Getting Small on the Big Island
In about an hour, I saw two crabs battling it out, a million green-lipped mussels, and tens of 
black echinoid-like creatures that looked like black urchins wearing a coat of smooth armor called shingle sea urchins. A wave brought me tiny little fish that glimmered in the sun, and then the next wave took them all away.
I saw all these little gems in one Big Island tide pool the size of a cereal bowl; it was carved into a huge slab of lava near Pu’uhonua o Honaunau. (Or, if you get tongue tied with all those syllables, just call it the Place of Refuge.)
The lava is what makes the Big Island a paradise for people like me, people who find the divine in the details. And, because the lava rock provides a nice habitat for fish and there’s little sand to obscure the view, it’s also a snorkeling picnic for those who actually like to get in and go deep. In fact, Rodale’s Scuba Diving Magazine rated the Big Island as one of the top three destinations for Best Snorkeling, and Best Visibility. Take that, Carribean!
I saw similar, small sites at the breathtaking Ke-awa-iki Beach, in some of the rocks jutting up out of the salt-and-pepper sand. I could really take my time there, without interruption, mostly because we were the only two people on the entire beach, which is probably because of the 15-minute walk through a very inhospitable lava field, next to an even more inhospitable barbed wire fence. At the southern edge of the bay were the most impressive collection of tide pools ever. You’ll find them in the older, smoother lava, although the incoming tide might be the thing that eventually runs you off.
The snorkeling here is famed to be good when the water is calm, however there is never a lifeguard on duty, and because it’s the least known beach on the island, poses the greatest danger to swimmers during high surf.
The next time you find yourself with some time and your reef shoes, stop on the rocks and look down–and closely. You’re bound to find a little sea within a sea. Tread lightly and prosper!
Photo by Webshots–rickreh
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