My flight into Kona was uneventful, on all the legs RDU/DFW-DFW/LAX-LAX/KOA, I was lucky enough to have at least one vacant seat in my row. I met another member of the trip group (Ceci) in LA as we discovered we were both flying in early and were on the same flight. We were greeted at the airport in Kona by 2 of the guys from the trip, who had arrived the day before, and they whisked us off to our hotel.
Saturday morning about 6am, Kevin, John and I drove up to Kilauea National Park (Ceci, being the non morning person she is opted to hang out at the hotel). On the way we found a cute little breakfast restaurant, which probably catered more to locals then tourists and had a wonderful breakfast.
We then continued on to the Volcano (in total it was about a 2 hour drive from the hotel). As luck would have it there was some sort of celebration and ceremony that day and the entry fees were waived until noon, so we scooted on in and stopped at the visitor station.
Our intent was to hike out to the lava, at a point were we could actually see it glowing and flowing. As luck would have it that part of the park is closed because the 28 acres we would need to hike to was closed off to visitors. Guess they did not want anyone near the unstable ground when it crashed into the ocean, which they expected to happen any time. We continued to drive around the park and stop at various viewpoints and gazed upon the lava rock and the vegetation that grows in that sort of environment. We also were able to view numerous steam spouts, on particularly large one was like walking into a sauna, a great 1-minute facial.
We continue down to an area were lava rock meets ocean and viewed in wonderment as the waves crashed against the lava rock, truly a sight to see.
Well by this time it was getting late and we had to head back to the hotel so Kevin could drop off the car and head back to the airport to meet the rest of the group. The hotel was going to be our central meeting spot for our party of 9 (the Kona Aggressor holds 14 but we had only 9 slots). We then sat around and chatted until the appointed time when we could board the vessel. Due to the Homeland Security Act and the numerous other boats sharing the dock we had a very short window to board, and that would have been at 5pm on Saturday.
Once on board and shown to our rooms we began to get settled in. There was a welcome party where the crew introduced themselves. There was Captain Rob, 2nd Captain Johnatha, Robert our professionally trained Chef (was that food good), Auvie, Mike who was working in Investment Banking until he felt the call of the ocean and Pam who was a highly paid consultant for one of those companies that installs big computer systems. I sure give her credit for walking away from the big bucks and stress to work on a dive boat at a real fraction of the money ----- you go girl!
The other 5 guests consisted of a lovely couple form England on holiday in the States for about 4 weeks, a couple from Florida who really didnt socialize much, and a guy from Maryland, so this was our happy little family for the week. We all then sat down to a scrumcious dinner prepared by Robert.
The schedule was pretty much breakfast, morning dive, snack of home baked cookies or muffins a roughly a 2-hour surface interval and a 2nd dive. After the second dive the boat was repositioned and we enjoyed amazing lunches prepared by Robert during our surface intervals. After lunch we would do 3 dives at the next sight, 2 afternoon dives and a night diver. Of course our surface intervals were enhanced by snacks and dinner during our non-diving time. We always went in as a group with a Dive Master, but it was your choice to stick with the DM or venture out on your own. The water was pretty much 80 degrees the entire week.
On Sunday morning (8/28) we had a great breakfast prior to our first stop at Aquarium, we saw an octopus, turtle and lots and lots gorgeous butterfly fish, and several eels, mostly the white mouth moray to name a few. On the second dive we had the opportunity to swim through the lava tubes, which was pretty cool in itself. The coral was amazing and if you looked carefully you could see all kinds of critters hiding inside, there are very few soft corals around the big island, mostly hard corals and rock reefs sometimes rock other times lava rocks, either way amazingly awesome.
After lunch we arrived at Eel Gardens, and got another treat with the terrain and the life around it. Eel Gardens is right next to the spot where the Manta Night Dive is held. I am not a night diver, I hate night diving and in my 11 ½ years of diving had only done 2 previous and those were more then 10 years ago, once so I could get my advanced certification the other well, was an effort to make my ex-boyfriend happy. However I really wanted top see the Mantas so I decided I would just DO IT! Its not that I am afraid to dive at night, or that I cant, I have enough experience to do lots of things I choose not to do, but honestly I just dont see what others find so great about them. On our second dive at this site we saw many of the same things, but the highlight of this dive this dive the sighting of a frogfish firmly planted in a hole.
When we left the boat for the night dive there were already 2 other dive boats there with a few divers each already in the manta circle area. Plankton is attracted to the light which in turn attracts the Mantas, sort of like a plankton buffet! We only had one guest that night Big Bertha who is the biggest manta of them all 16 across, she gave us a wonderful show. There is a photo below taken (by Ken Kurtis), I cannot guarantee it was Bertha as we had several more manta sightings during the week, but I did want to post a photo. After about 40 minutes we all headed back towards the boat and called it a night.
Monday morning (8/29) we headed to Driftwood for the morning. Highlight of this dive was a turtle who swam right into our group. After lunch we moved to Twin Sisters (aka Robs Reef), for the afternoon/evening dives.. There were some amazing lava caves there that Jason would probably drool over and most everyone went in. I opted to hang outside and watch the critters. There was a gorgeous sea rose just next to my perch, I had never seen one of those before. On every dive we also saw lots of very interesting colorful nudibranks. After dinner it was time for the dreaded night dives, I opted to opt out of the night dive as I had already done 4 that day and 5 the day prior and did not want to over do it. Not to mention I dont much care for night dives. However we had Roxanne Manta pay the back of the dive platform a visit and we got a real treat watching her do all sorts of back rolls for us. All the mantas at least around the Kona area are named and documented. Each manta has a unique set of spots on the underbelly, which is how they are identified. There was a manta identification book on the boat that showed photos of all the known mantas in the area so they could be identified.
Tuesday, (8/30) In the morning we headed to Manuka Bay Channels. On this dive I saw several Crown of Thorn starfish, some two toned Anthias, Agile Crmin, more morays, butterfly, porcupine, puffer, several stars, and a host of other fish. On the 2nd dive were we were fortunate enough to find the very rare Red Crocodile Snake buried in the sand. This photo was taken by (John Morgan). If you did not know what you were looking for you could have easily swam right past this thing thinking it was some sort of rock.
The English woman was not feeling well this morning so she choose to sit out the first dive. When we got back to the boat we leaned DAN had been called and she was on O2. It was determined she likely had the skin bends (the best kind to get if your going get them, not that skin bends are good either, but relatively speaking it is the most mild). She rested most of the day.
Tuesday Afternoon we arrived at Okoe Bay, this site produced Oval Butterfly fish, Lincka Stars, and the most amazing Sunstar I think I have ever seen. On my second dive at this site I saw a very small Dwarf Moray, hiding in some coral, he was only about 6 long and yellowish in color, a real cutie another interesting fish was the Female Whitley Boxfish hanging out under a ledge.
We held our night dive at this site, I didnt do the night dive because I simply dont like them, but those of us still on the boat were lucky enough to get a visit from Manta Vicky. Vicky gave us a nice show for probably an hour or more. They are so graceful and sleek but so large in size, truly amazing. We also had a bottle nose dolphin come and play.
Wednesday (8-31) in the morning we headed to Never Neverland were I saw some Banded Angels, Pyramid Butterflies, and Tinkers Butterfly. As I was getting off the boat I looked over to my left and saw yet another manta. I had already handed my camera up, and one of my fins, but all I could say was manta, manta, manta. Apparently no one on the dive deck saw it and when my dive buddy asked where it was, I told her right next to you, apparently she had not seen it either. I was accused of seeing mantas. However as other divers came up the confirmed my story. This was a very brief visit and we were unable to identify this one.
After our 2nd dive we learned we had to head back into port to take the English woman to the hospital to be evaluated as she was not improving and we followed instructions from DAN. While on the way back into port we spotted a Whale Shark who decided to cruise along with us for a time (Photo taken by Ken Kurtis). What an awesome sighting. As a result of having to go into port we had to miss our 2 afternoon dives. Last I heard she was transferred to Oahu where there was a chamber.
Saturday morning about 6am, Kevin, John and I drove up to Kilauea National Park (Ceci, being the non morning person she is opted to hang out at the hotel). On the way we found a cute little breakfast restaurant, which probably catered more to locals then tourists and had a wonderful breakfast.
We then continued on to the Volcano (in total it was about a 2 hour drive from the hotel). As luck would have it there was some sort of celebration and ceremony that day and the entry fees were waived until noon, so we scooted on in and stopped at the visitor station.
Our intent was to hike out to the lava, at a point were we could actually see it glowing and flowing. As luck would have it that part of the park is closed because the 28 acres we would need to hike to was closed off to visitors. Guess they did not want anyone near the unstable ground when it crashed into the ocean, which they expected to happen any time. We continued to drive around the park and stop at various viewpoints and gazed upon the lava rock and the vegetation that grows in that sort of environment. We also were able to view numerous steam spouts, on particularly large one was like walking into a sauna, a great 1-minute facial.
We continue down to an area were lava rock meets ocean and viewed in wonderment as the waves crashed against the lava rock, truly a sight to see.
Well by this time it was getting late and we had to head back to the hotel so Kevin could drop off the car and head back to the airport to meet the rest of the group. The hotel was going to be our central meeting spot for our party of 9 (the Kona Aggressor holds 14 but we had only 9 slots). We then sat around and chatted until the appointed time when we could board the vessel. Due to the Homeland Security Act and the numerous other boats sharing the dock we had a very short window to board, and that would have been at 5pm on Saturday.
Once on board and shown to our rooms we began to get settled in. There was a welcome party where the crew introduced themselves. There was Captain Rob, 2nd Captain Johnatha, Robert our professionally trained Chef (was that food good), Auvie, Mike who was working in Investment Banking until he felt the call of the ocean and Pam who was a highly paid consultant for one of those companies that installs big computer systems. I sure give her credit for walking away from the big bucks and stress to work on a dive boat at a real fraction of the money ----- you go girl!
The other 5 guests consisted of a lovely couple form England on holiday in the States for about 4 weeks, a couple from Florida who really didnt socialize much, and a guy from Maryland, so this was our happy little family for the week. We all then sat down to a scrumcious dinner prepared by Robert.
The schedule was pretty much breakfast, morning dive, snack of home baked cookies or muffins a roughly a 2-hour surface interval and a 2nd dive. After the second dive the boat was repositioned and we enjoyed amazing lunches prepared by Robert during our surface intervals. After lunch we would do 3 dives at the next sight, 2 afternoon dives and a night diver. Of course our surface intervals were enhanced by snacks and dinner during our non-diving time. We always went in as a group with a Dive Master, but it was your choice to stick with the DM or venture out on your own. The water was pretty much 80 degrees the entire week.
On Sunday morning (8/28) we had a great breakfast prior to our first stop at Aquarium, we saw an octopus, turtle and lots and lots gorgeous butterfly fish, and several eels, mostly the white mouth moray to name a few. On the second dive we had the opportunity to swim through the lava tubes, which was pretty cool in itself. The coral was amazing and if you looked carefully you could see all kinds of critters hiding inside, there are very few soft corals around the big island, mostly hard corals and rock reefs sometimes rock other times lava rocks, either way amazingly awesome.
After lunch we arrived at Eel Gardens, and got another treat with the terrain and the life around it. Eel Gardens is right next to the spot where the Manta Night Dive is held. I am not a night diver, I hate night diving and in my 11 ½ years of diving had only done 2 previous and those were more then 10 years ago, once so I could get my advanced certification the other well, was an effort to make my ex-boyfriend happy. However I really wanted top see the Mantas so I decided I would just DO IT! Its not that I am afraid to dive at night, or that I cant, I have enough experience to do lots of things I choose not to do, but honestly I just dont see what others find so great about them. On our second dive at this site we saw many of the same things, but the highlight of this dive this dive the sighting of a frogfish firmly planted in a hole.
When we left the boat for the night dive there were already 2 other dive boats there with a few divers each already in the manta circle area. Plankton is attracted to the light which in turn attracts the Mantas, sort of like a plankton buffet! We only had one guest that night Big Bertha who is the biggest manta of them all 16 across, she gave us a wonderful show. There is a photo below taken (by Ken Kurtis), I cannot guarantee it was Bertha as we had several more manta sightings during the week, but I did want to post a photo. After about 40 minutes we all headed back towards the boat and called it a night.
Monday morning (8/29) we headed to Driftwood for the morning. Highlight of this dive was a turtle who swam right into our group. After lunch we moved to Twin Sisters (aka Robs Reef), for the afternoon/evening dives.. There were some amazing lava caves there that Jason would probably drool over and most everyone went in. I opted to hang outside and watch the critters. There was a gorgeous sea rose just next to my perch, I had never seen one of those before. On every dive we also saw lots of very interesting colorful nudibranks. After dinner it was time for the dreaded night dives, I opted to opt out of the night dive as I had already done 4 that day and 5 the day prior and did not want to over do it. Not to mention I dont much care for night dives. However we had Roxanne Manta pay the back of the dive platform a visit and we got a real treat watching her do all sorts of back rolls for us. All the mantas at least around the Kona area are named and documented. Each manta has a unique set of spots on the underbelly, which is how they are identified. There was a manta identification book on the boat that showed photos of all the known mantas in the area so they could be identified.
Tuesday, (8/30) In the morning we headed to Manuka Bay Channels. On this dive I saw several Crown of Thorn starfish, some two toned Anthias, Agile Crmin, more morays, butterfly, porcupine, puffer, several stars, and a host of other fish. On the 2nd dive were we were fortunate enough to find the very rare Red Crocodile Snake buried in the sand. This photo was taken by (John Morgan). If you did not know what you were looking for you could have easily swam right past this thing thinking it was some sort of rock.
The English woman was not feeling well this morning so she choose to sit out the first dive. When we got back to the boat we leaned DAN had been called and she was on O2. It was determined she likely had the skin bends (the best kind to get if your going get them, not that skin bends are good either, but relatively speaking it is the most mild). She rested most of the day.
Tuesday Afternoon we arrived at Okoe Bay, this site produced Oval Butterfly fish, Lincka Stars, and the most amazing Sunstar I think I have ever seen. On my second dive at this site I saw a very small Dwarf Moray, hiding in some coral, he was only about 6 long and yellowish in color, a real cutie another interesting fish was the Female Whitley Boxfish hanging out under a ledge.
We held our night dive at this site, I didnt do the night dive because I simply dont like them, but those of us still on the boat were lucky enough to get a visit from Manta Vicky. Vicky gave us a nice show for probably an hour or more. They are so graceful and sleek but so large in size, truly amazing. We also had a bottle nose dolphin come and play.
Wednesday (8-31) in the morning we headed to Never Neverland were I saw some Banded Angels, Pyramid Butterflies, and Tinkers Butterfly. As I was getting off the boat I looked over to my left and saw yet another manta. I had already handed my camera up, and one of my fins, but all I could say was manta, manta, manta. Apparently no one on the dive deck saw it and when my dive buddy asked where it was, I told her right next to you, apparently she had not seen it either. I was accused of seeing mantas. However as other divers came up the confirmed my story. This was a very brief visit and we were unable to identify this one.
After our 2nd dive we learned we had to head back into port to take the English woman to the hospital to be evaluated as she was not improving and we followed instructions from DAN. While on the way back into port we spotted a Whale Shark who decided to cruise along with us for a time (Photo taken by Ken Kurtis). What an awesome sighting. As a result of having to go into port we had to miss our 2 afternoon dives. Last I heard she was transferred to Oahu where there was a chamber.
