Trip to Hawaii - Day 11 Sat Dec 11

This started out not so great. Apparently the taxi to the airport was going to cost us 28. Ouch! And the airport was a ½ hour in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. My bad. I’ll have to work out better transportation for next time.

But we finally arrive at the place of refuge. We paid 5 so we could park the car in the refuge parking area. The attendant told us how to get to 2 steps. Basically walk past the park entrance and then there’s a one way street. Take that street and you’ll see all the people on the rocks. But watch for the sea urchins in the notches in the rocks. I wouldn’t walk around with bare feet around here.

Note: there’s also an area on the left hand side of the two steps that might be helpful for getting in and out. But it is a little closer to the park so I’m not sure if they’d frown on using it as an entry way or not.

Back to snorkelling:
This was the BEST snorkelling we’ve done the whole trip. The water was clear and there was a multitude of fish. Steve spotted some dolphins to the far right of us. In deeper less clear water but we headed over there and did get some shots. Towards the edge of this area I believe I saw a small spotted eagle ray. But we had camera issues (again) so I’ll never know for sure.

And then, as I’m zooming in on some smaller fish underneath me, to my surprise, a group of dolphins swims just under me! I don’t think I’ve ever backed off the zoom that fast. And were they curious. I’m pretty sure that I could have just reached out and touch them.

But that’s not all.

I’m cruising around a little bit more and I see a turtle resting near some coral at the bottom. I show it to Steve and we watch it for awhile. But the turtle wasn’t moving around too much. And just as we’d both given up on him, he decides to come up for some air. Steve’s camera got some great shots with his camera (thank goodness).

By this time I’m getting cold so I suggest we head for shore. We clean up a bit and then use the restrooms at the park. We do a quick look around the place of refuge. Take a couple of pics – including one of a turtle up on the beach and decide we should head back.

I wanted to check out a little marketplace I saw when we were coming back from the airport. I even managed to find the Quilt shop that Karen and I visited the last time we were in Kona. I got some material for my future grandbaby – boy style and girl style. I'll sew something up when I find out which it will be.

It’s too bad we didn’t explore more, but we had to be back on board by 5.

Time really does fly when you’re in Hawaii.