We took a vacation to Hawaii for Christmas this year and had a blast. We spent our time on the Big Island snorkeling, hiking, and relaxing. I got a Panasonic Lumix TS2 waterproof camera to take out snorkeling and had a lot of fun learning the difference between air and water photography. White balance underwater is a real challenge, and I struggled with it the whole trip. Additionally, water is never still, and the small ripples present even in protected areas really jostle the arms around, making most pictures rather blurry. I got off a few good shots, though (mostly by switching out of the underwater mode so that I could decrease the exposure time and do manual white balancing), and I've had fun identifying all the fish. We also spent some time on land at Volcanoes National Park and at various places hiking along the coast.
This is part 3. Part 1 is here, and part 2 is here.
The Hilo Coast
We spent the 26th on the Hilo side of the island. Although it's usually the rainy side, this was the only day we had much sunshine.
First, we went to Akaka Falls State Park. This is the path through the park.
Very lush.
The falls.
Another view of the falls.
The water landed at the bottom with considerable force.
Here's a video of the waterfall so you can get a better sense of the force.
From the road, we could see Mauna Kea Observatory.
We also went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, which was stunning.
A path in the garden.
Nancy under some hanging Lobster Claws.
A long-exposure picture of a waterfall.
Kahalu'u Beach Park
On the last day, we woke up in Volcano and went into the park to look at the crater. Then, we drove back to Kailua Kona to snorkel some more. We checked in early to Uncle Billy's Kona Bay Hotel (we met Uncle Billy, and, by startling coincidence, he has two grandsons at Mesa State College in Grand Junction), left our luggage in the room, and headed out snorkeling at Kahalu'u Beach Park. It's a lovely beach with a fairly nice reef. It's not as healthy as the others because it's highly trafficked (the beach has lifeguards, breaking waves for surfers, nice sand, showers, and it's right in town). But the fish were very tame and let us get closer than at the other places, so that made up for it. After we were done, we went back to the hotel, washed our stuff, showered, went out to dinner, and then checked out of the hotel to make our 9pm flight. Just about the most civilized way to do a red-eye I can think of.
A couple of Convict Tang.
An Orangeband Surgeonfish.
A Yellowtail Coris.
A large female Redlipped Parrotfish with a Saddle Wrasse.
An Orangespine Unicornfish.
A large group of Orangespine Unicornfish were feeding.
Suddenly, they decided they had someplace they'd rather be and they left in a long stream.
A couple of Sailfin Tangs and a Parrotfish.
A Peacock Grouper and a Snowflake Eel.
A Reef Triggerfish (Humuhumunukunukuapua'a).
A Rockmover Wrasse.
A Raccoon Butterflyfish
The blue fish with the spotted back is a Spotted Boxfish.
A Hawaiian White Spotted Puffer.
Here are some of the movies I captured at Kahalu'u.
