Holoholo means "travel for pleasure" in Hawaiian and that is exactly what we boarded the plane ready to do...so much so that Matt convinced the flight attendant to give us an extra round of complimentary mai tais because it is our honeymoon, as though we were soooo original to choose this destination!
Once we arrived to the Kona Hula Girl, we reassembled our bicycles and wasted no time with our first order of business: the Kona Brewing Company
. After tasting a flight of beers and filling our bellies with pizza, it was on to the second order of business: a tropical climate-friendly haircut for Casey. The Super Cuts hairdresser took off a good 14 to 16 inches and styled what was left in to a slightly layered "wash and wear" bob. I was excited to finally do the Locks for Love donation, that is until all the hair slipped out of the rubberband and fell in a heap on the floor when I was trying to put it in an envelope to mail...major bummer.
Ok, so perhaps we weren't totally ready to holoholo since we did spend the majority of our first couple of days in Kona running what we like to call travel errands; instead of concentrating our energies on the tourist strip of Ali'i Drive, we were doing laps around the strip mall commercial district to buy snorkel gear, food provisions, get bike maps and advice, replace a broken camera lens, etc.
Once we were situated, we did enjoy some great excursions though. The first being a guided van tour to the summit of Mauna Kea, which we confirmed was not a bicycle friendly destination. After a lovely sunset above a sea of clouds below, our guides set up some fancy-schmancy telescopes to view the unbelievably clear and dark night sky. There were so many stars visible that it was difficult to recognize familiar constellations and the milky way was distractingly bold! After viewing the rings of Saturn, we moved on to globular clusters, the aftermath of galaxy collisions, and other stages of the "life cycle" of stars
. It was a cold late night, but totally worth it.
Since the diving in Kona is world renowned, of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to experience it. First we did a morning of "warm up" diving among the healthiest coral reef we've ever seen, seeing lots of colorful eels and interesting interspecies fish interactions.
But in Kona, the real show happens at night. Although the regulars considered it a slow night with "only" seven enormous manta rays swooping in to feed on the plankton attracted to flashlights, we were still impressed with the graceful giants skimming our heads as we sat with rocks on our laps to pin us down to the ocean floor. In fact, it felt like we were in a strange cult as about fifty divers sat in a circle with bright lights pointed upward illuminating our collective bubbles while we patiently waited for their arrival.
Kona's manta rays are an isolated and non-migratory population, which means that each one is recognized and named by their unique pattern of dark spots on the ventral side of their bodies
. While Kona's mantas are carefully guarded and protected, the species as a whole is in jeopardy due to a growing demand for their rakers (plankton and oxygen filtering device) for use in traditional Chinese medicine. This is the case despite the fact that Manta Ray diving and snorkeling is a multiple-million dollar "industry" worldwide and Kona is actually one of the smaller contributors to that figure. Nonetheless, participating in Manta Ray tourism is still considered one of the best ways to support their conservation as it gives the species "value" beyond their harvest just for one small body part.
Anyhow, the manta rays were just the beginning of that night's adventure. We went from one extreme to the other as our second dive focused on the minute life which directly or indirectly sustains charasmatic marine megafauna like manta rays: zooplankton! Dubbed the "black water dive," we were tethered to a boat drifting about three miles off shore with 6000 feet of ocean below us in the pitch dark
. As our dive lights lit up the tiny plankton, it felt like we were zooming warp speed through space a la Star Trek/Wars. Some of the indescribably crazy creatures needed no outside source of light to be noticed; they were glowing with bioluminescence! Some of our faves were spider crabs riding jellies like a cowboy rides his horse, dolphins munching on squid that were trailing underneath us, and beautiful long ribbon worms undulating by (more commonly known in Casey's family as a "snakey-thing"!) The experience was over all too quickly, but it was still another late night by the time we made it back to the hotel.
Another important activity that greatly helped us transition into vacation mode was watching the excellent Kona sunsets disappear into the ocean, especially with tropical drink in hand. Since that elusive green flash was never observed, I guess we will just have to keep trying...we'll keep you updated on our progress!
It's Holoholo Time!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, United States
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2025-02-16
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tessie
2012-08-14
You two have a real talent for squeazing the MOST enjoyment out of every place that you go!! and you also so appreciate all the maevels of creation that surround you. Makes life so fun to live it like that! cheers, Tessie