Queen's Bath

Queen's bath is a rocky lagoon/beach located in Princeville.  It is named after Queen Emma, the mother of Prince Albert whose name produced Princeville.  It is a short hike off of a residential road along a creek.  The creek opens into the first pool as a beautiful waterfall.  The ocean has carved out many pools at Queen's Bath. The main 'bath', particularly in lower tides, is almost completely sundered from the ocean.

Meeting of creek and ocean.

Upon our approach to the shoreline we saw sea turtles playing in the waves.  There were at least five or six bobbing up in down along the rocks as the waves came in.  The water was almost too blue; as seen below it is an electric azure (I looked up shades of blue to try to pinpoint the beauty, it is somewhere between those two and yet something else entirely).  I got quite lost in the moment observing the turtles interact with the waves while trying to capture the bliss of the moment.  Because of the rough waves I had to be talked out of swimming in the waters right there (don't worry... I got my chance to swim with turtles later in the week).

The view approaching the first pool.

Two turtles hanging out in the waves.

One of the larger turtles up close getting a  breath of air.

After walking past the next couple of coves we finally got to the Bath.  Before swimming I stood on a small rock pointe and allowed myself to by splashed and soaked by the waves.  I sat down with my feet dangling in the low tide and the waves crashing over my head.  There was a baby turtle in the water here but I couldn't get a good picture of it with our underwater camera.

An intermediate pool and the coastline.

Elise got a nice picture of me getting absorbed by a wave.

I captured this while the waves were pounding me with an underwater camera.

The bath itself had some light snorkeling and a 6-7' cliff to jump off of.  Some kids were wanting to jump but their mother was scared so I showed them it was safe; soon everybody at the bath was lining up for the mini cliff jump.

A view of Queen's Bath, about the size of a two or three lane swimming pool.

Enjoying the jump into the Queen's Bath.