2018-2-6   watching for whales at Oneuli again, and a walk along Hoapili trail :

Yep, yet another day of high surf.  At least it's on it's way down now.  So---we're off to see if we can see some more whales.   They were so active down south the other day that we headed back to Oneuli.  This time I was prepared with my 150-600 mm lens.
One of my favorite views along the way.  I love the colorful bougainvillea,  as well as the silver of these palms, and the bushiness of the other palms.

When we got to Oneuli, I decided to check out their placards.  Didn't see anything that resembled a wetlands there.  I would have thought with all the rain yesterday there would be lots of wetlands there!

 The wetlands?

 Guess there needs to be some more restoring of the wetlands.

 I guess we were actually at Naupaka Beach.  May have to go back and see if I can find the wetlands on of these days.

 Pu'uOla'i---the big cinder cone here.

 Looking out to the ocean.  Still cloudy today, but pretty just the same.

 still admiring the clouds

 There were a few whales way out there, but none were breaching.  This one was doing a fin slap.

 just cruising

 The surf was still raging at times.

 back to the whales

 I'm not so sure this boat was the correct distance from the whales.

 looks like a mother and baby skimming the surface.

 After an hour or so, we headed out---back through the woods on a dirt road.

 I guess food trucks are here to stay.  There are a few of them on the way to the lava beds.

 continued to the Ahihi preserve/lava beds

 views along the way

 At the end of the road is the Hoepili Trail. 

 It's always a nice walk.

 lots of interesting things along the way

 looking back on the trail

 heading on

 there were a couple Rangers here.  The guy on the left was one of them. 

 more views of the coastline

 even a few beaches.

 the trail continued along the coast

 a tide pool to explore

 another little beach

 some areas of the trail were a bit more challenging.

 looking back

 looking out

 starting back

 I believe these little guys and gals are some sort of sulfur butterfly.  They must really like lava.  There were a bunch of them all along the trail.

 lots of life in the lava beds.

 looking towards Haleakala from the trail

 an archeological structure by the ocean

 more of Haleakala

 along the drive out

 Back to landscaped areas and lots of bougainvillea. 

 Can't say I've ever seen a warning sign like this before.

 more bougainvillea 

 When it was near time for sunset, we headed across the street from our condo again to Kam 1.  

 sat under some palm trees and waited for sunset.

 While we were waiting a nice young man in one of the houses by the beach came over and gave Ken five apple bananas from his yard.  I LOVE apple bananas!  These were excellent!  Feeling some of the Aloha here. 

 We did get a better sunset then we've had in about a week, but it didn't last long.

 the clouds were still pretty heavy.

 sun has almost set.

We planned to go to the Kamaole Cafe for dinner and listen to the band that we heard there a few days ago.  But I guess the weather scared them off.  No band tonight.  So we left and ended up at Jack in the Box.  Probably our favorite fast food place.  But there are none in the Atlanta area.
No snorkeling again today, but we made a good day out of it anyway.  The forecast says the ocean is suppose to start settling down.  Hopefully we'll be back to snorkeling in a couple days!