A Visit From My Grandsons...Mauna Lani Hotel is Closed!

Editors Note.  This blog departs from the format of most previous blogs and recounts a family vacation.  If that sort of thing makes you want to hurl, this may be a good time to stop.  

 I am certain that my faithful blog followers have noticed a small hiatus in the appearance of blogs.  In part, this was due to amazingly good surfing conditions here in Kona (and hence poor snorkeling conditions), but mostly the cause was a visit from my son James, his two sons and his lovely wife.  

The murky waters of Anaeho'omalu Bay

 
 Although they putatively came to visit us, they chose to stay in Waikoloa, a 45 minute drive to the north.  For that reason alone, this was a very high maintenance visit.  Deleterious to blogging, to say the least.

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   When the trip was in the planning stages, I had visions of Colsen, who is now three and a half, putting on goggles and riding my back,  taking short spins to look at the fish.  For whatever reason,
he was not sufficiently comfortable in the ocean to put his face in the water.  He did enjoy the water slides at the Waikoloa Hilton, having the surf swirl around his legs at Black Sand Beach 49 and riding a boogie board in tiny waves at Beach 69.  He seemed to have a great vacation, so from that standpoint things were a success.

Otherwise known as false advertising.

    However, snorkeling was not on the front burner.  James and I attempted to snorkel at Anaeho'omalu Bay, which is now surrounded by the Waikola development.  I had been here once before in the early 80s and never went back. As it was so convenient to Tara's dream lodgings, I was willing to give it a try.  The water had all the clarity of pea soup and the entry was plagued with sharp rocks.  Fish watching was out of the question.  Luckily that bay is so protected that there was relatively little surf at the shoreline and we were able to extricate ourselves without serious injury.

    On our first full day we went to the nearby Waikoloa Hilton.  Colsen got to play on the kiddie size water slides and I had a chance to swim in the man made lagoon.  This was actually a good thing as on that day the ocean was wild.  In the lagoon I had a quick look at a juvenile great barracuda.  As you may recall, they do not stock the lagoon, so like wild birds at a feeder, this is countable.  It had been a long time since I had seen one of these guys and I enjoyed my five to ten seconds of barracuda watching.  The juvenile great barracuda is a curious animal.  Unlike most fishes, whose juveniles are miniature reproductions of the adult, the juvenile barracuda has a head disproportionately large in comparison to its body.  I suppose if it wanted to, it could bite you.  This guy was the size of a modest rainbow trout, 12 inches max, and he was gone before you could say Sphyraenia barracuda. 

     Did I mention that Colsen had fun on the water slides?

    A couple days into the visit, we were able spring James for a trip to Kawaihae Harbor.  On arrival,

The juvenile ornate hermit crab.  Name that shell and win a nudibranch.

we were shocked to see the parking lot full of cars. The most we had seen there before was five or six.  This day there must have been 50.  Fortuitously there was one spot for us.  At first, I thought that there must be a large school of edible fish close enough to fish them from shore.  But no!  These were surfers.  There was a nice big break about fifty yards off shore and entry was made possible by the stout metal stairs that lead down to the ocean from the small park.  We left Sandra to read and watch the surfers while James and I went swimming in the harbor.

    As we entered, it was immediately apparent that things had changed.  The water had never been crystal clear, but now it was quite cloudy.  On all previous visits we had swum through a rich broth of plankton.  This day there were none.  We worked the columns thoroughly and did not see any nudibranchs.  On the middle structure we found a cauliflower coral with a single tiny dascyllus.

   As we swam across to the breakwater, I spotted a hermit crab.  As you can see, it is difficult to tell

Hai rides the waves at Kawaihae.  Picture by SKG

just what sort of shell he is inhabiting.  Perhaps that highly encrusted structure isn't a shell at all.  In any event, I'm confident that we can call him a juvenile ornate hermit crab.  Way back in the day, Marta Demaintenon, PhD taught me that hermit crabs change their coloration as they develop and it is my recollection that it was this very species that spurred the discussion.

    Back ashore, Sandra had encountered our friend Hai, who is the godfather of Kawaihae snorkeling.  We had seen his distinctive jeep in the parking area and she had spotted him surfing.  Hai verified that the columns in the lagoon seemed to be fouled, that the sponges are in decline and the nudibranchs are currently absent.  Bummer.  It seems we were lucky to see that hermit.

    One afternoon apres la nap we attempted to go to the Mauna Lani to look at the large koi pond at the entrance to the hotel.  As we made our final approach, I was shocked to find that the hotel is closed for renovation.  A large barricade is in place and a guard is posted.  He obviously doesn't work for the federal government. (Later in the trip, Sandra and I stopped at the Foodmart located in the Mauna Lani shops. While sampling the poke, we interrogated the fishmonger. He informed us that the hotel will be closed for a year and a half!) 

Getting Wet at Black sand Beach 49

   Back on the road, I made like Napoleon and turned the army around.  Although we really weren't
dressed for the beach, we motored to Black Sand Beach 49.  In the late afternoon there were few people there and the bay was a bumpy sea of moguls, which is not to be confused with oligarchs.  Three girls were body surfing the tail outs and Colsen was thus emboldened to get near the water.   Holding hands with one of the adults he proceeded to let the warm surf soak his clothes.  Reid sat patiently up the slope making the sort of faces you make when you really wish you were somewhere else.

    Two days later James et al made it down to Kona.  The first stop was the Inner Harbour in front of the King Kam hotel.  This has to be the easiest spot for children to swim.  Sadly, despite the best of support, Reid was unhappy in the water and Colsen was willing to look at what few fish could be found while firmly in his father's arms.

   James was permitted (I wish I were kidding) to take a short swim with me.  Despite the large waves

Colsen the Surfer

elsewhere on the coast, the north cusp of Kailua Bay was pretty flat and the water was fairly clear.  In the short time allotted to us, I turned him on to the coral croucher.   Paul Allen's ghost provided a nice assortment of usual suspects and we made it ashore in time to avoid a scene.  That was a close one.

   Our last outing with the familia was an afternoon at Beach 69.  This was an excellent choice because it was on Tara's list of places to look at.  Colsen had no interest in looking at the fish, but he did enjoy a bit of boogie boarding.  James was given permission to swim for twenty minutes.  (See above)  As it takes me about twenty minutes to take a good picture of a fish (and also because the water was rough and I suspected very cloudy) I left the camera with Sandra.  Perhaps she could add

to her fine collection of flipper walkers.

    As it turned out, this was a regrettable choice.  Both on the way out and the way back in, we saw two adolescent yellow tail corises, both with the face markings of the red labrid stage.  I love these little guys.  More than any other fish in Hawaii, the yellowtail coris bears juveniles with dramatically different coloration from their parents.  The degree of difference is such , that the first observers thought they were two different species.  I don't see this intermediate form very often, perhaps less often than once a year,  and it is always a treat.

 Included here is a picture i took back in 2012 showing the red labrid juvenile and his older brother.  the fish we saw were just a bit further along with only the nose spot and one stripe remaining.

    As we made our final approach to shore, a leatherback joined us.  This fast moving jack is

maximally streamlined, a veritable dart in the water. Usually it is a uniform silver with that tiny black and white flight of a dorsal fin.   Perhaps it was the suspended sediment or the angle of the sun, but this guy was an iridescent golden green... just lovely.   Even more remarkably, he swam with us for almost a minute.  I'm not sure I could have taken his picture, but I certainly regret not trying.  Included here is my interpretation of this leatherback in the form of a heavily doctored photo.

    We had a great time visiting with our grandsons, not to mention Tara and James,  and spending time on the beach with them.  And chasing them around, baby sitting...all that good stuff.  Its the stuff that dreams are made of.  If you're a grandparent. 

jeff

Down came the Reaper, mounted on a Hippocamp.

Death is a black durgon that swims with us all.

With Saint Peter's accountants:  One, Two Three. 
"Where's that Coral Croucher? You've got him in your tucker bag!
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me." 

Up jumped Paul Allen and plunged into his fell lagoon.
"You'll never take me alive!" cried he. 
And his ghost may be heard when you swim beside Kailua's shore ,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."