It was pretty, giving us a day of sunning and admiring the gorgeous turquoise water.
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| But (a big but), the waves were too intimidating to attempt swimming or snorkeling |
There was a lifeguard who frequently had to yell at the few people who ventured in about how to protect themselves from waves and current. See some waves here ...
Since we couldn't snorkel, we didn't see a lot of wildlife ...
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| Just a Helmet Urchin: Right: Caty Stevens |
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| A Brown Anole and nothing else on the surf-battered rocks |
We also went over to the beach two nights for sunsets ...
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| Last glimpse |
... and sunset photos ...
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| Becca, me and Caty |
I won’t spend a lot of time blogging background about The Big Island because Caty, Scott and I were just there in 2022 before we met up with Becca and Aaron in Maui for Thanksgiving. You can read about that here.
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| Flying in in 2022 |
Becca hadn’t been there since our family trip in 1999.
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| Becca in 1999 and 2026 |
This part of Caty’s and my bigger trip was really focused on getting some dives in for the girls. I planned my activities around that.
Here was our itinerary:
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| June 20: Arrive in Kona to join Becca |
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| June 21: Afternoon/evening Manta Ray dive for Caty, Becca; snorkel for me; Photo: Caty Stevens |
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| June 22: Morning dive for Caty, Becca; open for me OR general exploring |
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| June 23: Morning dive for Caty, Becca; all-day guided birding trip for me |
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| June 24: Morning relaxing; afternoon, drive to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park |
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| June 25: If the volcano is erupting, go to the crater overlook; drive back to Kona and fly home |
Some worked out that way; some didn't.
Because the girls would be doing multiple dives (all with Jack’s Diving Locker, based in Kona), traveling around The Big Island was restricted.
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| Caty and Becca |
Going up more than 1,000 feet shortly after diving can cause decompression sickness (AKA “the bends”).
Depending on the depth, length and number of dives, you must wait anywhere from 12 to 36 hours before ascending above sea level. This is especially true when considering flying. That’s why we couldn’t explore the whole island or drive to Hawai’i Volcanoes NP until the end of the trip.
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| Chart: Similan Diving Tours |
Decompression sickness happens when nitrogen bubbles form in the blood, leading to joint pain, skin rashes, fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath, numbness or, even, paralysis or death. This happens because the bubbles can block blood vessels, damage tissues and cause inflammation, leading to injury. Treatment involves 100 percent oxygen and urgent hyperbaric chamber therapy. And, the nearest hyperbaric chamber is on O'ahu.
Modern dive computers contain a no-fly timer to help figure out what’s safe. Of course, we didn’t take any chances.
The first two days day were really just ...
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| Flying in |
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| Meeting up with Becca for a lovely beachside lunch; Photo: Becca Stevens |
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| Enjoying Magic Sands (this is another condo right on the water) |
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| Sunset viewing |
Plus, we went out and bought Caty a SeaLife case so she could get better photos than with the Olympus underwater camera (she had to return the one she borrowed from Becca to Becca.)
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| Caty prepping the camera for the dive |
Manta Rays
A highlight for the girls was the Manta Ray dive.
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| Nightime Manta Ray dive; Photo: Becca Stevens |
If you clicked on the links above about The Big island, you already read about Manta Rays. Here’s the short version:
Kona is known for offering night-time opportunities to see Reef Manta Rays as they feed on plankton attracted by lights in the water.
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| A special opportunity; Photos: Caty Stevens |
The Reef Manta Rays found in Hawai’i can reach 18 feet in width and weigh up to 2,300 lbs. Filter feeders, they eat large quantities of zooplankton that they gather with open mouths as they swim. They also eat small-to-medium-sized fish and other organisms.
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| Feeding; Photo: Caty Stevens |
Part of the Eagle Ray family, Manta Rays evolved from bottom-dwelling Stingrays, eventually developing more wing-like pectoral fins. The mouths of most Rays lie on the underside of the head ...
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| ... But, the filter-feeding Manta has its mouth in front; Photo: Becca Stevens |
They have horizontally flattened bodies with eyes on the sides of their heads behind the cephalic fins and gill slits on their ventral surfaces. Their tails lack skeletal support and are shorter than their disc-like bodies. The dorsal fins are small and at the base of the tail. Mantas normally have a "chevron" coloration.
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| They are dark on top with pale markings on their "shoulders;" Photo: Becca Stevens |
Underneath, they are usually white or pale.
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| They can be identified by their distinctive underside markings; Photos: Caty Stevens |
Their skin is covered with a protective mucus (you are not supposed to touch them although they don’t mind running into you). They have tiny square-shaped teeth on the lower jaw.
Mantas, which move through the water using wing-like movements, must keep swimming with their mouths open.
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| This keeps oxygenated water passing over their gills; Photo: Caty Stevens |
When traveling over deep water, they swim at a constant rate in a straight line, while further inshore, they usually bask or swim idly around.
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| Wheeling over the divers; Photo: Becca Stevens |
They can dive to depths over 1,300 feet and sometimes breach like Whales.
Manta Rays may be preyed upon by large Sharks, Orcas and False Killer Whales. Prone to parasites, they visit cleaning stations for the removal of parasites. Remoras often clean them, but can damage their gills and skin and, by adding weight and drag, make swimming more tiring.
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| Swimming Manta Ray; Photo: Caty Stevens |
Our trip had two dives in the same place.
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| We motored out and anchored along with several other dive boats |
Then, after the appropriate briefings, the divers entered the water, followed by the six of us who were snorkeling.
It became almost immediately obvious to me that this was truly a dive spot, not a snorkeling spot. It was too deep for good snorkeling.
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| At least the Green Sea Turtle has to swim up to breathe |
Yeah, we saw a few fish and the Turtle, but they were dimmed by the layers of slightly murky water between us and them.
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| It took a lot to fix this photo and I got no fish |
The setting was more rock than coral, so it wasn’t particularly pretty.
The high point of the snorkeling was seeing three Manta Rays. I expected them at night, but not during the day. With the murkiness of the water, my underwater camera that is only good when the sun is bright and the depth, it was hard to get a good picture.
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| But, a Manta Ray in the daytime? Cool! |
I can’t give a full report on the girls’ afternoon dive because I was about 30-60 feet above them.
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| Sometimes in their bubbles |
But, from their reports, it was good. Caty gave me a little insight:
The last time that we were in Kona, Mom, Dad and I went snorkeling with Manta Rays and we had an amazing experience.
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| Manta Ray snorkeling, 2022 |
This time Becca joined us and she had seen a few companies who took you to dive with them. I didn’t remember seeing divers when we went, but I assumed that we would be in the same location as before. When we got on the boat we learned that there are a few different locations where the Mantas come and we would be in a different spot right near the airport.
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| A Manta Ray encounters a Grouper; Photo: Becca Stevens |
The afternoon dive was my first ocean dive in over a year, so I’m really glad everything went smoothly. I had never dived with a camera before and chose to skip it for the first dive so that I could get acclimated to diving again and pay attention to all the other things that require your attention.
I was a little sad when we immediately saw an Octopus and I didn't have a camera. But, Becca got it ...
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| The Octopus was bright red, but the depth blued out the photos; Photo: Becca Stevens |
Then, we saw three daytime Mantas, and Becca got that, too ...
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| They saw them, too! Photos: Becca Stevens |
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| Divers with a Ray; Photo: Becca Stevens |
Here are some more of Becca's photos ...
Of course, the afternoon dive was just preparation for the main attraction, night diving with Manta Rays. We took a break after the first dive to wait for sunset, when they could set lights and attract the big Rays.
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| End of day; Photo: Becca Stevens |
Night MantasI am going to flip it here and talk about what they did first because that set the stage for my experience.
The way to attract Manta rays is to light up the ocean. That attracts plankton the same way a light attracts moths. Then, the Manta Rays swoop in to gobble up the plankton.
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| You can really see the plankton here; Photo: Caty Stevens |
Because my last Manta Ray experience was strictly for snorkelers, the lights were set high, including being attached to the bottom of the surfboard used for us to hold onto.
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| Manta Ray snorkeling, 2022 |
This area was set up specifically for divers, so the lights – very bright lights – were set up in a circle on the bottom.
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| Lights designed to attract Manta Rays |
Then the divers descended and either sat or kneeled along the circle to watch the Rays as they swooped over their heads through the circle.
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| Passing over and through; Photo: Becca Stevens |
Let's hear it from Caty:
The second dive was my first-ever night dive and also the first time I ever had to stay still in one location on the bottom. I did bring a camera on this dive. We were also given flashlights to both help us see and attract the plankton that draws in the Mantas. It was more difficult than I thought it would be to hold onto a flashlight and a camera as well as staying still.
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| Caty and Becca on the bottom; Left: Jack's Locker; Right: Caty Stevens |
When we first got to the location, (which was very easy to see since there were large lights set up around a circle of rocks), we were just settling in and getting in our spots when a very large Eel (the first one I’ve ever seen!) slithered out of the rocks where we were getting positioned.
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| Another Eel; Photo: Becca Stevens |
That was a little scary (because they can bite) and we were a little disappointed, since neither of us had cameras ready to catch it.
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| Pretty soon after that, the Manta Rays started appearing; Photo: Caty Stevens |
At first, we saw one at a time, but eventually we could see up to four at a time.
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| There are four here; Photo: Becca Stevens |
It was a very different experience than snorkeling with them. When we snorkeled, they were swimming under us and we mostly were seeing their undersides, because they kind of swim in loops to eat the plankton. When we were on the bottom, we could see them better at all angles, including a few that swam right over us.
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| This one just passed over; Photo: Becca Stevens |
They were beautiful and I enjoyed watching them, but it was difficult for me to stay still. The position I had to be in (kind of lying on my stomach with my head up like a cobra yoga pose) was not very comfortable, especially holding a camera in one hand and a flashlight in the other. I did get some amazing videos and photos.
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| Some of those great shots; Photos: Caty Stevens |
It was interesting looking back at the pictures later to see that the water got much cloudier and murkier the longer we were there. That makes sense because we were attracting more and more plankton.
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| Plankton cloud; Photo: Becca Stevens |
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| Earlier photos came out much clearer; Photo: Caty Stevens |
We were also able to see a few different types of fish, including a Flounder, some Blue Trevally, and another Eel that put on a little show in the middle of the circle of lights. Here's the Eel ...
After we watched the Mantas for about 40 minutes, we left the circle and swam around for a little while. The guide showed us a cool-looking Sea Cucumber and a few other fish and then I was getting low on air and had to go back to the boat for my safety stop.
Our guide was doing a lot of filming and was a little less attentive to us than I’d like (especially on a night dive) so I cut it a little close and ended up using most of my air right before I surfaced.
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| Lots of time spent watching; Photo: Caty Stevens |
At almost an hour, this was by far my longest dive. Usually I make it around 40 to 45 minutes.
I am so glad we went, but I feel like I would have enjoyed it a little more if I had had a little more practice in staying still on the bottom (not so easy in a moving ocean). I had assumed we’d be kneeling on the bottom, but I tried and was not able to stay in that position at all. It might have been nice to have some kind of ropes or handholds to steady us. It is probably easier for a more experienced diver.
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| Coming right at them; Photo: Becca Stevens |
The night dive aspect wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be (especially with my very attentive diving buddy, Becca) and I’ll probably try another sometime.
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| The Jack's Locker video features other creatures, as well |
One of the other divers got smacked pretty good by a Ray, which then caused him to bump his head on a rock. He said he loved the experience, but that was a bit scary. I mean, what if that bump had knocked him out? The diving guides are supposed to be watching for stuff like that, but they are also videotaping, taking photos and watching the Rays. It would be easy to miss (and, that’s why you always have a buddy when diving).
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| You must pay attention, even when you are watching cool stuff; Photo: Becca Stevens |
Now, from a snorkeling perspective, it was not so good. I could (kinda) see the Rays below, but the bright, bright lights reduced them to silhouettes and pretty much erased them from the photos I took.
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| Look close and you can see two Rays |
The snorkelers had the same set up that I had last time, except that our guide dragged the surfboard around instead of leaving it stationery. As, a result, I almost had my snorkel ripped off as we passed under an anchor rope. I was aware of the rope and trying to navigate, but either the guide or the boat turned as the end of the board passed under, snagging my snorkel.
Even though our board had two bright lights, none of the Manta Rays ever came close to us. They stayed at the bottom, entertaining the divers.
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| This is what we could see |
If this had been my first Manta Ray snorkeling experience, I would have been very disappointed. Well, I was very disappointed. But, the girls had such great looks at these remarkable creatures, I was OK. In fact, I was prepared not to snorkel at all if they didn’t have enough participants to do it. I feel bad for anyone who hadn’t done this before.
My advice: if you are a diver, go on a Manta Ray dive. If you are a snorkeler, pick a trip designed for snorkelers.
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| The divers won this one; Photo: Becca Stevens |
After my group got out of the water, I was toweling off, facing away from the lighted area and I heard a huge splash. Yeah, I missed the one Ray that decided to come to the surface as it leapt out of the water. Drat!
Beach Day
The next day was the one we hadn’t planned. We couldn’t travel away from the coast because of potential altitude changes, so we decided to find a beach and maybe snorkel.
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| Ever hopeful we'd find the perfect beach! |
We decided to go to Kekaha Kai State Beach, just 16 miles north of where we were staying. |
| It certainly was pretty |
Formerly known as Kona Coast State Park, Kekaha Kai has three beach areas: Maniniʻowali (Kua) Bay where we went, plus Makalawena beach at Puʻu Aliʻi Bay and Mahaiʻula Bay. The Park's name is Hawai’ian for "the shoreline" in English.
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| Maybe it would be calmer and we could snorkel |
It was calm enough to wade in, but looked pretty rough near the coral and rock outcrops.
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| It looks fine here, but the current was STRONG |
So, we ended up just relaxing, wading, relaxing and wading while enjoying the view of the white sand, blue sky and brilliant turquoise water.
We followed up with drinks (for them, not me; I was driving) and lunch at Huggo’s in Kona (Ok food, but really, really slow, disjointed service).
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| Key lime pie and the girls' drinks (I was driving) |
It was a lazy, peaceful day.
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| No great adventures, but fun to spend with my daughters |
The next day was the day that the girls and I split up. That's next.
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| They went on more dives; I went birding; Photo: Caty Stevens |
Trip dates: June 7 - 29, 2026
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