Kealakekua Bay

The girls were in Target for over an hour while I chilled in the parking lot and came out with 2 bathing suits for Jakobi. I made good use of the time charging our phones and drying our towels and bathing suits on the hot hood of the car. We then drove to the bookstore for the 4th time and Ambiana, Jakobi and I all got new Books. Ambiana is reading her 3rd Jonathan Green YA novel of the trip, Jakobi is working her way through The Land of Stories and I got TC Boyle’s Road to Wellville.

We then drove back south to Napo’po Rd where our shady parking spot at the top of the hill near the trailhead was waiting for us. This is the easy hike of the 3 we have planned for this trip. 3.8 miles round trip over 2 days.

I smoked a little weed while Colleen organized and packed and then down the trail we went against the upcoming tide of early morning hikers. The grass was really tall the 1st 3rd of the trail, the trees a shady tunnel on the middle third and the last 3rd was all on exposed lava ridges to the bottom.

Kealakekua Bay was packed; 3 zodiac snorkel boats, a large pontoon snorkel boat, about 30 kayaks and people spread out all over the jetty including on the grass inside the chains of the monument to Captain James Cook.

I never thought to settle there on previous trips here but why not Cook is not the sacred god Lono, he opened the way for all this we see before us to come to the islands so there is no reason we should not spread our stuff around the phallic obelisk that commemorates the spot where Cook met his untimely end.

Hot and sweaty from our high heat of the day hike we quickly got into our bathing suits and dove into the blue water of the bay with our snorkel gear.

The coral is no longer technicolor vivid as it was in my first visit here in 1996 and a lot of it is dead So many snorkelers in life vest and hanging on noodles. No one dives down and I have the 15′ beneath the surface space to myself though coming up can be hazardous as I found out when I surfaced right up and into a woman snorkeling above me.

The girls did a quick swim and retreated into their books while Colleen made friends with an Italian girl who was a bit nervous about getting in the water this being her very first snorkel.

The Fair Wind II (Snorkel Boat i remember from each visit here back to ’96) arrived for the 3 0o’clock snorkel trip and opened up its twin water slides and the horde descended the back staicase and took inner tubes to wallow in as the gazed at the colorful fish below.I had a swim over remembering the time I took my water jug out for a refill on my 3 day camping trip here. I swam around the boat and to the arch beneath the massive cliff and floated at its entrance watching the ocean rise and fall and rush through it.

We stayed at the monument as the boats and kayaks and hikers took their leave until it was just us and our backpacks. We then hiked through the scrub along the shore until we came out on the solidified lava flows and made our way around the point to our white sand oasis among the green palm trees and black folds of lava.

Colleen stung up her hammock and moved stones around while I set up the tent. The girls once again retreated into their books while I walked the lava cliffs above the sea watching i the swell rise and receed as the sun sank and a crescent moon appeared.

Colleen cooked us a yummy meal and as night descended so did a steady drizzle driving us into our tent cave to read and sleep and dream.

Awake at 6:30am I was up alone for an hour of gradually returning sun; I made breakfast for later, made poo, took the hammock down before the girls stirred.

We then packed up as quickly as we set up last night and began our hike out, pausing as we rounded the point so Jakobi could make poo.

Already there were 5 SUP’s (stand up paddle boards) and 3 kayaks in the bay. Then it was up and out against the downcoming tide of early morning hikers.

We hiked spread out with Ambiana in the lead and me taking up the rear and were up and out and back to our car by 9:30am and ready to head North.

Hapuna Beach

After hiking out of Kealakekua Bay we drove North to Kona to re-supply food and to print out our Waimanu permit then it was North along the lava strewn and newly developed coast towards Hapuna Beach which being a Sunday was PACKED.

We parked outside the park and made our way through the overfilled parking lot to thebeach where we hung in the shade of the southern cliffs.

The water was just as packed as the beach with boogie boarders in the surf line to ride the big swells that were coming in. We joined the throng but after being run over for the nth time I retreated to the beach to read and people watch. Off to the Northwest Mau’i and the 10,000′ crater of Haleakala were visible offshore.

Jakobi stayed in the surf just outside the breakers for three hours, boy she really loves the ocean we though but when I joined her I found out she was hovering near a ten year old or so foreign boogie boarder she calls beach boy.

Colleen and Ambiana had a heart to heart mother daughter talk and wrestled in the sand. I rejoined the throng for sunset body surfing but it was still too crowded. Lots of people stayed for sunset only leaving as it got dark.

We gathered our stuff and moved to one of the shelters to cook dinner and then held a pow wow to decide where we would spend the night. Our beach neighbors that day were a backpacking couple from Vancouver and they had spent the night in the scrub land to the south above the cliffs and since we didn’t have a place to spend the night nailed down we thought then why not just camp out someplace near here but now thought why not just sleep here on the beach. It was now empty save for a group of teenagers who were dong the same thing down by the southern cliffs.

We stretched out on the sand on our tarp and let the stars roll over us. It was beautifully clear and there was a small moon slowly sinking into the sea. It was chilly with the wind blowing and I wrapped myself in the tent fly and had tsunami dreams and soon it was morning again and people were filtering onto the beach and the early boogie boarders were already out in the waves. As usual I was up first and took a morning swim before the girls roused and we packed up eating a quick breakfast in the shelter before moving on.