Honu

I was really excited about seeing honu.  There were signs around the resort saying to not approach the honu and there were beaches roped off for them.  We kept an eye out for them whenever we walked by the beach.  So, one day we were waiting for our lunch on the beach (I know we had it rough in Hawaii.  Don't worry. I had a passionfruit and guava smoothie to tide me over till lunch came.)  We were watching the waves come in and there were people who were stopping and looking at something in the sand.  We went over to investigate and saw our first honu.

While we where watching him, I looked over and saw two more green sea turtles.

It was really hard to stop watching them and go back to lunch.  After we were done, we decided to walk around a little more.  As we were walking, this family out on some rock called to us saying they had found a sea turtle.  We walked over and we were surprised to see this guy so close we could have reached out and touched him!

The rest of our walk was pretty cool too.

And the sunset wasn't too bad either.

Lava Meets Waterfalls

If it wasn't for the helicopter ride, we would have had a really hard time picking a favorite part of the trip.  This could be counted as one of the coolest things we've EVER done.

Can you tell I'm really excited to be front and center?

Brad and Doug didn't have too bad of a seats either.

We went bright and early in the morning.  It was beautiful to see the shoreline at sunrise.

Coming to Hawaii we really wanted to see lava.  If we tried to drive to Volcano National Park we would have spent so much time and not seen near as much lava.  Because we went by helicopter we were able to get way closer to the lava.

We got to fly around Kilauea's crater and look inside.  I expected to see lava shooting up, but it was pretty docile and almost completely black inside.  But how often do you get to look inside an active volcano crater?

We saw lots of rainbows in complete circles and they can only be seen from the air.

After seeing the lava, we flew north to see the waterfalls.  On our way there we flew over the ocean and saw a mom and baby humpback whales.

We got to fly through lush valleys to waterfalls only seen by helicopter.  It rained the day before so all of the waterfalls were flowing.  Absolutely breathtaking.

When we told our tour guide we went to see waterfalls on the east side of the island the day before he said, "Oh, you saw the little ones."  He took us to see ones thousands of feet tall.

We got to see so much of the Big Island this way.  Lava, humpback whales, ocean, rainforest, waterfalls.  Couldn't ask for anything more.

Waterfalls

We went on a scenic drive on the east side of the island. We couldn't help stopping to take pictures of the beautiful views.

In the middle of our drive we stopped to walk through the rainforest with tons of tropical flowers everywhere and found a 450 ft waterfall.

We found this waterfall in the middle of a city park in Hilo.  Some park huh?

Whale Watching

Things We Learned While Whale Watching

Whales are curious creatures.  Because they are curious, they will come up close to boats to see what they are.  This one breeched right behind our boat.  Twice.

If the tail fin comes out too much out of the water then it means the whale is going to dive down deep.  They usually stay down for 4 to 7 minutes each dive, but can stay down for up to 40 minutes.

Double whale breech

It only takes 2 or 3 tail flaps and 40 feet of water to accelerate their whole body (all 45+ feet of it) out of the water.

Male whales will fight by slapping their fins at each other above the water.  

Mom humpback whales will travel from Alaska (a journey lasting about 5-6 months) to have their babies in Hawaii.

There is no tagging system for whales because the best tags will only stay in for 2 or 3 hours.  Instead, scientists identify whales by their scars from fights with other whales or sharks.

The water that humpback whales shoot out of their blowhole comes out at 300 mph.

One possible reasons why whales like to breech and stick their fins out of the water is because it is cooling to them.  Whale breech more on windy days.

While we were on the boat we got to listen to a hydrophone.  The whales were singing.  Only the males sing.  All the whales know the same song, but do not sing in harmony.  The whales do not sing in Alaska, only in Hawaii.  This means they remember the song for 11 months before they sing again.

At least that's what the naturalist said.