Trailers For Sale or Rent: Black Sand Beach 49 and Something Special at City

    Here on the Big Island, there are more than a few shore entries for snorkelers that are associated with a resort hotel.  Having the most fun sometimes involves knowing what the hotel provides and, in the spirit of

the King of the Road, knowing what doors are unlocked when no one's around.


   While Roger Miller grew up "dirt poor" in rural Oklahoma, he was never a hobo sort.  To escape poverty he joined the army and served in Korea.  When he mustered out, he immediately gained employment as a performer and song writer, specializing in the Nashville sound of the sixties. The unattended doors, therefore, are more a figment of his imagination, rather than autobiographical.

    Sandra and I were oblivious to Black Sand Beach 49 until a few years ago when a real estate agent representing properties at Waikoloa Village noted this bay as a good place to snorkel if you happened to live in Waika-blowah. As you know, we live down in Kailua, but every now and then we enjoy going north.

     Our excursions north had wandered into a rut.  Two days ago it seemed like the right time to go some where other than Beach 69, aka Waialea Bay.  And so we decided to return to Black Sand Beach 49.  To reach this beach, which fronts a small bay

Black Sand Beach 49 at the Mauna Lani

surrounded by the sprawling Mauna Lani Resort, one heads in to the Mauna Lani, goes 270 degrees around the Mauna Lani traffic circle and motors on south through the golf course for about a mile.  Just after the road turns to the right, you take a left indicated by the tiny shore access sign..  The guard will give you a pass. It is important to note that, unlike the Mauna Kea, we have never failed to get a pass to this gem of a beach.

     It was a sunny day with acres of blue sky as we made the short walk from the parking area to the beach. This day there was a large cruising catamaran about 40 yards off shore. After we took a picture of the boat,  I left Sandra reading in the shade.  The beach here is a mix of black and white sand, similar to Ho'okena, so I prudently wore flip flops as I made my way down the steep slope to the water. Having avoided burned feet, I plunged into the cool clear water.

    This is an interesting bay, almost round with steep lava walls.  Once I thought it was a caldera, but now

Tennis, anyone?

I'm not so sure.  Nevertheless the steep sandy slope where you enter is the only part that is not either sheer  lava wall or open to the sea.  There is as much healthy coral here as anywhere, and the water on the west side of the entry is usually clear.  That was the case today and I enjoyed the clear water with out seeing much in the way of interesting fish.  On the way across the bay, I stopped to talk to a fellow from the sailboat, who was paddling aimlessly on a small surf board.  Ashore, this cruiser confused me and I thought it was a mono hull.  From this vantage point it was obviously a large catamaran in the range of 40 feet.

    Soon I was across to the inner wall of the bay.   Invariably, the water is cloudy on this inner side.  On a positive note, there is more coral on this side. And more importantly, we tend to see more interesting things over there.  We have seen an octopus at least twice and a year or so ago  the Redoubtable SKG found a blacktail wrasse.  Swimming alone in cloudy water, I kept a good eye out for sharks.  I didn't see any tiburon,  or anything else that I can brag to you about.

    Having enjoyed my refreshing, if unproductive, swim, I soon found myself at the single shower.  Here I made friends with a gentleman from Marin County who was staying at the Fairmont Orchid, one of those

hotels that make it really difficult to walk in off the street.  Not that there is any compelling reason to do so...it's more the principle of the thing.  Apparently the Fairmont sees the King of the Road approaching from some distance and acts accordingly.    

    My friend at the shower was a friendly sort, in spite of his choice of snooty lodgings.  And he was really enthusiastic about BSB 49. He said it was the best place he had been snorkeling.  BSB is pretty good, but being the helpful sort who plies his audience with advice well past their point of endurance, I regaled him with a couple suggestions,  City and Ho'okena in the south  and Mahukona in the north.  His wife, who seemed an able sort of girl, was pretty excited about going down the ladder at Mahukona.

    You are probably wondering when I am going to give you some real inside information. I mean, am I Roger Miller or Roger Rabbit?  It obviously doesn't have anything to do with bay, per se, unless you count not suffering burned feet. What it has to do with is lunch!

   At BSB the Mauna Lani provides the visitor with a nice set of rest rooms, which also service a well appointed tennis court.  Next to the tennis court is a cute little table and chairs and with an umbrella. sitting  in

Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse, City of Refuge

a manicured tropical setting.  As nobody in their right mind will play tennis in the middle of the day in Kona, this table with the garden setting is just waiting for you.

    Thus, at noon, the lovely SKG and I sat down to a delightful repast, al fresco.   To make our experience complete, the great ornithologist in the sky provided us with a female cardinal who danced around the table for several minutes.  She posed on the fence by the court and in the spider lily and was a joy to behold.

   I suppose my friends from Marin County enjoyed a fine lunch at the Fairmont, (la de dah) but I can assure you that they didn't have anything better than Sandra's chicken salad.  And I sincerely doubt they had the pleasure of a lady cardinal.

                        

                            >))))) ' >       >))))) ' >       >))))) ' >       >))))) ' >     >))))) ' >       

   Just so you won't think we are a couple of pikers in the fish finding and portraiture department, we made our way to City of Refuge the next day.  There we actually did see some fish worthy of mention.

    Shortly after getting in, I saw a bigeye take a turn in the open about ten feet down.  Thinking I would dive

Scrawled Filefish  Aluterus scriptus  City of Refuge, April 2016

down, hold on and take a look into his cave, I picked my hand hold and dove.  Just as I reached out to hold onto my coral projection, something moved only inches away.  It was a whitemouth moray, said mouth being full of sharp teeth.  Whoops!  Sometimes its best to leave well enough alone and in this instance, that goes double for bigeyes and their well denticulated friends.

    As we swam along, there were numerous opportunities to photograph Hawaiian cleaner wrasse.  It seems like just a week ago I was thinking that this species was becoming less common.  On this day at City of Refuge and the day before at BSB 49, they were remarkably common.

   Swimming north, we passed through a patch of cloudy water, but by the time we got to the corner it was clear again.  From out in the bay a trio of scribbled filefish swam in.  They were initially quite close to the

Thompson's Butterflyfish    City of Refuge, April 2016

surface, in perfect position for a picture.  We rarely see this fish near the surface, back in 1985 there was a small school of these magnificent creatures residing at Kahalu'u.  For years you could have photographed them at close range in good light.  Of course, that was before really dependable point and shoot cameras came along. 

    As the filefish swam away, we were joined by a mixed feeding flock of Thompson's butterflies and three spot damselfish.  They too remained uncharacteristically shallow.  For a moment or two they provided an unusual opportunity.  Ahh the delights of clear water and good surface light.

    Ashore we were dining in our folding chairs when a group of thirty somethings arrived.  They were from Australia, but two had emigrated to Sydney from south Africa and one from Zimbabwe.  Hard to believe that the conscience of the world turned Rhodesia into a place where no one is safe.  Any way, we had a nice chat and as we finished our lunch, a pod of dolphins came in.  Life at the beach can be pretty nice.

Nothing makes us smile like watching kids play at the beach.