Work has been a bit much lately so I told James that I needed a bit of a break. As it turns out, the snow on my birthday was pretty good in Tahoe after a fairly mild winter so James and I decided to "switch" birthdays. We went skiing / snowboarding on my birthday and then went to Hawaii in April, even though it was a few weeks after his birthday. One of the reasons I picked this week is that it would be the first trip of the season to Ni'ihau, the Forbidden Island. I previously had dove there back in 2022 but then returned from a full day without cell service to find James sick with COVID, which ruined the rest of the trip.

This trip was another great one to Hawaii. We landed on Tuesday morning, went out for lunch, explored a bit, had a cocktail at Keoki's Paradise, checked into our AirBNB at Manualoha. Then we immediately went diving! This was James' first night dive. We headed down to the Koloa Landing and did one dive before sunset.

The divemaster was Anthony, who I later realized was also the DM for my 7th dive ever back in 2008. I didn't realize that until I was entering my dive log. He wound up being my DM for the whole week too.

Before the dive, Anthony was mentioning that there was a "bait ball" which I thought was something artificial but it was actually THOUSANDS of fish -- he said they were Akule -- just hanging out at the end of the harbor. The bait ball was an awesome sight since there were just so many fish in one spot. They would hang out fairly still for a little bit and then all of a sudden, they would all dart away because one of them must have heard or seen something.

We also saw a juvenile frogfish which was cool because it was bright yellow and no bigger than a half-inch. You could tell that it had the right shape to become a frogfish one day, but they look much different color-wise as adults.

For the night dive, we got a real treat of seeing a Hawaiian Monk Seal hunting. He probably spent half the dive with us just using our lights to find fish and chow down on them. It was cool watching him chase them into the cracks of rocks and come out with a mouthful of fish.

Wednesday was our day to do more exploring of the island. We drove counter-clockwise around the island up to the north side, to the end of the road where there was a hike we wanted to do. Had lunch at this cute place called Kilauea Bakery and Pizzeria. We didn't realize you needed reservations for the hike 2-3 weeks in advance so we went to the beach instead. Then I found another hike on the Okolehao Trail which was supposed to have a good view. We arrived to the first vista point just before sunset and the view did not disappoint. We turned around shortly after and had a nice dinner at Opakapaka Grill. Got back to the AirBNB after a long day.

On Thursday, we went diving again at the traditional Fish Bowl and Sheraton Caverns sites.

Friday was my day for Ni'ihau. Woke up early and was at the dive shop at 6am for the 2 hour boat cruise out to Ni'ihau. This first dive was probably the best one of the day. As soon as we entered the water, we could hear whales singing off in the distance. We saw a Monk Seal, lots of Sandbar Sharks, Deep Water Diamond Butterflyfish, and a Spotted Eagle Ray.

As soon as we entered the water for the third dive, there were 3 sandbar sharks just circling around. I didn't waste any time at the surface and immediately dropped in on them, fumbling to get my GoPro turned on. We saw them several times throughout the dive and it was awesome getting to see them each time. I could have spent the whole dive just hanging out with the sharks at the beginning there.

Saturday, we spent at the Grand Hyatt, getting a massage and relaxing by the pool to round out the vacation.

Flew back home on Sunday, but not before stopping at the Kountry Kitchen for ube french toast.