Ross-O's Trip to Kona

Everyone had to do 2 laps around the 0.5m course	Transitioning from the swim to the bike	Transitioning from the swim to the bike
Transitioning from the bike to the run	Starting the 10K run	Much of the run was on lava!
The finish line is in sight!	Beth crosses the finish line. The girls had a 5 minute start delay after the guys, so her official time was about 3:10 for her first ever triathlon.	The push to the finish line
	Rehydrating after an intense 3 hours!

There are ski & snowboard tracks on this!	Official altitude is 13,677 ft. My GPS is reading 13.9K	Several of the Telescopes
Saddle road runs though an Artillery Range	The sun is amazingly bright up here	Big Telescope
		Lava Tube

Sea Arch

These pics were taken at the end of the Chain of Craters Road. The lava completely buried a long section of the road here a few years back.

Very rugged coastline

Sunset from the Condo	View from the Condo	Brian filming Pacific Barracuda
My only pic of reef fish. I gave up early as they are exceptionally hard to photograph.	Eels, on the other hand, love the camera!	Hmmm....
Here's a pic of Brian filming a turtle	Another school of Pacific Barracuda	Ross & Beth at South Point

A coral growth experiment by the University of Hawaii at Manuka Bay.	Engine from a ship wreck at Mahukona	Prop on the ship wreck at Mahukona
View from deep inside a Lava Tube	Conch? Triton's Trumpet?	Beth & Brian getting ready to enter at a site near Kealakekua Bay
Ross & Brian	A Gold Lace Nudibranch!	So graceful, so beautiful! The turtle is nice, too.

Little Finger muncher	I think this one is insane	He's been eating well
Digging for some grub	Most of the turtle shots were taken at Place of Refuge	Place of Refuge Turtles
Place of Refuge Turtles	Place of Refuge Turtles	Place of Refuge Turtles

Turtle sleeping in lava tube at Puako Village End

Entry/Exit spot at Puako Village End

South Point with weather moving in

	Long legged critter	Brian broke his toe at Capt Cook. He's a trooper and kept right on diving!
The Kona Agressor pulls up to Manuka Bay	The 5 mile 4WD trail is much more treacherous than this picture shows	Manuka Bay - secret get away for Kona locals. There were NO other tourist or divers here.
	Temple	The Kona Aggressor is the only boat that dives down here

The waters were crystal clear with hundreds of feet of visibility

Majestic

The brown rocks were carried for hundreds of yards to make this little path to the temple

Canoe haul out at Capt Cook

Beth at Capt Cook Monument (fog on lenses)

Important lesson - respect the natives!

Brian at Manuka Bay

This place is indescribably beautiful

We saw a 11' wide Manta Ray at South Point

There are 2 ways of getting in the water at South Point. You can scale down this 50' cliff or you can go down the rickety looking welded re-bar ladders. The tide was out leaving the bottom of the ladders about 6' from the water so we choose the cliff. It looked scary, but wasn't a big deal once you got started

Girls were also jumping into this large blow-hole. They would time the waves just right so there was enough water so they wouldn't hit the sharp rocks at the bottom!

View from the water	The local girls were jumping off the cliff	Action Shot. Note the ladders.
The terrain at south point consists of large boulders on sloped bottom	The bottom drops off at a steep angle to sand starting at about 150'	There are garden eels at about 170'

We had many fine adventures this trip!

The Manta unfurled its feeding flaps as it passed by us.

Natives! Yes!

14 beach dives over an 11 day trip with 7.5 possible diving days.
Dove spots spanning entire West side of the Island from Mahukona to South Point.