Adventures with the Big Blue Wet Thing: Part 2

I’m in love with the ocean. I just want to put that out there. The past two weekends, my housemates and I visited the beaches along the Hilo side of the island and went snorkeling.

Two weekends ago, I ventured to Onekahakaha beach park. This state beach is a short 5 minute drive from downtown Hilo out towards the airport. Like most of the beaches here, it is less a “beach” and more tidal pools and waterfronts surrounded by old lava flows.

Using the grungy, but free snorkeling gear we snagged from the volunteer house, we braved the water. Finding a place to get in was bit tricky. Lots of the deeper entry points were lined with sensitive coral. Not wanting to disturb the colorful coral colonies, we entered at a very shallow area.

This was not class-A snorkeling. We were in maximum 4 feet of water, but it was our first time out and seeing the small colorful fishes and sea urchins was a delight.

* * *

This past weekend, in comparison, was snorkeling heaven. Using a rented car, we road tripped to the Pahoe district. This region is right of Hilo and not too far from the Kalapana lava flows.

After leafing through our vairous guidebooks, we settled on Kapoho tide pools. As a privately owned beach, you have to pay three dollars to park down by the water. But the pocket change is well worth it.

Unlike Onekahakaha beach, there was plenty of room to spread out. We found our own cove and slipped into the clear water.

Besides being roomier, the fish selection was a hundred times better than our first time snorkeling.

I saw the dozens of yellow and black long-nose butterflyfish (shown above), as well as numerous other fishes (Moorish Idol, threadfin butterflyfish, and yellow tang surgeonfish) dressed in the same colors. Guess black and yellow is in fashion.

Schools of rainbow ornate wrasse fish (or maybe it was palenose parrotfish...hard to say) swam past us too.

The ocean floor was just, if not more, mesmerizing than the fish.

The entire floor was covered in glowing periwinkle coral, algae-green coral, and this off-whitish coral. In between coral or hidden in rock crevices were tiny black sea urchins and larger red rubbery-looking sea urchins.

The snorkeling was so good, we came back on Sunday too.

*My roommate Ryan took all the photos with his super-duper underwater-venturing camera. I want one.