Our last days in Hawaii and Snorkeling with the Manta Rays

The last day before Mom and I headed home was a Sunday and we were scheduled for a night swim with the manta rays. We were supposed to do it earlier that week, but it had gotten cancelled while we were on our way there. Imagine our surprise when we went to check in Sunday night and the company had a fully booked excursion and we were not on their reservation list! Luckily for us, the receptionist was able to call some of the people who had booked and rearrange their excursion so we could take their spot. So it all worked out in the end.

The boat ride out to where the mantas were was long but fun. We saw some spinner dolphins swimming alongside the boat and doing their acrobatic jumps out of the water. Spinner dolphins are smaller than Bottlenose dolphins and spin while they do their out of water flips. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the dolphins because you never know where they'll jump out of the water and they disappear so quickly.

Me and Mom taking a selfie on the boat. Eden didn't want her picture taken. 

Before the sun went down, the blue sky was so pretty and the ocean seemed to go on forever.

Mom and Eden sitting at the back of the boat for a bit.

Mom at the front of the boat looking for dolphins.

The sun beginning to set.

The sun colored the clouds so pretty when it was setting.

When the sun had finally gone all the way down, we all suited up in our wetsuits, collected our snorkel gear, and jumped into the ocean. Because the water is so dark at night, the way you see the manta rays is through a floating surfboard with very powerful lights attached to it. You basically hang on to the board and float while the mantas do twirls underneath you.

Mom and I had bought underwater cameras, but Mom couldn't get hers to work and when I got my film developed, the techs told me that the film was blank, which is apparently very common when using underwater cameras. So unfortunately, we have no real pictures of the manta rays that we took ourselves, but I Googled images and included them so at least you can get an idea of what we saw.

This is a picture of snorkelers hanging onto the floating light boards.

This is what I saw swimming up at me when I was looking down. Mouths wide open and jaws flapping. Also lots of white, speckled bellies.

The manta rays eat plankton and are filter feeders with no true teeth, so they are completely harmless to people. However, at first, it is a bit disconcerting to see a 15 to 20 foot long sea creature swimming right at you with its mouth wide open. They do ballet dances in the water, spinning in circles and doing back flips in order to catch the most plankton they can. Sometimes they hit the boards or the snorkelers while flipping, although you're not supposed to touch them.

We got wine, beer, hot chocolate, and snacks on the boat ride home to end our night snorkel. What an amazing experience and such a great way to spend our final night on the island.

Aloha Hawaii! I'll return soon…hopefully to visit my Dad once his houses are built. :)

A big thank you goes out to my Mom for inviting me along and planning all the excursions. I'm glad we got to do such fun things together!

Until next time!