NaPali Snorkeling

As mentioned in the post about our NaPali boat ride, the far end of the tour stopped for an hour or so to enjoy the snorkeling.  The only way to get to these reefs are by boat.  Because the beach is a preserve area, the boats can only anchor in the bay.  Very few boats, with a small maximum of passengers, are granted permits to dock at the beach.  The snorkeling here was excellent.  For the second time in three days I got to swim with sea turtles.  I was snorkeling with a GoPro Hero2.  The Hero2 (GoPro HD HERO2 Outdoor Edition) is an HD underwater/sports utility camera that takes pictures and does video.  I had it strapped to my chest and the pictures didn't really return much but I put together two videos: of turtles and of other things.

Tunnels

On our second day in Hawaii we headed over to Tunnels beach to do some snorkeling. It was a beautiful spot to enjoy Kauai. Here are some pictures from our fun time at Tunnels beach:

We started the day with a beautiful rainbow

Beautiful view at the beach

Swimming with our brightly colored friends

This guy kept trying to eat the camera wristband

I think this guy was my favorite fish

Jess and Kiri Snorkeling

Alex diving down deep

Having some fun

A bite to eat

The inside of a dry cave on the side of the road

The opening to the cave

Ke'e Beach - Swimming with Turtles

Before I went to Hawaii the one thing that I knew I wanted to do there was swim with sea turtles.  I got to do it twice!  The first time was at Ke'e Beach located in Haena Park.  Haena is a beautiful park on the northwest side of Kauai.  It is at the end of the highway coming from the north side of the island.  There is 20 or so miles of unsettled land afterwards along the Na Pali coast.  At Ke'e beach there is a coral reef that makes great snorkeling.

I snorkeled by myself for an hour or so.  After 15 or 20 minutes I came across sea turtles and was able to observe, photograph and video them all alone.  They were grazing on coral in water that was <1' to 2' deep.  After awhile I brought back Elise and her sisters to see the turtles as well.  All of these pictures were taken with our underwater camera; it was definitely worth purchasing for this experience.  The settings are much more restricted on this camera and I had no idea how any came out until I got home.

School of fish I came across before the turtles.

I got lucky and managed to get four of the five turtles in this shot
(and some other fish photobombing).

The turtle in action.

Caught one in eating.

Elise and her sister observing my new friend turtles.
The turtles were hanging next to me, which made it easy to snag this picture.

Special bonus in this post - our first ever video!  I was even more skeptical at how these would come out, but again they were great.  I was being tossed about in the waves so it is a little jolty.  I spliced together several different clips that I took, including one with Elise examining the turtle.

n.b. the video can be enlarged to full screen by clicking the lower right.

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.

Underwater Fun

We get to go to Hawaii on Friday for 10 days!! I, Alex, have never been; we are both very excited.  In anticipation of snorkeling and other water related fun we got a digital water proof (30') underwater camera.  We looked into renting an underwater case for our Nikon but the cost did not seem worth it.  We will still be taking our DSLR with us, but we will have our new camera along for the fun too.  We settled on a Vivitar Vivicam 8400 for cost and functionality.  It is a regular digital camera so setting customization is much less.  It can take 8 megapixels photos as well as video.  It arrived today so we played around with it in Elise's parents pool for an hour or so to get used to it.  These are the first pictures on the blog not from a DSLR.  Besides our Nikon D60 we had used a Nikon D80 as well.  Below are some select pictures from our first go at it.

I snapped Elise floating from below the surface.
The light diffraction between water and air is pretty apparent.

Right after I jumped in.

Elise cruising around the pool.

Right after Elise jumped in.

Toy animal enjoying the jacuzzi jet.

Bubbles!