Day 10 . Makalawena Beach and NIGHT DIVING!

Another day, another picturesque beach. We really had to work for this one though. A forty minute hike through the lava fields (HOT! and OUCH!), across a few bays, down through some bee colonies, and onto the most beautiful beach possible, all to ourselves. Well, us and a couple of wild roosters and some friendly turtles.

 The beginning of the trail - misleading in it's ease ;)

 An old, abandoned homestead along the way. This entire piece of land once belonged to a prominent Hawaiian family.

 First Beach.

 Second Beach.

 Third Beach.

 Fourth Beach. This was the last beach before our coveted, quiet little cove.

 Evie gets intimidated by the waves sometimes. Then she gets her courage up and quietly slips into the water all by herself and swims way out past where she can touch and goes back and forth, further out and back to the shore. It's the sweetest thing to watch.

 Fifth beach. A cove to ourselves.

 Rooster with a view! I loved this little guy.

 And Evie, always the animal tamer, had him literally eating out of her hand by the afternoon.

 We hiked back, showered off and immediately turned around to run down to the harbor to go out NIGHT DIVING WITH THE MANTA RAYS! This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The kids did AWESOME. We went out on a boat ride, waited for the sun to set, donned our wet suits and jumped into the pitch black water and waited for the Mantas to come. They ranged from 5 feet wide to 10 feet wide. We floated out in the water with lights shining down to the coral below, which attracts the krill the mantas like to feed on. The come in swooping, silently and then do aerials and acrobatics, eating and brushing up against you and barely skimming the water between you. We loved it. The kids loved it. I have some SERIOUSLY brave kids.

Seriously beautiful.