Diving & Snorkeling in Kona

The Diving

Though we were there for 2 weeks we only did 4 days of diving. But we also did 2 days of snorkeling that I’m including in this section because I’ve been on some dives where I didn’t see half the amount of fish or any of the activities we saw on those two days of snorkeling.

Snorkeling on the Big Island is just as good as the diving...

Friday 6/4

Our first “day” of diving was actually a late afternoon/night dive with Jacks Diving Locker. Also known as the “Manta Dive”, they make it specifically clear that they don’t guarantee the Mantas showing up. We had originally signed up for this dive hoping to dive with BillB2 and his daughter – but we got stuck on different boats.

Dive 1

Garden Eel

61 ft max

48 minutes

79 degrees

After jumping into the water, the first thing the guides do on this dive is to take you down to around 60 ft to see the Garden Eels. They were out in full force, until you get to close, then they disappear. Being my first dive in Hawaii, I wasn’t familiar with the local fish. There was a variety of butterflyfish, Moorish Idols, filefish, Peacock Grouper, Tangs and parrotfish. I was surprised at the amount of moray eels as well. I was happy with the advice given to me by several board members regarding a 5mm wetsuit. I was so happy I brought that one! On the surface interval, JDL provided sandwiches and water. We waited until the sun went down until we jumped in for our second dive.

Dive 2

Garden Eel

46 ft max

58 minutes

78 degrees

In search of Manta Rays… At this point, there was a good 8-9 boats moored at this site. All the mooring balls were taken and some boats tied into other boats. There had to be 100 divers in the water, all with lights, all kneeling in the sand waiting for manta to show.

Our guide told us that if there weren’t any mantas when we descended, we’d do our tour first. When we got to depth, there were divers everywhere, but no mantas. So off we went. Yellow tangs are abundant off the Kona coast. Apparently yellow is the color of royalty so yellow fish are considered off limits. At night, eels come out of their holes and hunt. We were lucky enough to see one attack and eat a fish. Circle of life, you know. This turned out to be the highlight of the dive as the mantas never showed up.

That night we chatted with BillB2 about getting together the next day for a shore dive. We had heard that Place of Refuge/Honaunau Bay was awesome so we decided that would be our destination. The next morning we picked up tanks and weights from JDL and a fabulous underwater map some divemaster in training must have done, packed a picnic lunch and off we went.

Saturday 6/5

Honaunau Bay is about 45 minutes south of Kailua Kona. Here there is a rather large flat lava rock field by the water that you can leave your dry stuff on (though make sure you know when high tide is!). The entry point is quite easy. It’s known as ‘Two Step’ and literally is a step where you can sit down, gear up and giant stride right into the water.

Dive 3

Place of Refuge

41 ft max

61 minutes

79 degrees

Dive 4

Place of Refuge

41 ft max

38 minutes

80 degrees

This is an absolutely beautiful dive site. There is lots of lava rock and coral formations that are breathtaking. There is a sand patch a bit off to the right from the entry point with ALOHA spelled out in rocks. There is a very healthy fish population complete with yellow tangs, triggerfish, orangeband surgeonfish, orange-spined unicornfish, ornate butterflyfish and so much more. The site is known for its resident turtles. These guys managed to elude us on the first dive. We did a surface interval of about 1-½ hours. We hung out on the rocks eating turkey and roast beef sandwiches while Bill flew back to JDL to pick up a second tank!

The highlight of the day was on the second dive. We FINALLY found not just one but three turtles near the exit point near the surface (hence the short bottom time!). Bill and Michael were being swept into the rocks along with the turtles getting some fabulous shots. I decided to watch from the rock but had to wait to jump out as a baby turtle was eating algae off the exit point. It was an amazing experience to see so many turtles in one place at one time.

Don’t forget to stop at Surfin’ Ass on the way back from Honaunau for some Kona Coffee and donkey balls (chocolate covered mac nuts – YUM!!!).

Sunday 6/6

Today we dove with Dive Makai. We met them at Honokohau Harbor around 7:15am. Here we got an extensive briefing about what we were going to see and what hand signals we’d might encounter. This was our type of dive op. True fish huggers! They advertise they dive in two speeds – slow and stop. Quite true, we hung around fish not just to see them, but observe behaviors such as cleaning, defending and color changing. On the way out of the harbor we saw some spinner dolphins playing in the surf. We were hoping we’d be able to get into the water with them at some point but it never happened.

Dive 5

Lead City

93 ft max

53 minutes

79 degrees

We dropped down to around 100 feet to see Tinker Butterflyfish. These guys are pretty rare as they are quite popular and aren’t shy at all around divers which makes them easy to catch for aquariums. Luckily they are protected here. The population is slowly rebuilding themselves. We worked our way to shallower depths to see orangeband surgeonfish, Banner fish, Banded butterflyfish, several different types of wrasses – even a cleaning station. The surge here was quite challenging at times. There was a ‘cave’ where freezing cold fresh water was coming from. The cave was more like a small hole and I wasn’t looking to get stuck in there. I stuck my head in; the water temp was probably about 50 or so. Kind of reminded me of the quarry. The mixing of the fresh and salt water made like a lens that looked an awful lot like things do in the AM when I don’t have my glasses on. I saw some orange blobs in there I was told were squirrelfish.

Dive 6

Eel Cove

48 ft max

64 minutes

79 degrees

Again, this site was surgy. We swam out along a ‘wall’ but Michael and I primarily stayed under the boat. This proved to be a good thing as it was teaming with fish life. We saw pyramid butterflyfish, unicornfish, banner butterflyfish and ornate butterflyfish. I was milling around by the rocks when I was dive bombed by a turtle. We were near the shore so we were both being sucked in and out of the rocky area with the waves and just checked each other out. On my way back to the boat I saw his brother, sleeping in the rocks.

Monday was a day off from diving as Dive Makai had an all day charter and we were going to a lu’au that night. We went back to Honaunau Bay and toured the Place of Refuge. It is a national historic park and they are in the process of restoring some of the sites. The history behind the place is pretty amazing. In a nutshell, back in the day of Kahmehameha, if you committed a crime (which could be as simple as a commoner casting his shadow on royalty) and you made it to the Place of Refuge – you were absolved of that crime. Anyway, here not only are the turtles in the water, they like to sun themselves on the lava rocks and on the beach. We must have seen a half dozen or so.

Tuesday 6/8

Diving with Dive Makai again!

Dive 7

Garden Eel

62 ft max

62 minutes

79 degrees

Back at Garden Eel – what a different place in the daytime! Went down to the sand to see the garden eels, of course they don’t stick around long enough to have their picture taken! We hadn’t planned on going down to see them but Matthew (our captain and guide) caught our attention to show us a juvenile razorfish hanging out in the sand. He tolerated Michael taking a couple of photos of him! We saw tons of orange spined tangs, Moorish idols, a myriad of butterflyfish and a white spotted puffer on this dive.

Dive 8

Golden Arches

59 ft max

70 minutes

79 degrees

Just under the boat was an arch – hence the name. You can swim thru the arch and thru the school of blue striped snapper hanging out. Saw orangeband surgeonfish changing color and cleaner wrasse cleaning a raccoon butterflyfish. It’s really amazing to see a fish being cleaned. They get so relaxed, that if you are just zipping by you may think that they are sleeping or worse!!! We also saw two Gold Ring Surgeonfish on this dive. They are really beautiful fish. At the end of the dive, I was down to about 300 psi when Alexa came and grabbed me to point out a couple of leaffish in a coral head. Luckily it wasn’t too far away from the boat!

Snorkeling

When we got back from the volcano, we were kind of tired so we decided to snorkel. On Saturday we went to the Little Blue Church on Ali’i Drive – a catholic mass in 20 minutes and the Pacific Ocean thru etched glass right behind the priest. I’d probably be a much better catholic if I lived here!

The beach next door is one of the best snorkeling beaches on the island. Kahalu’u has so many fish, you feel like you have just done a dive. We came across a humuhumunukunukuapua’a. He was making a run at Michael’s mask, camera, and fins. He was definitely attacking. I’ve since read that the males protect the eggs and will even bite a diver defending them! He wasn’t going to let us get anywhere near those eggs, that’s for sure! Michael finally saw the orangeband surgeonfish changing color! Up until this point, he didn’t believe me! We saw a BIG fish, probably a jack, a little further out. He coaxed an eel out of the rocks to go hunting. Its really a great site and doesn’t really get more than 10 feet deep. After a picnic lunch and a nap, we decided to go in for another snorkel. Where we entered the water, there were three turtles, munching on some lunch in the rocks. We came across a cleaning station and we could have hovered over it for hours. Parrotfish, trumpetfish and needlefish were all waiting their turn to be cleaned. We found a school of raccoon butterflyfish, unicornfish, filefish and a school of spiny puffers.

We were planning on diving again on Monday, but after a sleepless night with a storm and Michael waking up with a head cold – we ended up not going. Instead back to Kahalu’u for some afternoon snorkeling. This site didn’t disappoint. I got to swim with a turtle! Towards the end of the snorkel we had just decided to head back to shore when I put my face in the water and there was a turtle. I started yelling into my snorkel and Michael got the hint and he started taking pics of us. The turtle seemed quite content to have us there – at sometimes posing for the camera.

We saw several Picasso Triggerfish on this ‘dive’ – but didn’t want to hang around for a photo op! We came across another cleaning station where a parrotfish was being cleaned. (S)he turned a deep maroon while being cleaned, and faded to pink before swimming away. Lots of puffers here too. Seemed like they were everywhere.