Maui Trip - Day 2 (Part 1 of 5)

 

The main goal for the day was to go snorkeling at one of the places that was recommended by Snorkel Bob's when we picked up our gear the previous day.  We parked over at the Ahihi-Kina'u Nature Preserve in a parking lot and then the plan was to hike along the Hoapili Trail over to La Perouse Bay.  There weren't tons of people around so we just got our stuff together and headed off along the only real trail we could see going through the lava fields.

Here is a picture of Tara and the boys.  We each had our own bags of fins and goggles.  We weren't quite sure what we were looking for, how long of a walk it would be, or where to go.  Sounds like the start of an adventure!

After about a 15–20-minute walk, we did finally end up at a place that looked like people would snorkel there.  There wasn't actually much of a beach though, so it was quite dicey getting into the water.  These rocks were sharp, unstable, and as you got closer to the water, mossy and slippery.  The added complication was the waves coming in and out as well.  Just past the layer of rocks, it quickly turned into a grainy sand bottom but wasn't quite deep enough just to dive straight in.  Eventually, we all made it in and I will say it was probably the most amazing snorkeling I have ever seen.  The water slowly got deeper but stayed probably 5-15 feet deep for quite a ways.  Coral outcroppings and large slabs of this volcanic rock made for great places for all kinds of fish, turtles, and other ocean things to live.  You can see the guys out there just swimming around and diving down in the above picture.

We probably spent an hour or two straight just exploring all around and we travelled up and down the coast in the water quite a bit.  Some other people joined the party a bit later and were swimming around, as well.  This is after we all got out and were trying to safely extract ourselves back from the water's edge.