Hawaii, Day 4

We woke up at like 5:20 this morning to go out and watch the sun rise. I stumbled around the dark room trying to find my shoes and sweater. Then made my way to the bathroom for the morning pee and brushing my teeth and putting in my contacts. All in a very zombie-like state. I finally woke up after that. I piled my hair on top of my head and wrapped a hair band around it several times and grabbed my camera. 

Then we made our way out to the beach. Seems like such a far walk. Especially since we had to go all the way over the far side again in order to see the sun come up. When we got there I could see the orange, pink and yellow light just barely over the mountains to our East. It created a pink glow around the clouds and hills. Very pretty. 

But, we decided that wasn't really a good enough view so we started exploring out a little further. We found this field of lava rock (who am I kidding, that's basically all this place is) and climbed up the highest one. 

However, then noticed we were on private property. Whoops. We climbed back down and under the fence. Then their was a security truck parked nearby and he seemed to be eyeing us. We found a line of large rocks and decided to sit on one while we watched the the rest of the sun come up. It's really quite amazing how quickly it rose. Seeing the sun rise and set is one of those things that you don't ever actually see: you know, you don't ever actually see the sun moving across the sky. However, here...you definitely can. 

Within 10 minutes the sun had peaked over and rose above the mountains. I watched, snapping pictures every few minutes, as the sky changed from that pinkish orange glow to a full blown yellow and orange sky. Then it became too bright to watch. So we wandered back down to the beach. It was only then that the security guard stopped watching us and left. 

Cory started looking for a geocache that was down there while I walked along side the beach. I noticed some sea turtles in closer to the shore so I made my way out to them on some rocks. There were only three or four that I could see, but were probably a lot more than that. Turtles apparently come into the shallow waters early in the mornings to rest. I think the sea turtles are just so cute. I've never been one to be into turtles either. I'm not sure what my sudden fascination with them is. 

I snapped too many pictures of them before making my way back to the beach to meet up with Cory. 

Upon returning to the hotel room I got ready for the day. Then went and got some breakfast at my favorite little coffee shop here. And a pineapple, macadamia nut muffin...again. Mmmm...so good! 

After breakfast we got ready and headed to the north side of the island for an ATV tour to some waterfalls and such. We pull up on this ranch with a little shack of a building (it seems to be the reoccurring theme here, buildings are either shacks or extremely nice, not really a gray area with it). We sat on a picnic table to sign in and fill out the liability waiver. Yeah. 

Our tour guy was a 'native' (his words, not mine). He had a very dark complexion with the longer, narrow face and extremely dark brown hair. It nearly looked black. I could tell his hair was real thick and coarse looking too. Almost exactly like Cory's hair! He was a real friendly guy and very helpful it was fun having him as our tour guide. 

After filling out our forms he asked me to come over with him to get sized for my gear. My gear was a face mask, helmet and goggles. At the time I though this much face protection was a little unnecessary. Nonetheless, I took it and went back to my picnic table and waited for the other four people to finish their paperwork. 

When we were all ready they took all six of us out to our four wheelers. There were two guides, one that would lead us and one that would follow us. The leader went over how to operate the ATV and general safety tips. Then we made a few laps around a field before the leader said we were ready to go. I was the first follower and once we got going, I was very thankful for that. We were riding extremely rough, dirt, sometimes gravel and grassy pathways up and down a mountain. We got very dirty. The four wheeler in front of you would basically just produce a cloud of dust for your to perpetually follow behind. I'm just glad for myself there was only one four wheeler to follow. Imagine the poor sap who was like 4th, 5th or especially 6th in line! 

It was funny when we came to our first stop, because as we all started taking our helmets and goggles off there would be clean outlines from where our gear had shielded the dust, but the rest of our faces were covered. I then understood how necessary all of the face shields were. 

The waterfalls we got to see were so peaceful. The largest one had a pool of water at the bottom of it. We sat on a large rock not far from the water and the cool mist would reach us ever so often. I loved the sound too. The water gushing down off of the huge cliff and splashing into the pool. It just sounded so much better than any mimicked version of it. Not loud and annoying, but nice. 

When we had finished with the ATV tour we were absolutely covered in dirt.

Random note to self: next time you're going to be riding four wheelers up and down mountains, wear a sports bra. A regular one just doesn't hold the girls in place well enough.

So...we had our picnic lunch again and then went snorkeling on an amazing beach. Best beach for snorkeling that we've been on yet. I really want to go back to it again tomorrow! The water dropped off quicker here so the water looked more blue, because it didn't have the tan-ish, brown color from the sand near the water entrance on the beach. We got into our goggles, snorkel and fins and made our way out in the ocean deep enough to start our snorkel. The entire ocean floor was covered in coral and reefs and rocks. There were fish everywhere. We got a little trigger happy with our underwater cameras, snapping pictures of all the fish we deemed worthy of a picture (nearly every fish we saw, really). The bad thing about that is...well...we ran out of film ridiculously fast. The good thing is, when you don't have a camera you always see the best things. 

After running out of film we come up on this huge rock of coral that stuck up way out of the water and went all the way to the ocean floor. Green, red and brown coral covered it in it's entirety. As we approached it a medium sized black eel slithered down the side into a small opening near the top. It was too cool! We also got to see the spotted puffer fish, blue jack, tons of the butterfly fish, tons of tangs, a squid (!), a parrot fish and many others that I'm just not familiar with yet. 

Then, of course, we got to see the most beautiful sea turtle. His colors were so bright and markings were so detailed. He was trying to eat some plants off of the coral, but the waves were making it very difficult for him. He seemed flustered with it. His eyes were so huge and black, every once in a while if you looked closely you could see the whites of his eyes as he moved them around. The speckled dark green spots on his face really stood out against the light tan background of his skin. It was just so fun to watch him. We were within a few feet of him several times and got to watch him without bothering him at all for at least 5 minutes. I could have watched him for longer, but I didn't want to stress the turtle out so we parted ways. 

Then, I screamed at some fish just to see how they'd respond (they acted as if nothing had screamed at them at all)...and forgot that when I make noises underwater the people above water can hear them too, because of my snorkel. So when I raised up and like 5 people were staring at me, it was pretty hilarious. Also hilarious because there's just no way to really look cool when you're snorkeling. 

After that we decided to call it quits with the snorkeling. I really wanted to be on the resort beach in plenty of time for sunset again today. So we rushed back to the hotel, showered and headed out to the beach area. We were out there quite early so we got to lounge around in the nice patio furniture for about an hour before the sun really started to go down. That was nice and there should really be more of that whole lounging thing while you're on a vacation. The sun was in full force this evening. There were no clouds to cover it once it got below a certain horizon. It was a full, seemingly perfect, bright orange and pink circle slowly descending in the sky. 

Of course it sent off those beautiful orange, yellow, pink and purple streaks all around it. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of it this evening: from different angles and locations and lastly out on the very edge of the sand beach across the ocean. When it finally set this time there was no remaining pink and orange streaks, just the dim light blue sky. 

We went to dinner at this nice little place in Kona. I had the best steak that I've ever had in my life there and I'm not even really a steak kind of girl. Mmmm, but it was delicious. Then we made the drive back to the resort and decided we were both ready to crash. Tomorrow is mountain adventure day! 

Randomness:

• There's lots of family drama going on right now that I will have to blog about upon returning to Missouri. There is also a certain female who has been intertwined with a certain male family member for a little too long - all while she played with others too. So, that girl better not be within arms reach of me ever again. It doesn't take much to strike up that mother-hen instinct in me.
• I think it's a little old fashion that the island only has 2 Walmarts and both are nearly an hour away from our location. I have to face it, I have a love/hate relationship with Walmart. I hate going there, but I like some of their products and I like being able to do so many things at one store -- like develop film from my underwater cameras while buying snacks.
• I also think it's crazy that I've really not come across one 'tourist' product of any kind that I feel compelled to purchase (and I even want to!), but there are multiple locations of stores like: Claires, Macy's and even Payless! I can go to those stores in Missouri! I need fun, new stores Hawaii!