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Scuba and Snorkel Stuff |
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We did a lot of swimming, snorkelling and scuba diving, especially while on the Big Island. Neither of us had ever gone snorkelling before, so we were amazed at how much fun it was.
When I used to think of tide pools, I imagined puddles a few feet deep that had sea anenomes and starfish in them. Well, all of these snorkelling pictures were taken in Hawaiian tide pools. Most of them were from three to eight feet deep, and some were bigger than most swimming pools I've ever seen. They're all connected to the ocean, so you get lots of cool fishies and coral in them, and the reefs usually keep the water calm, since the big waves are breaking several hundred yards farther out to sea.
In one of the places we went, it was almost like swimming in an aquarium. While the coral wasn't as colorful as I had hoped, the fish more than made up for it. These are little coral wrasses.
Another pretty fish.
The first place we went snorkelling, we saw some things swimming around in the big pools, then when we jumped in, we realized that we were surrounded by green sea turtles. This one got right up in my face and practically pushed me out of his way to get to some algae on the rock I was swimming over.
They were not disturbed by our presence in the slightest bit. I'd almost say that they were as curious of us as we were of them. We also got to see a cool pufferfish hiding in a little cave in some coral near this turtle.
Scuba diving was interesting. It took me a while to get my ears equalized the first time I went, but once I did, we were able to go down about 40 feet, where this picture was taken.
Most of the scuba pictures didn't come out very well, but this one of a green sea turtle did. So I stuck it here.
