The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel (Or Not)

   For almost as long as I have been vacationing in Kona, I have included an outing to the Mauna Kea Beach

The Most Beautiful Beach in Hawaii

Hotel.  Or rather, to the eponymous beach, which is routinely rated as the prettiest beach in Hawaii.   I always thought that the snorkeling here was excellent and the beach, protected by a reef, was an super place for the kids to play.  Now that we are living here in Kailua, Sandra and I find that we rarely go to the Mauna Kea.  Unable to remember the last time we were there, we packed a breakfast and headed up Hwy 11 towards Kawaihae. 

    "Breakfast?" you ask.  Well, just like several of the major resorts that have captured beaches, the MKBH is required to provide beach access.  Roughly the first 30 vehicles that show up at the guard house are awarded passes.  These passes aren't

Elegant Hermit Crab, Kahalu'u August 2013

recycled through out the day, so we have long known that if you want to go to this beach, if you were going to make the long drive, you should plan on getting there early or risk being turned away. 

     If you make the drive and are refused access, Beach 69, just south of Hapuna, is an excellent beach for the kids to play on and provides some shade for the adults.  49 Black Sand Beach at the Mauna Lani (also requiring a beach pass, but far less popular than the MKBH) is good for snorkeling.

    So, we arrived about 8:30, ate our breakfast in a shady spot near the beach, and did a little reading.  As you can see from my picture, it was a beautiful day and the beach was as lovely as ever.  We entered the water a little before 10.  The water was fairly clear.  As is the case everywhere in the world, a fair amount of the coral is dead or dying.  There remains some pretty patches...but for how long?   The variety and numbers of fish were just OK.   Long ago, I saw a Sunset Wrasse here.  This was back in the days of snail mail and Jack Randall was kind enough to send me back a note in which he explained

Cone Shell Hermit Crab, Kahalu'u  August 2013

waifs.  On this day, there were no unusual fish.  Achilles Tang was present in reasonable numbers.  (Surprising, as we saw at least two spear fishermen.)  And we ran across a pair of Milletseed Butterflyfish.   The only invertebrate of note was a Crown of Thorns Starfish.

     Our overall impression was that from a snorkeling standpoint, the reef at the Mauna Kea did not justify the hassle.  For those of you who just want to go the beach, it remains lovely.  There is relatively little shade, though, so you might want to keep that in mind.

    Right here in Kona, at the heavily touristed Kahalu'u Beach Park, snorkeling has been rather good of late.  In addition to the immature hogfish, which has persisted for a couple weeks, we have seen a couple interesting hermit crabs, whose photos grace this blog. Isn't it nice to know that Calcinus elegans and Celipaguras strigatus are still out there?

Coris flavovittata Chillin' at K Bay.  August 2013

Hermit crabs can be hard to find, but they are handsome and fascinating animals.

    Speaking of handsome and fascinating, how about this Yellowstripe Coris that we found yesterday at good old K Bay?  I was amused to find that the common name has been changed to Blackstripe Coris.  Its still C. flavovittata and a rare and wonderful fish to find at K Bay.  Along with an immature cleaner wrasse and a host of others, the fish at Kahalu'u were every bit as good as their well heeled brethren at the MKBH.

    Where ever you put on your mask and fins, good luck and see a fish for me.

jeff