Snorkeling in Hawaii

Last week I visited Hawaii, the island of Kauai.  I went with my two sisters for a week.  I will probably write more about the trip, but I want to start with the snorkeling.  This was my first time ever snorkeling, we went three times to three different beaches.  Kauai has a ton of beaches, below is a map of all the major swimming ones.

We visited a few not listed on this map but didn't swim in them including Donkey Beach on the east side, which was an awesome small beach with some great little tide pools, and Queens Pond, I believe it was called, on the west side that had a 5 mile dirt road to get to it. There where quite a few kite surfers at that one. 

Donkey Beach - East side Kauai

Near Queen's Pond kite surfers - West side Kauai

Poipu Beach

Poipu Beach was the first beach we ventured to snorkel at because it was newbie friendly and since I had never snorkeled before I wanted to try it out there first.  This beach is located on the south side of the island.  It had a "kiddy pool" behind a rock barrier on the left that blocked the waves and a "reef" side on the right that had a bit rougher water.  We went in on the reef side.  I was awe struck right away.  As a fish enthusiast who enjoys viewing fish in aquariums I was very enthralled to be in their natural habit as I felt as if I was swimming in an aquarium.  Most of the fish were very small, and the "reef" consisted mostly of scattered rocks.  However, I saw the most beautiful fish, that quickly became my favorite. They were christmas wrasses.

*Not my picture* - Christmas Wrasse

These fish were very shimmery and had a lot of colors so I really enjoyed seeing them the most.  I also spotted a fish that camouflages really well like part of the rocks, it may have been some sort of stonefish, but I'm not sure.  I was super exited to see that because they extremely hard to spot.  The orange edges of it's fins gave it away, and I saw it swim to confirm. 

Lastly I saw what I believe was a baby snowflake moray eel being pestered by a larger fish as it was trying to make it way under a rock, but was having a very difficult time finding one it could fit all the way under.  This little eel was adorable and I had a very good time watching him.

*Not my picture* - Snowflake Moray Eel

The water at this beach was odd because it had warm pockets and very cold pockets.  My sisters and I enjoyed the warm pockets more of course! 

Ke'e Beach

Ke'e Beach is last beach on the north side of the island accessible by car. The Napali coast is only accessible by a two day hike or by boat/helicopter.  This beach had a splendid coast line as it's leading into the Napali coast. I didn't get a picture of the beach itself cause I didn't want to get my camera sandy, but here is a shot from the parking lot.

View from parking lot Ke'e Beach - North side Kauai

This beach was basically like a cove with rocks along the left going up to a mountain and reef circling around all the way to the shore almost on the right.  We started out on the left side per a tip from the lifeguard.  There we found a really cool school of medium sized fish against the rocks. 

I did have an cheap underwater digital camera so the pictures came out very bad, but if anyone can identify these fish please let me know.

School of fish at Ke'e Beach

Once we got tired of the left side we swam over to the right where we found a legitimate reef.  The entire ground was made up of the reef and there were some cool cracks in it that fish liked to dodge in and out of.  To me it felt rather eerie to swim above the reef because it seemed like it went on forever. I saw some pretty cool fish though and they were much bigger than at Poipu Beach.  The tourist info said Ke'e was a good place to spot sea turtles, but we did not find any which was rather disappointing. 

Tunnels Beach

The last beach we swam at was Tunnels Beach, which is also on the North side of island with a great coastal view.  I got some pictures this time.  This was the only beach we swam at that did not have a lifeguard there full time.  One came by on a four wheeler every once and awhile.

Tunnels Beach - North side Kauai

This beach had a very shallow reef that went all the way up to the beach, and it went out to very deep water.  I started out on the shallow side and kind of freaked out because it seemed like it was so shallow I would scrape against the coral.  So I made my way to deeper water and found amazing very deep looking fissures in the reef, which may be where they got the name Tunnels Beach.  These cracks were so deep they where completely dark.  I swam over them, but it was a little eerie because I could just imagine a gigantic eel or something emerging from the depths.

This reef dropped off into really deep water abruptly.  I swam to the edge and it was way too freaky to swim over the edge because it felt like the edge of the world.  I did swim over a tiny bit later, but quickly returned to swimming over the reef.  I believe I saw a sea lion or seal out there, a big group of snorkelers swam toward it, but I hung back, it's a wild animal you never know what it will do!  I also saw a scuba diver out there.

I swam around a long time, the fish here were bigger than both of the previous beaches the biggest I saw was at least a foot long maybe a little bigger!  

I also saw what I think was an Aha Needlefish.

*Not my picture* - Aha Needlefish

By this time my sister found me and informed me they had found a sea turtle and she would lead me to it.  I swam behind her and the water kept getting more and more shallow and the reef closer and closer to my face.  The water got so shallow I thought maybe they had found a baby turtle.  But when I got there it was a full size green sea turtle I believe. Unfortunately I did not get any good pictures of it.  We were all very happy to see a sea turtle it was hanging out in the shallow reef grazing.  It was really cool to see how it was not disturbed by the waves at all.  Where as I was being tumbled around it was completely chill.  Finding Nemo got their personalities down perfectly! LOL

Here is the best underwater picture I got.  I believe it's a saddle wrasse.  These were also very pretty fish.

Saddle Wrasse

I saw many different types of fish I don't remember them all. I know I saw some yellow tangs, some kind of parrot fish, possibly a baby puffer, and some kind of brown sea slug, I'm not sure what else.   This beach had the strongest currents so by the time we were done swimming were pretty tired out. 

Overall I really enjoyed snorkeling it was quite amazing to see all the fish and sea life.  I highly recommend it if you love fish.