Beach blues

The plans for going up to the top of Mauna Loa were scuttled today on account of rain. Lots of rain. It started raining in the mid to late afternoon yesterday, and continued until mid morning today. Yup, about 18h of straight rain. Normally I wouldn't mind because it's not like there's any shortage of things to do on this island, but the rain interfered with my tenting.

I don't know if I just didn't put my tent up properly, if there's a small hole somewhere, it's not as waterproof as I thought it was or if the rain crept under the rainfly somehow, but it got inside my tent. And not just a little bit, either. The bottom of my sleeping bag was wet (ever slept in a wet sleeping bag before?), and sides of the bottom had little rivers of water there. I had no choice but to use my towel to mop it up, which meant I had a damp towel all day today.

So, with the best weather usually happening on Mauna Loa in the mornings and this morning being pretty lousy, I had to find alternative plans. A random idea came into my head to go snorkeling, so that's what I did. Just drove down the street, rented some snorkeling gear, got some lunch and headed to the best beach close by.

And how magical it was. It was a black sand beach with not too many people there, and though the water was a bit choppy, it wasn't too noticeable just floating along on the surface. No matter how many times I've worn goggles, I'm still amazed at this plasticky barrier that gives me access to another world.

There was coral on the bottom, yellow and purple coral. And around the coral were brightly coloured fish of every hue: black fish with narrow orange noses, yellow-and-black striped fish, purple fish—everything!

Two other tenters here had told me about the beach and how they saw a sea turtle, so I was kind of really hoping to see one, too, and pretty disappointed when none appeared.

But then one did! And it was huge! Maybe 4ft? It was amazing how close I could get to it, with the nearest I dared (I don't know if sea turtles bite when approached and didn't want to find out) was about a body length. It just paddled its arms lazily, and sometimes poked its leathery head at the rocks to nip at something. I bet its teeth were so sharp, they cracked right through the rocks to find some unseen morsel of food.

After a quick stop back at the tent, I thought I'd try the hot springs, too. I Google mapped the directions and turn for turn, I got there- no getting lost this time! After a quick dip inside, I thought I'd use the snorkel gear again, and boy, was I glad I did.

As soon as I dunked my head under water, I was greeted with dozens of tiny fish. I called them surface fish in my head, because that's where they hovered. I'm sure the 2" silver things with green-rimmed eyes have a proper name, but I'll make it such by capitalization: Surface Fish. There.

I figured out pretty quickly that if I kept still (but not so still the lifeguards would think I'm drowning. Can't have that happen again), the Surface Fish would cluster around me and swim everywhere. And when I was really patient, they started feeding on me! I'd stare at them, slowly moving my head from my left arm to my right, and watch as they swam over, tails wriggling furiously, and mouths open as they pecked at my arms.

It was the oddest sensation. They were so small, it didn't hurt, but I could definitely feel these tiny little pokes on me. And soon, they got really comfortable and started feeding on my everywhere.

Then it started to rain, again, and I had to salvage my towel from getting completely soaked.

Now I'm burned, tired, and ready for Mauna Loa tomorrow. It has to be tomorrow, because I've got the green sand beach and cliff jumping at South Point on Sunday, and then it's back to Oahu for two nights.