The End of Summer

Okay, continuing on with summer – I FINALLY got a good manta snorkel trip! I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I went snorkeling with the mantas back in April, but it was an awful trip. I booked a night snorkel instead of a sunset snorkel (supposedly more mantas later at night), but the day of the trip the company had to take their boat out of the water, so the rescheduled me with their sister company. Unfortunately their night snorkel was full, so I had to settle for the sunset snorkel. That was like a zoo – there had to be at least 10-15 boats and 200+ people in the water. There wasn’t any room! Everyone is supposed to hold on to these surfboards with lights that shine down into the water and attract the mantas. There were so many people that I was bumping into other groups without even moving. We also waited 35 minutes before we saw one single manta swim the length of the groups and then off into the deep. That was it. An 8 second glimpse of a manta as it swam along the ocean floor. Nice, but not what I was hoping for.

So fast forward to August – I had arranged with the original company (Splashers Ocean Adventures) to get a discount on a future snorkel trip since my first reservation got messed up. Alex (from game nights), Kelly and I went over to Kona for a snorkel night which I carefully planned around the new moon (the mantas are attracted to lights because plankton (their food source) is attracted to lights; when there is a full moon it’s like one giant light source so the surf board lights are less effective). There are two also two sites that the manta tours go to – the Sheraton Hotel south of Kona (where my first trip was), and the Garden Eel Cove just off the coast by the airport. The Sheraton location is where the mantas have learned to go because of the bright lighting from the hotel over the years, but the airport location is where they hang out naturally, for whatever reason. Luckily this tour went to the airport spot, so I got a totally new experience.

When we got to the spot we could already see a manta or two from the boat! There were also maybe four boats there already, but most were from the earlier trip and were heading out soon. I wasted no time and got in the water first. Once everyone else got in position around the surf board, we only had to wait a few minutes for a manta to come over. It swam under us a couple of times and then started doing its signature somersaults right under the board. It got so close, it was incredible!! So at that point I was pretty content – we got a manta swimming right up to us repeatedly. Way better than the first trip. A few minutes later another one came over, then another, and another, and another! We were at five mantas for quite a while, so I was over the moon (this was more than most of my friends had seen on their previous trips). One difference between this spot and the Sheraton spot was that there weren’t any lights stationed on the ocean floor, and there was only one other boat a ways away, so we only had the lights from our surf board. In other words, it was quite a bit darker. So when our five mantas all happened to swim out of the light long enough for it to shine to the bottom, we saw that there were at least another five swimming down there! Our guide – who was giving us fun facts and answering questions the whole time – was also pointing out when new mantas would arrive, and she was freaking out at how many there were. Her high count was 12, but it was so difficult because they kept moving and getting blocked by shadows. It was absolutely amazing!! Before this our guide had seen at most 8 mantas at one time under one boat, so this shattered her old record. It was insane how many there were and how close they got! They bumped into my legs a couple of times, and there were so many of them that they had a couple collisions with each other – very funny to watch such graceful creatures bonk heads. After that experience I’ve decided that I can never go on a manta snorkel trip ever again, because it will never be as good as what I saw that night. I’m pretty glad that first trip was awful, because I wouldn’t have gone a second time and had such a spectacular viewing! If only I had a waterproof camera… I’ll have to get some pictures off of Alex.

Another fun adventure I had was a snorkel trip followed by camping on the beach. Dom, George, and I headed over to Kona side and spent a solid couple of hours snorkeling at Two Step (the place I snorkeled with dolphins back in March or so, and have returned several times since). We spent a solid couple of hours in the water and saw some awesome fish and even two eagle rays! It looked like an adult and a youngin’, as the small one was less than half the size of the larger one. The adult was still smaller than the mantas, but they were very cool to swim with and see during the day. After that we met up with some of the others from the guys’ house and other techs from the park. We headed up to Kekaha Kai State Park (the beach that we took the party scraper to over that really sketchy lava road), and from there we hiked 20 minutes to get to Makalawena Beach. We were planning on camping there, but the guardian of the beach – a really old guy with a long beard and a big walking stick – told us we couldn’t stay, so after watching the sunset we hiked halfway back to the first beach and found a nice little area to set up camp. We had a fun evening chatting and watching planes fly in to the Kona airport. The next morning Dom, George, and I rolled out just before sunrise, so we got to watch it happen on our walk back to the car. Beautiful!

Sunset at Makalawena

Camping spot right by the water

Sunrise on the walk to the car

On a smaller scale, I also started adventuring around the park a bit more. I tried to go on some decent walks after work a few days a week (when rain didn’t stop me). I walked to the Jaggar Museum a few times (overlooking the crater), across the Kilauea Iki Trail (the one that I did with some of my crew on our first weekend here), and generally along the Crater Rim Trail. It’s amazing how the view changes every day depending on the weather, the clouds, and the volcano emissions. It’s easy to forget how lucky I am to be living in a national park next to a VOLCANO! Especially when you consider the eruption back in April and the poor visitors whose trips entirely overlap with a storm.

Cloud factory

I think my last big adventure of the summer was my camping trip to Pololu Valley. I’d been there a couple times before, but this time we decided to spend the night. I went with Kristen and Kelly who worked for Alex on an Elepaio project for the USGS. They also live in the park, but in a different house. Kristen actually just finished up with that project and switched to our project for the fall and winter, so now she’ll get to spend some time in Hakalau. Anyways, we headed up on a Saturday afternoon with a stop at the Big Island Brewhaus in Waimea. They have some excellent beers and delicious burgers, so a stop was inevitable. We also picked up some malasadas (sugar coated donut things with optional fillings) as snacks and for breakfast the next morning. Basically we ate our way up the coast until we finally made it to Pololu. We hiked down, set up camp, lit a fire, and hung out for the evening. There was only one other group spending the night, but they were on the other side of a hill from us, so it was like we had the place to ourselves – it was great! I woke up with sunrise the next morning and hiked around a bit to enjoy the scenery before the crowds showed up. They definitely show up early, considering how out of the way the valley is, and the 20 minute hike down to the beach. But it was a great trip and I would love to do it again.

Camping by the water again! Hard to NOT do in Hawaii

An interesting work-related thing that I got to help with was a rat-trapping study that’s being done as part of the Elepaio project. They are trapping, tagging, and releasing rats, and then trapping again in the early spring right before the bird breeding season. I think it’s to get an idea of abundance, but in the spring they’ll also be putting out poison and “dispatching” the rats that they do trap as they are one of the main Elepaio nest predators. Anyways, I went out for a day to help them check traps and set them up in a new site (turns out rats like coconuts). I got to ear tag a few of them, which was fun and smelly – the cages smell like rat pee. It was fun because they came up with an easy way to ear tag them; normally you would grab the rat by the scruff, but a few of them have gotten away. Instead, they get the rats into a plastic bag with the corner cut out so that only their heads fit through, and then you can tag their ears without anything getting in the way. Easy peasy! And kind of adorable. Except for the rat pee.

Unfortunately I can’t help with the rat stuff anymore, or go to Hakalau to train the new fall/winter techs, or go on any big adventures anymore. But I *can* post two blog updates in one weekend. Why? I broke my ankle during my last stint in Hakalau. :( I was walking around the net trail at our Koa site checking nets like I’ve done a thousand times, but this time I stepped in a hole that was semi-hidden by overgrown grass and I heard and felt something pop. Damn! I knew it was bad as soon as I stood up, but I assumed it was sprained like when I tripped while hiking back in 2012. I hobbled back to the truck to look for an ice back, and then scooted to the banding tent (fortunately this happened at Koa, where the banding tent is 20 feet from the road). For the next week I iced it, elevated it, and had it wrapped in an ace bandage, but I figured it’d be smart to get it checked out before leaving the country (did I mention that? More later). Turns out I fractured my left fibula! Bummer. The ER doctor didn’t even notice it until the X-ray technician pointed it out. He already told the nurse to re-wrap me in an ace bandage, but ran back in and said “Change of plans. I just saw the x-rays – get the space boot!” So I’ve been wearing this boot for a little over a week now, and on Thursday I’ll be switching to a slightly smaller boot that’s easier to walk in. It means that I’m sitting at home on the couch for my last weekend in Hawaii while everyone else is on various hiking/camping trips, but that’s okay – it’ll give me time to clean and start sorting my things (if I ever stop binge watching TV shows, that is). It’s actually kind of good that I waited to get it checked out because the orthopedic doctor I saw said that if I’d come in any sooner he would’ve put me in an actual cast. That would’ve definitely messed with my travel plans!

Yes, travel plans… have I mentioned that I’m going to Australia for my next job?! I have a nest searching position in Canberra from mid-October to mid-January! But before that I’m spending a month traveling around New Zealand for fun. Finally getting to cross these countries off my bucket list! Unfortunately the ankle is a bit of a hindrance, but I’m making do and adjusting my plans. I guess I’ll just be seeing the country in a more leisurely fashion than I was initially hoping. I leave on Friday, so this new adventure is just around the corner! I plan to keep updating this blog for this upcoming adventure, so stay tuned!

One last thing – I discovered a really cool website that shows global weather, wind, ocean currents, pollution, etc. It’s particularly interesting to watch while all these hurricanes are hanging around Hawaii. Check it out at: earth.nullschool.net

Until next time, when I’m down under and a solid half-day ahead of most of you!