Horse riders enjoy an afternoon outing along the coast below Upolu airport.
Horse riders at Upolu
Category Archives: Activities
Abstracts: Devil scorpionfish
I had just jumped in the water and submerged my head when I saw something move. The fish immediately plopped down by a rock but I’d already recognized the distinctive shape of a devil scorpionfish. I hung around for a short while hoping it would spread its pectoral fins in its distinctive display, but it never did. The second photo, which has run on the blog before, shows what I was looking for.
Halema’uma’u Crater view
After my recent early morning visit to see the activity at Kilauea Volcano, I did a bit of hiking around the rim of Halema’uma’u Crater. This is a view towards the current active vent.
Giant trevally
A couple of days ago, I was snorkeling when I saw this enormous fish. I snapped a quick photo, fearful that the fish would quickly disappear. But it stuck around for a minute or two, passing back and forth in front of me, before sliding away into deeper water.
I knew it was a jack, but not one I’d seen before. When I got home, I dove into my fish book and figured out this was a giant trevally. According to my fish book, the giant trevally is the largest of the jack family. The biggest recorded catch is one that weighed 191 pounds. That would be heavier than me! That’s a tad worrisome because my fish book also notes that these curious and fearless fish ‘have been known to grab and rip away divers’ bright snorkel tips and colorful fins.’
This one was smaller than that, probably somewhere between three and four feet long, but comfortably the largest jack I’ve ever seen and probably the largest fish I’ve seen of any kind other than rays and sharks.
Large-spotted snake moray eel
My fish book notes that the large-spotted snake moray eel can be encountered both day and night, but is not often seen. That’s true in my experience. This is only the second one I’ve seen here and the first I’ve photographed.
Bluefin trevally
I was getting close to the ladder where I get out after a swim, when two large bluefin trevallies went by. One swam off, but the other one turned around and to check me out and I snapped this one photo in murky water.
I was happy how it cleaned up and how it caught the fish’s curiosity and it’s sparkling blue markings.
Posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Past Squares – Blue.’ See more responses here.
Tandem skydivers
Every so often, the skydivers operating out of Upolu Airport get their descents nicely coordinated, at least from my point of view.
Posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Past Squares – Sky.’ See more responses here.
Surfing looks easy
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Sports and Hobbies.’ See more responses here.
Hawaii is the home of surfing, a sport that accommodates everyone from the casual weekender to fixtures on the professional circuit. On this day, Pine Trees surf break at Kohanaiki Beach Park was thronged with surfers in the water, but not many catching waves. Those that did tended to be far away from where I was. But I liked watching these two surfers casually glide back to shore on white-topped blue-green water, under a blue sky.
Also posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Past Squares – Blue.’ See more responses here.
