9 July 2006 Kona

We miscalculated our Hilo days and cannot do a Mauna Kea tour with Arnott's (half the price of other tours). So today is (expensive) Mauna Kea day. Our pick-up is 3pm at Buns in the Sun, so we can only do easy-access snorkelling.

But first, we get up at 6am and realise another miscalculation! Ernest in Monterey is 3 hours ahead of Hawaii, not 2!! We call him and find out he has been in the office waiting for an hour for us to call. Ernest's task? To capture webcam pictures for 2 geocaches.

We scramble out of bed and quickly drive up to Kailua Bay Webcam cache. After many precious minutes of discussion we find the right spot to stand in so he can take as close a picture of us as possible.

Then we drive up to Island Lava Java. Unlike last night's shot, we stand closer to webcam for the Ali'i Drive cache.

Then it's back to Uncle Billy's for the buffet breakfast - an artery-clogging spread of sweet cereals, processed cordials, bacon, sausages, eggs, BBQ chicken, believe it or not, mashed potatoes, hash browns etc etc. We see plus-size families walk in for the smorgasbord. We take the cereal and milk (dunno if it's low-fat) and some toast with our coffee. Plus a spoonful of the cholesterol-laden stuff!

We spot a beige furry animal scurrying about. Later, we learn from The BI Revealed book that it's a mongoose. Well-intentioned but ecologically-challenged folks brought it over from India to fight the rat menace. But missed out on a valuable point - rats are nocturnal, mongooses hunt in the day. So both species happily thrive on the island!

We drive up to the Old Airport to pick up Hot Rocks geocache. At the beach on the way there, HB says: "Watch out the rocks are slippery!" Me? I think my new reef shoes have good grip. And slam! I fall face down on algae-covered rocks. I cut my lip and scraped my elbow. Later I find sneezing a pain in the chest and my right arm has problems with load-bearing. Meanwhile, three Hawaiian boys on the beach simply ignore us as I pat away the blood on my lip and brush off seaweed from my clothes. It's not just Singaporeans who pretend to look away when others are in trouble.

The way to the cache, though rocky and uneven, is less eventful. And on the way to the car, we watch model aircraft taking off and landing at the old runway. On the beach, a church service is in full swing.

Next stop, Holualua up 2000ft mauka (mountain) side . But it is Sunday and all the art galleries are closed. We try to look for the Travel Bug Hotel geocache but come up empty. With a tight schedule, we abandon the search.

A geocache is located at the littlest church we've ever seen! Na'Ni & Pa'Pa Tribute Cache. Out in the ocean, we see surfers. Once we make our cache trade, we head to Kahalu'u Beach next door for a spot of snorkelling. It's a drive-up beach - just park the car along the road and there it is!



The seabed is rocky and corally, which is why reef shoes are very important. It is very hard for me to "go horizonal", as HB urges, because the water is so shallow. I struggle between putting my feet on the ground and floating. But it's hard when the waves come at you.






But, there are lots of fishes right up to the beach! Angel fish, butterfly fish, parrot fish, yellow fish, In the rock crevices, we see pink tentacly stuff. HB thinks they are urchins. I think they are anemones. A lone puffer swims about, spines down.

And turtles! HB gets a shock when something slaps her calf and she gets up to see no one near her, but people pointing at her. "Turtle!" they shout in glee. Yes, HB has been flipped by a turtle. I take a break on the beach and HB empties the underwater camera.

A family comes up to the sole pavilion on the beach and everyone civilly clears out as they are obviously having a do there - a kid's post-baptism celebration.

Back at the Little Blue Church where we parked our car, we see people all dressed up streaming in. It looks like there will be a wedding. I wonder how many can squeeze into the place!

We get back to the hotel to pack for our tour and plan to have lunch at Buns in the Sun.

But when we get there, we find it closed (it's a Sunday!) We go to a local fast-food outlet and gulp our yucky food, throwing much of it away. We are a couple of minutes late for our pickup and are the last one on the 4-wheel-drive bus.

Geocache count: 4