FIFTY STATES AWAYToday began with unknown opportunity, and a fair dose of tropical rain, whilst it was still pleasantly warm, the weather then cheered up significantly, giving way to a gorgeous day. We were undecided on which of the activities we were going to do today, but after realising one of them would require a three hour hike (too soon after yesterday’s hike), the other we’d gotten up a little too late to participate, we settled on a morning snorkel and a much needed chill out afternoon. The best place for snorkeling on the island happens to be at a little place called two-step in Honaunau Bay, five minutes down the road from us!
Unfortunately the snorkeling today for me, was a rather ungraceful affair and certainly not my finest moment. At a place called two step, after climbing over the sun baked black lava rock, we then had to clamber down a further set of slippery, holey, moss covered rocks. After some firm words with myself that moss is not seaweed (I can’t stand seaweed eurgh), I attempted the decent, unaware of the next challenge.
Contained in the little holes in these rocks are sea urchins, black and dark brown ones. Great just what I needed! I was trying to avoid hitting any of them with my flippers or sitting on any as they looked rather sharp. This was of course extremely difficult and unfortunately I did squeal more than a few times unsure if I had made contact with one of the poor things. After successfully navigating my way into the water (Ben offered to go first, such a gentleman!) I proceeded to fail badly at snorkeling.
The water here is exceptionally salty, more so than normal beach water. I know this because I managed to choke and consume a fair amount of it (yup gross). Ben remained calm and helped me to at least enjoy some of the experience and see some really cool coral and fish, the water is incredibly clear and relatively warm, I really wouldn’t have managed without Ben. I decided after a couple of hours that I’d had enough, my mask kept filling up with water, which did nothing to help the fact that I already felt like I’d drunk most of the sea. I turned around to go back and made it to the rocks, where unfortunately for me at this point the tide had really picked up.
The waves were very strong and the rocks seemed to be even more slippery and harder to hold onto. As I was trying to get out a large wave pulled me back into the water and then another huge wave threw me back into the rocks knocking one of my flippers off. Unfortunately during this tussle I cut my finger on a rock and stuck another finger into a sea urchin (I think the spiky little thing was OK)! It was a hideously gross experience. I tried again to get out, being pulled back in to the water only to be thrown back out again, this time landing on a rock, leaving me with a rather bruised bottom! I did eventually make it out but I think no more snorkeling for me unless it’s shallow, off the sand, warm, clear water!
Moving past this experience 😛 we went for lunch with our friends (we have decided to refer to the local people in the first place we went to eat as our friends, due to the fact that they made us feel so welcome)! For some much needed cheering up and as every they were positive and bright and thrilled that we’d come back! Today on the menu was Kailua pork (local to the area) and cabbage for me, Ben had the pork Laulau, again a very tasty meal all round. We headed back to the ranch for a nap and some chill out time, also discovering that our lizard friend is still around.
