Helen and Tony's Travels

Today we did a private tour with Ross and Lesley with Aina Tours. We used the same company two years ago. Tina was our driver and guide for the day. We visited the Lava Tree State Park, here we saw formations created by lava flowing around the trees leaving these alien looking forms.

Lava Tree State Park

A stop was made at Rainbow falls, before heading to Pohoiki Bay a surf beach with black sand and some thermally heated areas of sea.

Rainbow Falls

Pohoiki Beach

A Surfer diving in

Kalapana was our next stop, this area was covered in lava back in the 60’s. An entire town was destroyed, just a few fern fronds are now growing and a planting of coconut trees has been started to line the route to the Black Sand Beach. We walked through the old lava field to reach the beach.

Our next stop Ahalanui Warm Pond. Time to eat the lunch we had purchased earlier. We followed lunch with a very relaxing swim in the geothermically heated pool.

On our return journey Tina stopped at the Macadamia plantation so we could all have ice cream. Yum, and we bought some choc-coated macadamias as well.

This tour went for 7 hours at a cost of $75 each.

Kona

Tuesday, 30^th April, 2012

We caught a tender to shore early and had a coffee before checking in at the Kailua Pier for a snorkel cruise with Body Glove Cruises. Their vessel was docked right next to the ships tenders. A Manta ray was swimming in the pier area another good start to our day.

At 9 am we set off down the Kona coast to our destination of Red Hill. We had breakfast on the way, then put our gear on ready to hit the water. The fish were more abundant today the coral slightly better, but not good for photographing. The highlight for me today was finding a turtle and following it for quite some time. I got lots of photos so I was happy. Lunch was being prepared while we were in the water so we got out to eat. I ventured back in after lunch while Tony watched from the boat. We are still not inpressed by the Hawaii coral but really enjoyed our day.

Some dolphins joined us on our return trip.

Tony and I watched for dolphins at sailaway and were not disappointed a large group swam under the ship just near our vantage point and did some acrobatic movements for us. These are spinner dolphins and they show off by doing a spin on leaving the water.

Tour cost...$137 US pp

Maui

Monday, 29th April,2013

Today we did our only Princess Tour for this cruise. The Maui snorkel cruise. On our way to our snorkel spot we were lucky enough to see some whales playing, this had everyone smiling and excited about our day.

This tour took us to Molokini Crater supposedly renowned for its coral and stunning array of tropical fish....well we do not think so... very few varieties of fish and the coral was mostly dead or colourless. We enjoyed being in the water but were left disappointed.

Our second stop was at Olowalu’s Turtle Reef, we got in the water and the turtles could be seen below us. One big one surfaced so many of us had a close encounter of the wonderful kind.

Kauai

Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Nawiliwilli Harbour was where we docked today. Six of us shared a 4 hour tour today with Pono Taxis. Our driver for the day was waiting for us at the gate at 8.30 as arranged and we set off for Waimea Canyon. This is considered the “Grand canyon of the Pacific”.

Kauai is a lovely little island and just for us it decided to sent in lots of low clouds...so as you will see form the photos we saw a lot of cloud and no canyon. Luckily we saw some of the lower areas and can only imagine how wonderful it would have been. The canyon spans 10 miles and is about 3000 feet deep.

Our consolation prize along the way was a good view of a waterfall. No matter the company and the scenery along the way was good.

Upon our return to the ship we ate before heading to the local Walmart for some shopping.

Tour cost....US$83 per couple