Kayak to Makalawena Beach

This morning we put in our Kayaks at Kua Bay (Maniniowali Beach) right as the park opened up at 9:00 AM. On board we had our snorkeling gear, our waterproof cameras and a cooler with kalua pig sandwiches inside. Our goal was to kayak to Makalawena Beach - a secluded and austere beach that is difficult to access. We talked about attempting this a while ago in a previous blog post but were unsuccessful - today we were determined to do it! Luckily, the weather smiled upon us with calm seas and sunshine. So, we loaded our kayak and carried it down over the rocks from the pavement to the bleached-white sandy beach below and started paddling.

Ahead and to the north there was already a dive boat anchored atop the reef nearby and our curiosity almost pulled us in that direction to investigate the diving conditions there - but we were focused on our goal of reaching Makalawena (many say this is the prettiest beach on the island...) We started paddling to the south and the scenery was spectacular. The waters of Kua Bay are many different shades of blue - from emerald to a light and bright blue, to a darker navy blue where the reef is below. We continued and passed the large mound of a hill to our left and noticed for the first time a row of houses near its base - I wonder, more vacation rentals - or perhaps exclusive beach bungalows for the rich and famous?

As we kept paddling beyond this cove, we began to see the strand of trees that borders the northern end of Makalawena and we knew we were not far. As we paddled, the waters were so clear that we could make out glimpses of the vast reef below us. On several occassions, I lowered myself into the water with a mask and snorkel to marvel at the underwater topography and corals - the reef was beautiful. By now, we could make out a glimpse of thegently sloping dunes at Makalawena. The sand there is a special shade of white and could be seen shining in the distance, surrounded by lava rocks and underbriush. As we stared at the beach we were dissappointed by seeing a few people already on the beach - we were hoping to be the only ones there...

As we approached the northen edge of the beach, we notice a very shallow reef shelf below us with vibrant yellow and blue hued colors. We decided to anchor the kayak and snorkel the reef below us. We dropped our anchor on a patch of sand at the bottom and saw a thriving reef below us in about 20 feet of water. We spent a short while snorkeling and free diving above the reef. Then we finally decided it was time to paddle in to shore - at Makalawena!

We navigated the approach avoiding lava rocks and a shallow reef and were pushed by surging waves the final distance onto the immacculate beach - we were finally there! The beach was better than I imagined and better than any piuctures could capture. The sand was perfect - soft, fine, and firm under our bare feet. The azure waters shined and the white sand contrasted starkly next to the dried lava rocks and surrounding green shrubbery. The waves lapped on shore on the beach and pounded the lava rocks sending sea spray into the air. Makalawena is actually three beach crescents located side by side to each other - we had landed on the center crescent. We spent some time exploring and photographing the beach and eventually sat on the lava rocks to enjoy our sandwiches before paddling back to Kua Bay. It was a wonderful day! Right now, my legs ache a bit because I forgot to add sunblock to them and they are a bit sun burnt...

The Big Island Hates Kayakers

Most of my previous posts have been mini travelogues about my adventures on the Big Island. This post I want to talk about something that has puzzled me. As you can tell from this blog and the website I am an avid kayaker. I have been kayaking for many years now, exclusively in the ocean. My main interests include surf kayaking - that is riding the waves on my sit-on-top Ocean Kayak and kayaking to remote locations on the island to snorkel or SCUBA dive. When I lived on the mainland, I used to wait in anticipation for a large coastal storm, then rush to the coast with my kayak, eager to ride the large stormy waves!

As I have traveled throughout the Big Island over the years, I try to find new places to explore, and specifically new places to kayak to. With so many remote coastal areas, the Big Island is a perfect place to explore via kayak. Unfortunately, my recent attempts to kayak the Kona Coast have been thwarted by what I see as anti-kayak laws. What I really love about the Big Island is its raw beauty and wide open spaces. The Big Island is different than most mainland beaches that are crawling with millions of visitors and have so many overwhelming rules and regulations. For some unknown reason, there seems to be a consistent ban on kayaking at so many Big Island locations.

Recently, I had planned an excursion - we wanted to kayak from Kua Bay to Makalawena Beach. I thought it would be a really nice trip with beautiful land scenery as well as prolific reefs to explore. Checking satellite photos, it certainly looked enticing. When I last visited Kua Bay, I saw a dive flag just offshore and that whetted my apetite for exploration. Unfortunately, upon arrival at Kua Bay, we spotted this large garrish sign exclaming: NO KAYAKS ALLOWED. I thought it was very strange considering everything else seems to be acceptible... Not wanting to get fined or arrested, we aborted this mission.

A few days later, we found ourselves coming back from Captain Cook after a fantastic morning of kayaking, snorkeling and SCUBA diving. We decided to take a detour to Kahaluu Beach Park and check out the waves at the north end of this bay. Since it was the winter, the swells were impressive and we thought it would be a great chance to do a little surf kayaking here. So we quickly unloaded our kayak, rigged the seats, threw on our rash guards and slapped sunblock on our faces. We were ready to ride the sets... until we saw another large sign: NO KAYAKS ALLOWED -- we were crushed. We were relegate to body surfing at Magic Sands instead that afternoon... not nearly as fun as battling the waves by kayak.

It seems that the law makers seem to have a personal vandetta against us kayakers. There doesn't seem to be a problem with riding a surf board, body-board, or other flotation device. It is okay for the oppulent resorts limiting the "public beach access" with their condescending guards. But just don't get caught kayaking! Alas, it seems to be a state park law - so us avid kayakers will be forced to stay away from those locations and continue to partake in our sport as renegades.

I look forward to doing more "legal" kayaking in the future and posting my adventures online.

Snorkeling at Pawai Bay

I had heard about Pawai Bay while searching the internet for snorkeling locations in Kona. I have snorkeled most of the Big Island and am constantly searching for new places to snorkel and SCUBA dive. I read that charter boats take snorkelers to Pawai Bay and decided I wanted to go and check it out. I found out that although this bay is somewhat secluded you can access it by a trail leading from the north end of the Old Kona Airport Beach Park. Apparently, Pawai Bay is located about two coves to the north of the Old Kona Airport. However, I wanted to SCUBA dive at Pawai - so hiking the trail with all my gear was out of the question.

So I came up with the idea of Kayaking to Pawai Bay from Kailua Bay. At first I thought that this might be overly ambitous, but after looking at my GPS and a few maps, I saw that it would be about a 1.5 mile kayak trip (each way). By taking a kayak, we could stow all of our dive gear on board and also enjoy the journey.

So a couple of friends and I started the trip - we paddled right off of the beach at the King Kamehameha Hotel in Kailua-Kona. Although, there were moderate swells in the ocean, it took us less than one hour to get beyond the Old Airport Beach Park. Then we realized that the waves were crashing on the lava rocks at the shore and we would need to be very careful as we neared shore. Our original plan was to anchor the boat - dropping anchor onto the sandy bottom (and avoid damaging any corals). We brought our anchor with us and as I swam in the water searching for a good place to anchor, I spotted the buoy that the tour boats use to moor and we tied up the this buoy. It was a great find - we were only about 25 yards from shore and right over the reef that we could see through the clear waters below. As we prepared to enter the water, we saw a lone snorkeler pass by our kayaks - she must have come from shore where you can enter the water at the small sandy beach at the edge of the cove.

We dropped in and two of us SCUBA dived as the third person snorkeled. The reef here was expansive, vibrantly alive, and consumed by colorful corals. As I descended on my dive, I could see many large schools of fish in and around us and the reef. There were large schools of curious Goat Fish meandering near us and pockets of Squirrel Fish bobbing with their large eyes protruding. The top of the reef was in about 20-25 feet of water and it descended to beyond 65 feet deep. The water was a warm 78 degrees and about 70 feet of visibility - all in all excellent conditions! This coral reef really reminded me of the dense reef at Captain Cook, one of my favorites on the Island. As we got back in the kayaks and secured our gear, one of my buddies got sea sick because the swells had increased and the chop was getting rough. So we decided to paddle back to Kailua Bay. We only dived one small portion of the reef here at Pawai Bay - and I look forward to coming back to take a look at the rest of it.