One of the best recommendations we received while on the Big Island was to visit this “secret” beach. Ed at Snorkel Bob’s Mauna Lani store provided directions to a beach known to locals but missing from most of the guide books and were we glad that we followed them! The beach in question is known as “Beach 69” after a number that used to be posted on a telephone pole next to the beach access point. The pole and its marker have long since disappeared but you now find it by driving a mile past the main Hapuna Beach State Park entrance, down a crumbling road, until you see a second, small parking lot. Park here and walk to the shore and you will find yourself in paradise.
The compact beach is bordered by large rock outcrops, backed by great shade trees, and has some of the best snorkeling in the area. We were delighted to discover that sea turtles hung around and were quite happy to have us diving around them. Unlike the fish, they didn’t scarper as soon as a clumsy human flailed into their personal space.
This shot is my favourite of many I took with my Canon G9 and its handy-dandy underwater housing. It was processed in Snapseed, a tool that I am loving more and more each time I play with it, and Filterstorm (which is the only tool I’ve yet found that lets me generate a JPEG of a given size to upload to the site. I wonder if Snapseed of Photoshop Touch can do this somehow?)