will swim RIGHT up to you. If they got too close we were instructed to either turn off our dive light, or shine it against our chest so the plankton would disappear. Once you had a bunch of plankton swimming around you, the mantas would come right up and start doing somersaults in front of your face, catching as much plankton as possible. All you had to do was remain still.

After awhile the plankton started to disappear, and so did the mantas. We were in the water with an approximate total of 20-25 of them at one time. Some of the close-up pics really show the swarms of plankton. They can also give you an idea of how big these creatures mouths are! All in all, this was a great experience that I would recommend to anyone.