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A first-ever trip to Hawaii. My expectations are high, but the islands exceeded my wildest dreams. The islands are stunning, spectacular, magical, incredible. Maureen and I will return soon.

Hawaiian Islands, part 1

Domz
2004-04-06 18:41:40

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The setting is pure Hawaii beach with powdery golden sand, abundant coconut trees, and glistening surf. While there, I seek a way to harvest a fresh coconut. Since it seems impossible to climb the trees, I begin hurling large lava rocks at them. Finally, after about 40 throws, I knock one down and Maureen and I enjoy its sweet coconut milk.

That afternoon, we set out again with Big Island Divers for an afternoon dive at Garden Eel Cove just before sunset. Once at the bottom, we are told to sit motionlessly and watch out over the ocean floor. What emerged with our 70 feet of visibility were hundreds and hundreds of small, twig-like, black Garden Eel, something I had not seen before. We spot Trumpetfish, Moray Eel, Yellow Tang, Stripe Belly Puffers, Achilles Tang, Ornate Butterfish, Orangeband Surgeonfish, Orangespine Unicornfish, Saddle Wrasse, Moorish Idol, Yellowfin Surgeonfish, Bullethead Parrotfish, and Teardrop Butterfly fish. Then, after the dive, we wait on the boat for THE MAIN ATTRACTION. The world-famous Manta Ray Night Dive off of Big Island. We are told in advance that this is a "must" dive. We are not prepared for the wonders of the show that awaited us. We are speechless afterward.

The dive begins by having each of the 6-8 of us on our dive boat descend to the bottom of Garden Eel Cove (about 35 feet) after sunset. There, we kneel down in a circle, and raise our powerful halogen lights upward so that the light points straight up to the surface. Soon, the enchantment begins. First, very dense white clouds of plankton are attracted to the beams of light we cast above us. Suddenly, quite large, graceful manta rays-six in all-start their magnificent feeding ballet on the plankton we have concentrated above us. Holding the light just above our foreheads means that the thickest concentration of plankton is just above our heads, and this, therefore, became the feeding target of the rays. They would glide above us, ...