Tag: sea life

Place of Refuge

The Pu’uhonua o Hohaunau is a National Historical Park and once was a place of refuge for criminals (as for being sentenced to death because your shadow touched the chief’s house). Here, arriving after a dangerous journey through the water you got absolution of your crimes.

Great Wall

On the other side of the Great Wall (built of lava stone) there were royal grounds, nowadays reconstructed buildings and tools from the early Hawaiians.

Ancient refugee camp

Close to the National Park is a good place to see sea turtles and to snorkel… which we did, of course.

Fish swarms

After dinner in Kailua-Kona we watched Manta Rays (reaching up to 7m in length) feeding small fishes, attracted by the hotel Sheraton’s light beams.

Manta Ray feeding

Cast Away Island

Beautiful weather, 31°C air temperature, 29°C water temperature, snorkeling and coconut drinking – why can’t every morning be like this?

  • Sea life
  • Nudibranch (?)

In the early afternoon we went on a short trip to the island where Cast Away (starring Tom Hanks as modern Robinson Crusoe) was filmed – also with great snorkeling possibilities. Fun fact: the island is not that remote, Tom Hanks could have swum to the neighbour island and enjoy a cold drink. 😉

  • Cast Away corals
  • Snorkeling in a natural aquarium

Wonderful sunset in the evening – no photoshop involved!

Paradise found!

Fiji – Matamanoa

Bula! (Fijian for «Hello»)
Matamanoa is a small island, about 1.5 boat hours away from the main island and contains just one holiday resort. We can enjoy our private plunge pool or go down to the beach and snorkel in the blue, warm water through the corals. Amazing.

  • Private plunge pool
  • Diving is actually not required
  • Jellyfish (not dangerous)
  • Corals
  • sea life
  • Almost an aquarium
  • Under the sea…
  • starfish
  • Colorful fishes

Milford Sound – Fiords, Sharks and a Hike

We joined a small group with Trips & Tramps. It’s a scenic drive to Milford Sound with some good photo stops, e.g the Mirror Lakes.

As written in the previous article, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world (up to 9 meter rain per year!). Travel guides write it basically rains every day. Might be a bit exaggerated, but you get the idea. However, we had a warm and cloudless day and a wonderful time cruising through the fiords. After spotting some seals we wondered if we could also view some dolphins. Well… no, but even better. Even the captain and the tour guide were surprised, as a tresher shark jumped out of the water – multiple times. Hard to believe, but we have the footage. Gerry’s theory: the beginning of a Sharknado!

The ride back to Te Anau had to be earned. We did the Key Summit Trail hike and enjoyed New Zealand’s alpine region. Well, that was a day, even to our (now very high) benchmarks! Thank you, land of Kiwis!

  • Mirror Lakes
  • Milford Sound
  • Milford Sound
  • Jumping Tresher Shark
  • Jumping Tresher Shark
  • Milford Sound Waterfall
  • Milford Sound
  • Trap for stoats and weasels
  • Key Summit
  • Key Summit

Great Barrier Reef

We set sail to the famous Whitehaven Beach, known for its fine and white sand (98% silica) and the beautiful landscape. As we were rather close to the beach already overnight, we could avoid most of the day-tour tourists in the morning. After lunch we sailed to an amazing snorkeling spot and could confirm that the word “Great” in “Great Barrier Reef” is well-deserved. A wonderful start into 2019!

  • For sunset lovers
  • It moves – it lives!
  • Colors!
  • The Reef
  • Amazing fine white sand
  • My territory, mate!
  • Whitsunday Islands National Park
  • Our sailing trip
  • Almost a dream
  • Whitehaven Beach

New Year’s Eve on Whitsunday Islands

Our sailing ship “Prima” accommodated 11 (out of maximal 12) guests plus two crew members (captain Sas and cook Beke). We had a cabinet for ourselves – small but with a little bit of privacy. Before noon we set sail towards Whitsunday Island. Captain Cook discovered it on a Whitsunday (German: Pfingstsonntag), therefore the name. We traversed the hook passage, went snorkeling and anchored for the evening.

Maritime life

After a nice dinner at sunset we were in good mood for games (Twister and “Eat my box”).

Red sky on New Year’s Eve

To our big surprise (and shock) a squid joined the party – believe it or not, it jumped out of the water into our boat, just to be accidentally being stamped by one of the guests. A black trace of ink was a lasting proof. Our fellow travelers showed how to make a good meal out of the poor guy. Dinner out of one instead of “Dinner for one”. Happy New Year!

Crew’s twister fight

Cape Range NP – Gorges and Snorkeling

We did short hikes into the Mandu Mandu gorge and Yardie Creek gorge (again, we did a suggested 2-hour, class 4 hike in under about 50 minutes). Sadly, we couldn’t spot any wallabies. To escape the hot temperatures (and the flies) we went snorkeling again, now at the Turquoise Bay where you are encouraged to do “drift snorkeling”: just walk a bit to the south, enter the sea, swim for maybe 20 meters and let the stream flow you over amazing coral reefs.

Dolphins and Emus

We got up early to be at Monkey Mia before 8 AM to view the dolphin feeding. We had mixed feelings about this touristic attraction, but the dolphins are fed with just about 10% of their daily need, so they don’t lose their natural instincts for fish hunting.

On our way back almost crashed into an Emu family walking on the street. They were, well, pissed, and expressed it likewise… .

As Carnarvon didn’t offer much more than a Woolsworths shopping center we continued our drive and got a camp site at Coral Bay, where we also did a quick swim to cool down – again, we had almost the entire beach for ourselves.