October 19, 2010

• belated

  Superman took me to Hawaii last month for my birthday present this year. I realized that I hadn't really written or posted anything about that trip, other than the fact that he planned it, and I read a lot while I was there. We ended up doing a lot of work while we were there, but we still went on eight dives (including two night dives with mantas), slept a lot, and read a lot. It's good to go somewhere else, even if you have to work while you're there.

  Manta dives are pretty much the reason to go diving in Kona -- five or ten of them come and do crazy acrobatics for 30 or 40 minutes, trying to scoop up as much plankton (which is attracted to the divers' lights) as possible. If you want to get an idea of what it's like, here's an example that someone else put on YouTube. I took some short videos of mantas, but haven't gotten around to editing and uploading them. (On a similar note, I knew it wasn't going to be a hardcore diving trip, so I only brought my little point-and-shoot, and only took that on a couple dives, so I didn't come home with many pictures.) 

  

  When we went last year, we went on a dive and found ourselves in the middle of a pod of about 100 dolphins... and I didn't have my camera. This year, I was lucky enough to have my camera down with me when we saw some dolphins. Not as many as last year, but at least I have a picture of them this time.

  

  A little nudibranch, about two or three inches long. This one was on its way to go meet another one, who was only a few inches away.

  

  As I mentioned, we went on two night dives with mantas, which are pretty awesome. This little squid (about the size of my hand) was puttering around in the shallows as we swam back to the boat. He was changing color as he swam -- in another shot, taken a few seconds later, he was deep red.

  • 8:49 pm
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