Tag: snorkeling

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

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

Farm Camping in OZ

An Eco tour boat brought us to several snorkeling sites with the main goal to catch sea turtles, which we did successfully, besides amazing views on the Ningaloo reef, fishes known from “Finding Nemo” and even a reef shark.

In the afternoon we left Exmouth in order to decrease the distance until Tom Price / Karijini National Park. We camped on a farm at Garilia Station and had a warm welcome by its hosts.

A real OZ experience!

We were just about to finish dinner when suddenly a big kangaroo passed by with long jumps to feed wet grass next to our camper van.

What’s up, mates?

Then we did some very kitschy sunset photos, followed by a few shots of the amazingly dark sky. Shooting stars? Check.
A real Oz experience – highly recommended!

Orion – at almost zero light pollution

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.

Exmouth – Cape Range NP – Ningaloo Reef

Unfortunately, our planned “snorkel with mantas” tour from Denham has been cancelled, so nothing held us there and we drove till Exmouth. In the visitor center we booked a snorkel tour for Friday and then entered Cape Range National Park which also contains most of the famous Ningaloo Reef, which is mostly very near from the shore. So, we went snorkeling on our own and were greeted by colorful fishes and a sea turtle.

Turtle Power!

Later on we also spotted a stingray. From the beach we finally saw a shark in the water, so we decided to leave it for the day with snorkeling. Instead, we went to a bird hide and observed pelicans and other birds, before setting up our wilderness camp for the night at Ned’s Camp (directly at the beach within the park).