Snorkeling on the Kohala Coast

The Kona Coast is every mainlander's initial destination when they travel to the Big Island of Hawaii.  In fact your flight literally lands in Kona, at Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport.  But many of the fancy resorts you're ultimately heading to, like the Hilton and the Westin, are actually on the Kohala Coast, a short distance to the north.  

Kona also has some big hotels but it's more densely developed, home to towns like Kailua where there is a wider variety of affordable oceanfront lodging and dining options.  Also, two of the best snorkeling spots on the Big Island are there: Kealakekua Bay and Two Step. (Read about my visits: Kealakekua & Two Step.)  

Opting to stay in Kohala, I chose the the sprawling grounds of the Hilton in Waikoloa Village for six of my vacation's eight nights.  I also wanted to use some hotel points to offset the high cost of living on the Big Island.  Furthermore,  some of the most beautiful beaches on the island are in Kohala, like at Hapuna and Mauna Kea.  I was thrilled to eventually discover there were also some excellent snorkeling sites just offshore from some of these sandy playgrounds.

I even snorkeled in the Hilton's manmade lagoon, amid children wearing floaties and tweens peddling pontoon boats.  The afternoon swim was a sort of consolation prize after a disappointing morning in the water at nearby A-Bay.  Anaeho’omalu Bay is its actual name, where a wide sandy beach bordered by shade trees, restroom facilities and lots of parking make a popular destination for both locals and tourists.  It's also a departure point for whale-watching expeditions and glass bottom boats that peer at the reefs below.  Sunset-watching brings even more visitors at the end of the day.

Coral reefs were on my mind the morning I loaded up my snorkeling gear, lunch, and beach chair for a few hours at A-Bay.  There was plenty of sunshine but also a lot of wind when I arrived, resulting in poor underwater visibility from waves and sand.  A local resident told me the best snorkeling was several hundred feet offshore, beyond some distant buoys bobbing in the waves, where the tour boats seemed to be heading.

I could barely make out the contrast in water surface colors that are normally a sure indication of reefs below.  Nonetheless I was eager to explore the area and headed out to have a look; a buddy along for safety of course.

Swimming blindly underwater and not seeing rocky outcrops or large creatures until you're right on top of them is unnerving.  It's worse when the waves slap your head and snorkel.  While the visibility did improve, being tossed about in deep water a hundred yards from shore is not my idea of fun.  Barely noticing the reefs, I quickly swam back to the beach.  

Chilled in the wind and increasing cloud cover, I devoured an egg salad sandwich and called it a morning.  For me, A-Bay will remain a top place for sunsets and Mai Tais at Lava Lava Beach Club.  Who knows, some day maybe I'll hop on a glass bottom boat to see what I was missing in the deep, choppy water.

Back at the Hilton where it got sunnier in the afternoon, I lugged my snorkel gear past three pools, a wedding chapel, two restaurants, and a couple of dozen tiki torches to the manmade beach.  From there I entered the resort's manmade lagoon.  The body of water actually opens to a natural bay and the ocean beyond, so plenty of marine life passes through the area.  One morning from the bridge crossing over the entry I saw a spotted eagle ray swim into the lagoon.

I immediately paddled out of the resort, under the roped floaties, to the shallowest waters of the rocky cove - called Waiulua Bay - rimmed above by low volcanic cliffs and hotel sun worshippers.  While I didn't see any living coral or a spectacular array of fish - thermoclines or haloclines effected visibility - I encountered five green sea turtles either underwater or sunning themselves on land.

Visibility also suffered in the lagoon because of a high density of sediment or algae in the still water.  Nonetheless, I saw a large school of lagoon triggerfish, along with many parrotfish and Moorish idols, to name just a few.  I also photographed a unique surgeonfish that might actually be a juvenile unicornfish.

However it was further up the coast, two bays north to be exact, less than a mile as the crow flies - or turtle swims in this case - where the snorkeling gods smiled on me the most.  Mauna Lani comprises a five-star hotel, a beach club, golf courses, restaurants, mansions, and condominiums; encompassing Makaiwa Bay in the north and Honokaope Bay in the south.  I ended up visiting Makaiwa twice during my Hawaii vacation, snorkeling at the two far ends of the stunning bay. 

If you're not staying somewhere at the Mauna Lani, you'll have to take advantage of the limited free parking at Kalahuipua'a Historic Park.  The ten-minute walk to the beach on ancient Hawaiian trails through a'a lava fields and native-built fishponds was its own fascinating activity.  At water's edge on my first visit I opted to head right, toward the luxury hotel tower and its stony beach.  

It was a fortuitous choice because I quickly encountered a spotted eagle ray several feet from the shoreline.  After several minutes swimming with this amazing creature, I bumped into several green sea turtles.  Close to shore were some areas of poor visibility due to thermoclines or haloclines.  But I eventually found some pristine reefs teeming with fish life in crystal clear, shallow water a hundred feet or so off-shore.

Six days after that first visit to Makaiwa Bay, I returned to its southern end by veering left when I reached the ocean.  After a few minutes, I was struck by the beautiful sandy beach, the high stone rampart constructed atop a lava cliff, but mostly by all the parking!  

Did I have to walk all that way through that sunbaked - however interesting historically - lava field?  Well, yes, I did, as the parking spots are for the sole use of guests of the Mauna Lani Beach Club, which that particular corner of the exclusive development was called.  I did find out that if I dined at the adjacent open air restaurant, Napua, after five o'clock, I'd be allowed to use the parking lot.  

However besides serving as a raised coastal walking path, the purpose of the stone rampart remained a mystery.  Are the cliffs too unstable for a trail?

In the water, very near to shore, the reef was quite extensive, its elaborate coral formations alive with an abundance of fish.  "Fingers" of sandy seafloor demarcated deep canyons between rocky edifices.  Underneath a protective ledge I saw a large sea turtle napping on the ocean bottom. 

As I steered to the middle of the bay, the coral cliffs gave way to a wide expanse of flat, sandy seabed.  A shore-hugging five-minute swim north would have taken me to where I had snorkeled with that spotted eagle ray.  But I didn't have to bother as I soon located another one, almost a dozen feet below me.  Fins rippling slowly, the creature glided peacefully away.  

The following day, and the last day of vacation, I visited Honokaope Bay, the next bay along the coast south of Makaiwa Bay.  It's also referred to as 49 Black Sand Beach because of the high content of pulverized lava in the sand.  I read a bit about it while researching areas to snorkel, but since it was in a private community - another part of the Mauna Lani Beach Club - it didn't seem like an option.  However I discovered in my long chat with the local resident on A-Bay that the guard at the gate allowed a number of public beachgoers to enter at any given time.  

In fact all Hawaii beaches are public, so private communities must accommodate visitors who want to visit the water.  As a result, Honokaope not only offered ample parking near their tennis courts, even showers and restrooms were available, all within a very short walk to the beach.

There was lots of coral close to shore and an extensive variety of marine life including a speedy green sea turtle heading out to sea.  Thick schools of yellow tangs and orange band surgeonfish crowded the coral canyons.  A pair of black triggerfish seemed absorbed in a choreographed dance as they flashed bursts of color and light from their scales.

As the morning progressed the sun heated the sand more than it does other beaches, making the walks from my shady spot under a tree to water's edge fast trots.  Unfortunately the shallows didn't warm up similarly, so black sand snorkeling in the winter was as chilly as the powder sand and lava rock varieties elsewhere on the island.

Besides the excitement of my first time swimming on a black sand beach, spectacular views of the ocean and coastline from a cliff-top trail overwhelmed me.  In the distance to the right was Kohala Volcano comprising the northern end of Hawaii.  It's the oldest of the island's five volcanoes, a million years old to be exact, already extinct for more than one hundred thousand years.  Rising a mile high it appears as another island on the horizon, like Maui which is often visible more than twenty miles beyond it.  

Much closer to shore, spouts rose from the ocean as humpback whales surfaced.  At least two of the giants even breached.  

A-Bay, the Hilton, Honokaope, Makaiwa: a string of four unique bays minutes away from each other by paddleboard, a little more by car.  Each has its analogous attractions: striking beaches; coral reefs; marine life galore; natural history; archaeology; panoramic views of volcano, sky, and sea; resorts and shopping for every creature comfort.  It was on the black sand beach, on my last day in Hawaii, that I had my normal end-of-vacation lamentation: I wasn't ready to leave this two-mile-long strip of South Kohala.

Green sea turtle on the seabed at the north end of Makaiwa Bay, Hawaii.

View of Makaiwa Bay from its south end.  Kohala Volcano rises in the background.

Spotted eagle ray in Makaiwa Bay.

Reef life in Makaiwa Bay.

View of Anaeho'omalu Bay, aka A-Bay.

Three green sea turtles sunning themselves in Waiulua Bay at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.

Surgeonfish, possible juvenile unicornfish, in the lagoon at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.

View of Honokaope Bay, aka 49 Black Sand Beach.  A humpback whale is breaching in the distance, close to the horizon, right of center.

Black triggerfish swimming together, flashing color and light changes in their scales, in Honokaope Bay.

View of Honokaope Bay to the south, with Kohala Volcano in the background.

Google Map view of a two-mile long portion of the Kohala Coast, from A-Bay in the southwest to Makaiwa Bay in the northwest.  A tiny corner of Kohala that was difficult to leave.