2011-Feb. 15: Anini, Kee, Tunnels

The weather had put a damper on our snorkeling, but it was time to kick it into gear. The surf report showed the north shore to be calmer then the south shore so we headed north and hoped for some sun. It turned out to be a beautiful day. First we stopped at Anini for a bit. Anini has become a favorite snorkel place of ours. Took a lot of persistance to become a favorite, but persistance has paid off. The first trip to Kauai we didn't even see Anini. The next few times we went there because the beach is so beautiful, even though we thought the snorkeling was really bad. Sometimes we didn't even find any fish. But eventually we found where you have to go and the snorkeling is really quite good. It's mostly juvenile fish, but they school together and there's usually a turtle there, too. We didn't spend a whole lot of time there this day since we wanted to take advantage of the unusually nice weather and low surf farther north. We knew we could always come back here with it's protected reef if the surf got too rough up north later in the trip.

milletseed butterflyfish

 eel

lots of Hawaiian Dascyllus fish

 golden eye surgeonfish

near the beach---calm and lots of sand.

 From Anini we headed straight to Kee where we were met with pool like water. This is a look back on the Napali from down the beach a bit.

The north shore beaches were exceptionally calm for most of our 2 week trip. I only remember there being a surf advisory one day---quite a contrast from last year when we only could snorkel on the north shore one day. It was also interesting watching the normal big waves rolling in outside the reef. The snorkelers in the foreground sort of put a little perspective on the size of the waves.  But the reef totally knocked down the waves.

One of the indigenous fish species of Hawaii---the Hawaiian Sergeant fish.

A view back towards Kee beach from the calm waters of Kee.

a school of white bar surgeonfish and a teardrop butterflyfish

 black spot sergeant fish

 topography of Kee

 belted wrasse

 male elegant coris

 bluefin trevelly

 calm as a swimming pool today!

 On our way back from Kee we lucked into a parking spot at Tunnels. I love the view of the BAli Hai mountains from this beach! Love the snorkeling there, too, even though the sudden drop off so close to the beach really spooks me.

I often see schools of larger fish at Tunnels. Here is a school of unicorn fish.

Sunset fizzled out again. We stopped at Wyndham Bali Hai on the way back and warmed up in the jacuzzi before changing into dry clothes. We're also owners there, although we've never stayed there.