Day 09 - Downunder 2016 - Tue - 10/04/16 - Kona

What a wonderful day! We pulled into the Kona harbor and anchored. There was a delay of about 45 minutes in the tendering operation because the immigration personnel were tardy. We were in one of the earliest tenders and made our way to the Captain Zodiac tour where we received our safety briefing. There were ten of us along with Captain Collin and his first mate Buddha. The ride to the snorkeling site was a spirited 45 minute (12 mile) ride ride through the choppy water hanging on to a rope, sitting side saddle on the pontoon, and feet hooked under a rope on the floor. Surprisingly, not much splash came in the boat. One definitely needed a spirit of adventure.

In the bay we first saw dolphins and then were pointed to the monument that makes the spot where Captain Cook was killed. There we donned our snorkeling gear and slipped into the water for our 45 minute time there. The only major instruction was to not touch anything which meant don't stand up or touch the coral or fish.

After snorkeling (lots of pretty coral and fish but in my estimation not as many as I observaed last fall at Grand Turk in the Bahamas. It was cool to finally be able to use my glasses under my mask for the first time which allowed me to see the fish clearly. I was also to take some fine underwater pictures with my Nikon AW100 camera. At the end of our trip I'll upload those (and many others from the trip) to my picture sharing site. Before we headed back to Kona, we were blessed to observe lots of dolphins . Along the way we were treated to closeup views of several of many of the lava cliffs including one that looks like Pele, the goddess of fire. We also tried to find a whale shark in the tide line where the algae was blooming.

Back at the pier we boarded the Kona trolley which for $2.00 each gave us a 12.5 mile round trip out to the Sheraton south of town. We had a good chance to see many of the exhibits for the World Iron Man Triathathon Championship which will be held next week. On the way back we got off the trolley to walk through the exhibits which covered all aspects of participating in a triathathon and the Ironman in particular. We were definitely in the presence of the beautiful and athletic people. I was tempted to buy the latest GOPro Hero 5 camera, but restrained myself. My wife did purchase a new Garmin fitness tracker at a great price and some Iron Man jerseys.  

We enjoyed a light snack at the Paradise Cafe while watching the kid's races before reboarding the ship.

The tender reboarding was about as rough as we've experienced. The tender was moving up and down at least 18 inches so one had to time one's step to the ship's tender platform. After quick showers, we had a quick and lovely dinner with two people from Australia while watching the lights of Kona fade slowly in the distance as did our cell phone service. . . The MDR service has simply been outstanding!

A group called 'The Not Really Three Tenors' performed tonight and they were outstanding!! Afterwards we watched the classic movie, Hawaii with Julie Andrews and Max Von Sydow. The entertainment this cruise has been first class!

I should mention that over the past 3 days the carpet in our stateroom hallway on deck 5 was replaced. We now have this nice spongy feel when walking our hallway. We have observed carpet replacement throughout the ship.