February 9, 2025

Today’s adventures started early, too early with the stupid rooster next door to our Airbnb crowing around 4:00 am!  Early this morning we had reservations for a Whale Watching Tour, I had planned to be very disappointed since the man at the brewery the night before told us that there was no way that we would see as many as we did on our Na Pali Coast tour.  But to our surprise, we saw quite a few.  Captain Sandy and Shelby (our crew, who was a naturalist) did such a fantastic job of helping us spot whales and being on a the Zodiac boat allowed us to navigate closer to them when spotted.  We saw around 6 or so whales, some breaching, some jumping, and we even saw a duo who gave us a show by diving and “waving” with their tails synchronized.  It was such a cool way to experience them, although the ride was bumpy and I’m still not sure how the 80 something lady was able to hang on, we all made it out in one piece.

After getting back from our tour, coffee was needed so we headed to Kona Mountain Coffee and made our way back to a park we had passed on the way, realizing that it is a National Historical Park.  Shelby had shared with us that a beach nearby had sea turtles, so of course we made our way there, the beach was inside of the National Historical Park, after viewing two green sea turtles near the shore, as we were walking back to car, we passed a Park Ranger who told us about two other National Historical Parks on the island that she would recommend.  After our whale watching tours, showers were definitely needed so we returned to the Airbnb to freshen up and about this time the Super Bowl was starting, watching it at 1:30 pm was an odd experience for sure.  We watched the beginning ceremonies via iPad at the Airbnb and then made our way to the original Kona Brewing to grab some lunch (the pepperoni rolls are a must) and watched up through the half time show before heading off to one of the other National Historical Parks that the ranger told us about earlier in the day.  

Pu’uhonua o Honaunana was about a 30 minute drive from the Kona area, it was so serene out there.  There were not many people as the park was actually closed, I’m guessing because it was a Sunday, but it was still accessible to the public, so we wandered around the grounds for a little bit before making our way over to a beach nearby where we walked on huge pieces of lava beside the sea as the waves crashed.  It made for a very peaceful visit.  

That evening we had a manta ray tour that left from the harbor at 7:00 pm, but we did not have enough time to make it back our Airbnb, so we found our way to the marina where the trip left from, parked the car alongside the road as instructed and took naps before we needed to meet up with the white van that would be parked alongside the road.  Little did we know that there would be multiple white vans parked alongside the road, so after inquiring with a few we found the right one, paid for a wet suit for me and made our way down to another Zodiac boat, where our three surfer guides would take us about 300 yards off shore, a two minute boat ride, where they would drop anchor, throw the light board in the water, light it up and off the side of the boat we all jumped.  We had a small “swim” over to the light board where we would hold onto with both hands and float in the water, using floating devices that they gave us for our feet.  We weren’t even in the water for two minutes before they started coming, it was something magically that I will never be able to fully explain, but highly recommend.  They use the light boards to attract the plankton that then attracts the manta rays.  Apparently they discovered this about 30 years ago when one of the hotels nearby would shine lights out into the water so that their patrons could watch the waves at night, those lights would attract the plankton, and then the manta rays, so therefore this business was born.  We were in the water for about 30 minutes, which was a good amount of time, as my arms were really starting to burn and my back seize up, I still blame it on that hike the other day.  While in the water, we saw around 7 manta rays, and twice were even touched by them.  They had no fear whatsoever and are harmless.  Although, I will admit, it was pretty intimidating when one is swimming straight up at you with mouth wide open!  They sure did put on a show for us and one that I will never forget.  For being something that I was skeptical about and didn’t have rave reviews online, it was one of the coolest experiences that we have ever done.  Sadly, there were no photos taken with the manta rays, so it is something that you will just have to envision, but here’s a great video and photos of what a mana ray looks like for your imagination of us swimming with these guys and gals!

With an early morning departure, we called it an early evening, which isn’t hard with the sunsetting at 6:30 pm and a full days of activities in us.