Especially beautiful is the view of fishes under rock arches swimming peacefully undisturbed as I rested within the caves. As the air bubbles were trapped under the roof of the cave, the fishes were not alarmed and did not scatter away, congregating in large groups and displaying their beautiful colours outside the cave. At one cave entrance, another diver and I hovered just outside and motionless. The whole school of yellow-finned striped wrasses crossed one end of the arch to the other, illuminated as a golden bridge across the entrance of the cave. It was a small swim through, and behind the golden bridge were beautiful coral formations and clear blue water beyond. It was a magical moment, but the camera was with Kenon. As that diver buoyed up slightly from his crouch and swam through the cave, the golden bridge broke up in two, as the two groups of yellow fishes swam to each side of the archway, out of the way. That transient beautiful moment, is gone.
Moving on, Kenon happily snapping away with the camera now in his grasp, he even took two pictures of me. And later kept complaining that all that time I held the camera, I did not think to take even one photograph of him [now why would I when all the other fishes were so much more photogenic!].
Just at those critical moments when wonderful things appear, the camera's battery died. We had found a flatfish. The fish was flat and completely camouflaged against a rock, blending into the rock's colours. Somehow, it decided to swim away and as it undulating across the water, it appeared that the rock's surface separated and floated away. Following it, we noted two eyes on one of its sides and a bright hue of purple fin sticking up vertically while it swam horizontally away.
Soon after, we surfaced and had to bid sad goodbye's to the wonderful crew on Big Island Divers. They were very patient and attentive and willingly helped us for all our special needs throughout the two weeks. It also made the fact that our holiday was soon coming to an end all the more poignant. We left the harbour with a heavy heart, but quickly cheered up at the prospect of bringing the Vespa out again.
This time, being more confident, we drove to the end of Ali'i Drive, onto Ali'i Highway and almost onto Ali'i Hill. However, we were blockaded by traffic police when we reached the end of Ali'i highway. With hearts pounding in our throats and parched lips, the policeman smiled at us as he told us that we could not continue onto the Ali'i Hill on a Vespa, and even directed us down another path to visit an interesting beach further down.
Nodding furiously, we proceeded down the path to a rocky black beach. "You know, even with the best lawyers, we will never win the case. Knowing full well that we do not have any driving license..." I whispered into Kenon's ear. I had to admit, we were reckless and we did not care, we laughed instead to keep our fear at bay. On the way down to the beach, we passed by grassland reminiscent of the Savannah plains. Here the grass grew straight and very tall, but unlike the lalang in Singapore, as the grass here was very dry and browned. Here and there, a small twisted tree grew with a flat canopy of yellow-brown leaves. The sunset had painted the whole area a golden reddish hue.
Beyond the grassland, we stopped to explore the empty beach. It was not really a beach, just a lava cliff that ended abruptly with the surf breaking upon treacherous rocks. The water was very blue and clear, but we could not reach the sea. We found white coral rocks littered amongst the black rocks and decided to write our initials on a rock according to the Hawaiian tradition. We then moved on, after leaving our mark on the black beach.
Bypassing Keahou, our furthest reach the day before, we drove onto the Kuakini Highway. Cars zipped by, and we stuck to the bicycle lane throughout the drive. Stopping at one of the small stopover town along the highway, we met a Guitar-maker and a wood-craftsman who were both very genial and interesting. Kenon lingered in the guitar shop and explored the Ukulele and different types of guitars on display and pieces of different woods. At the wood-craftsman's shop, we stayed even longer, and beyond the closing time of the shop.
The craftsman was a retired Navy Captain who used to dive for the Navy. He was tanned, with a high nose and sparkling blue eyes. A shock of white hair on his head and a large amount of white beard, he looks like a typical ship captain. He told us amazing experiences diving all over the world. He goes on frequent holidays to different dive destinations still, remaining active despite his age. It was truly inspiring. He also continued to make little wooden sailing ships and boxes, and I bought a pair of gold dolphin-shaped earrings from him.
Under the captain's direction, we had dinner at the best restaurant in Kona, at Keie cafe. It was a short distance away from the captain's shop and was owned by 2 Brazilian chefs. They served very good fusion food and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. By the time we were done, the sun had long set and it was very dark.
I was very apprehensive as Kenon proceeded to drive me back to town in the dark. It was very cold and my buttocks ached rather badly after sitting on the bike for the 2hour ride back. We were moving very slowly at 30mph [which was slower than a bicycle], but I kept emphasizing that it was always better to be delayed than to be dead, and will shout very loudly at Kenon if his speedometer increased to beyond 55mph [which happens whenever we go downhill].
We got lost once and as the road became deserted and very dark, I insisted on going back. Based on experience, it was always a bad idea to continue once the overhead stars could be seen clearly against the black sky and black silent surrounding. That would mean that we had taken the wrong turn into an unpopular direction.
Finally we made it back to Kailua, and went to our favourite place, Walmart. In the parking lot, we spied another policeman and had to make a detour to another part of the parking lot to escape. We got down and Kenon decided to buy strawberries, cinnamon rolls and bacon for our next day's breakfast. Very exhausted, we still stayed up until midnight to talk to the German couple who were very excitable and extremely friendly and kept us chatting happily despite our tiredness.
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