Matt and I went on our first Dive Club dive last Saturday. It was supposed to be a shore dive off of the North Shore but the surf was still too rough (4-8 ft), so the site was changed to Electric Beach. Dive Club dives are pot-luck style so we spent the day eating some delicious food, going on a couple of great dives, and meeting some really nice people. One of those people, a guy named Abner, came with us on our two dives.
We started by making our way to the turtle caves. We saw a turtle and swam with it for a little bit...
...and we also found our first shark:
It was about 6', and we almost missed it because it was hidden in the shadow of the overhang. Matt spotted it, though, because of the light reflecting off of the white tips of its fins. Guess what kind of shark it is? White Tip Reef Shark. The name makes so much sense.
After this, Matt saw another shark (about 4') swimming away and decided to follow it. We swam behind it until we came to another very vibrant part of the reef. The shark swam into one of the overhanging structures and avoided the video we tried to get of it. However, we did get some great shots of the other wildlife:
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| School of blue-stripe snapper |
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| So many! |
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| Hey! Where ya goin'? |
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| Ahh...Matt Attack. |
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| Another shot of the reef. So much life! |
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| I was about to scrap this shot, until I looked closely and saw that one of us accidentally got a photo of another shark. You can see the slightly lighter line under the overhang. That's probably the 4' guy we were chasing. |
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| Pincushion seastar - so vibrant! I saw another one that was bright blue and rich purple, but didn't have a chance to get a good shot. Maybe next time. |
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| Yellow coral with two Yellow Tang |
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| A boxfish. I love these little guys. |
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| Brilliant green coral |
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| The brown guy is a lizardfish, if you google image search it, there are some crazy pictures. The blue guy is a Hawaiian Sergeant fish - they love jumping in my pictures. |
Here is a video mashup of clips from our dives. Matt filmed all three:
The first part shows the school of snapper and some other divers, the second shows you a little more of the area of the reef we were exploring, the third shows the shark we found (at a different part of the reef).
We ended our second dive by hanging around the end of the pipe. We watched some turtles feeding along the rocks, below the main current. All of a sudden, one of the turtles swam too high and got swept up by the current and tossed like a leaf in the wind. We watched him try to make his way back down for a little bit, and then started to make our own way back. The turtle decided to join us and caught up with our group and then slowed down to swim next to Matt for a while.
We left Electric Beach feeling very accomplished and decided to go a step further in our adventuring and go on the Makapu'u Point Hike. It's a mostly paved trail that starts past Hawaii Kai/Koko Head along the East Coast of the island.
On the way up, we saw a ton of catci.
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| cactuses? |
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| petrified cactus |
As we were walking along the trail, we kept seeing small side trails that led nowhere or into thick vegetation:
Matt and I couldn't help but think that we were a part of some Lost episode. It turns out that we weren't too crazy in thinking that, seeing as they filmed a good chunk of the show here:
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| The giant tower is a prop they built for the show |
Pretty cool. As we continued along the hike, there were some places among the breakers that caused "blowholes". Water from caverns in the cliff side would burst out and shoot up into the air with the added pressure of the surf. I didn't get a picture of this, but here is some ridiculously blue surf.
As we walked the path, I was on the lookout for humpback whales. This part of the ocean is designated as a national sanctuary for the whales. Unfortunately, we didn't see any this time. A little further up the trail, we caught a side view of our destination. There is an alternate path that takes you directly to the lighthouse (you can see it bordered by the fence). Matt and I walked the path that takes you above the lighthouse, though I'd like to try this one sometime.
Views from the top!
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| looking up the coast |
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| The big one is Rabbit Island, named because it looks like a large rabbit head rising out of the ocean. The smaller one is Kaohikiapu Islet. I believe both are bird sanctuaries. |
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| Apparently, this lighthouse has the biggest lens of any lighthouse in service in the US and is the 3rd highest light in the country. The more you know... |
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| Views of Koko Head (first mound), Hanauma Bay (smaller and to the left), and Diamond head is a small speck to the right of Koko Crater |
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| Clearer views of Diamond Head |
And, finally, the obligatory warning sign:
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| albeit unconventional |
A leak in the back of a boat is a stern warning.
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