Those Darn Canadians

 Excellent surfing conditions continue around the Hawaiian Islands.  Yesterday there were a few 60 footers on Oahu's north shore.  While the Big Island does not have any surfing venues to rival Pipeline, we have had a couple weeks of persistent high surf making many of our better snorkeling spots

That's Sandra by the Surf at Honl's.

inaccessible.  I have snorkeled a couple times at the pier, where the fish watching was so minimal that I didn't even take the camera out of my pocket.  Two days ago I went to Kahalu'u where there was nothing special, but at least there were a few fish to photograph.  I 'll show you those pictures as we go along.

    The weather here has been superb and Sandra and I have enjoyed several outings just to be down by the beach.  At the beginning of the week we met a young lady on the beach in front of the King Kam.  Although the hotel had roped off most of the grounds (which seems more than a bit uncalled for) one can still find a shaded perch on the rock wall at the far end of the beach.  We were seated there having a pleasant chat when the young lady emerged.  She was carrying mask and fins, so I asked her if she had seen something good.  She started gushing about how wonderful the fish and coral were just outside the inner harbor.  Obviously, by virtue of long and varied experience, we are jaded, but the sad truth is that climate change has severely altered that area, very little coral is left.  Ditto with the fish. 

A sundial in the Sand at Honl's Beach

   As it turned out, she was from New York and has a working son, so she wasn't all that young.  I started telling her about some other places she could go snorkeling, including Ho'okena and Kahalu'u.  She was very pleasant, but unable to keep the Hawaiian names straight, which was probably for the best
as she didn't seem to get the part about high surf being associated with a dangerous entry.

    That night we received an email from our friends the Rodes who live in Vancouver del Norte, which is to say that they are Canadians.  It appears that the Canadian government has made a deal with an insurance company to the effect that our friends could now purchase Covid Insurance and come to Hawaii without forfeiting their national health insurance.  They wanted to know if we could pick them up from the airport in ten days.  Of course we would be delighted, but we weren't entirely clear on what they would experience upon arrival and how that would affect the timing of their retrieval.

Pintail Triggerfish  January 2021

   Suddenly we were wishing that we had given that New Yorker with the snorkel gear the third degree.  In search of pertinent details, we went for a picnic the following day at Hon's beach park. It was a beautiful day, blue sky, pounding surf and a breeze.  We watched a half dozen surfers while we ate our lunch and then went for a walk.  Before we found any tourists we found a couple sand sculptures, a sundial of sorts and a turtle heading down the beach towards the sea.  

    The closest we could come to a tourist was a young couple from Berlin who had arrived a month ago, apparently before arrival testing at began at KOA.  Das is aber schade.

   Finally the surf calmed down to a degree that we could brave Kahalu'u.  While I went swimming, Sandra was trolling for newly arrived tourists.  Out in the bay it was mostly the usual suspects.  The current wasn't terrible and the water was clear enough to allow a few chances at photography.  Early on, a  pinktail trigger posed cooperatively.  Shortly after that I got a good chance at some Bullethead parrot keikis.  This is not a terrible picture of a couple two inch fish.  An Ambon toby gave us a try and finally those keeltail needlefish you saw up on the header made an appearance over by the Rescue Shelter.   

Bullethead Parrotfish Juveniles  Kahalu'u 2021

   Back on the beach, Sandra and I tracked down some tourists.  Sweetie found a little old man form Sebastopol, while I found a young couple from Los Angeles.  Obviously we need more Canadians to restore the proper touristic balance. All those Californians are destroying our demographics!  

   Our interviews completed, it sounds like Doug and Arlene will escape the airport about thirty minutes after they disembark. And they should be able to get to the market long before the thought police call them with their test results. Best of all,  their upcoming arrival helped us make some new friends here on the beach.

jeff