
The beautiful red flowers of native Ohia trees are popular with bees, even in remote areas like the Kau Desert Trail, where these photos were taken.


The beautiful red flowers of native Ohia trees are popular with bees, even in remote areas like the Kau Desert Trail, where these photos were taken.


A view across Waipi’o Valley from the road into the valley. This road has been closed to visitors for some time, because of rockfalls from the steep slopes above it. A project to improve the road recently finished its first phase, but it’s likely to be a few years before the road is opened to anyone other than residents, licensed tour operators, and native Hawaiians exercising traditional rights. Even then, it’s not clear what access will be permitted.
One thing this means is that the (strenuous) Muliwai Trail, into the next door Waimanu Valley, is currently closed and is likely to be so for some time, if it ever reopens. That trail can be seen (very faintly) making a zigzag up the steep slope on the far side of the valley.


This is the smallest Flowery Flounder I’ve seen while snorkeling. It was probably about 3 inches long. The only reason I saw it was because it was moving for just a moment before it settled down.
If you can’t see it in the top photo, the cropped version should help.

A view of Maui, seen from the water while snorkeling one day.

When I was snorkeling a couple of days ago, I came across this green turtle coming up for air. It took a breath and then curled down into deeper waters at a leisurely pace, before disappearing under a ledge.

… Christmas Wrasse, that is, this one swimming past a ledge occupied by blue-black urchins.

On a recent swim, I saw this shoal of fish, mostly comprising of Whitebar Surgeonfishes, heading off on its morning business.


The Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge theme is ‘Blue.’ See more responses here. After sorting through some photos, I found a cluster of abstract blues that I like so here they are.



