Ever since then, in each of our successive trips to Hawaii, I have not seen any turtles in the water. Ray says they have all heard of me and stay far away.

My mom and I decided we were going to go snorkeling while she was in Maui, but we didn’t have any definite plan; not being a Maui resident, she didn’t know exactly where the good snorkeling spots were, the way she does on Oahu. So we figured we would drive around in one general area and see if we could find a good spot.

We all got a late start, and we took a little detour to the Alii Kula Lavender Farm, up the mountain, rather than on the way down. It was a pleasant spot, but it is such a strange thing to be on a tropical island, breathing in clouds of lavender. Nevertheless, there it is, and they have a breathtaking view as well as some lovely gardens (and, randomly, a paragliding course!). My mom and I were hoping they had a restaurant open for lunch, but all they had was a little cafe that served lavender coffee (???) and scones.

After wandering around for a bit, we made our way back down the mountain towards the ocean for a bite to eat and then snorkeling!

BUT…

The service was really slow at the restaurant, and then we had to wend our way past all the rich residences again, blindly looking for a good place to snorkel. We stopped at one place where Ray and I had seen turtles resting on the beach a few nights before (“You snuck up on them,” he said. “If they had known you were going to be there, they would have taken off.”), but there were a lot of people on the beach, and my mom said the rock formation wasn’t ideal for snorkeling.

So we drove on.

The next few beaches were more of a park-and-walk deal, far from the road, and we weren’t entirely sure they would be good places, so we kept going.

Past all the residences, into the lava flow.

Before you get too concerned, this lava flow had cooled off and dried up in the 1800s, when Haleakala last erupted. So there weren’t any rivers of lava that we had to cross. Rather, we drove for two miles down a rickety one-lane road (there are a lot of them in Hawaii!) through a barren moonscape riddled with signs warning not to park or walk on the rocks.

At the end of the road is La Perouse Bay. There is a “beach,” of sorts, made up of mostly rocks. It was the right kind of rock formation for a coral reef, but the waves were banging against the rocks pretty strongly, and I was a little worried about getting tossed around. My other concern was that there was nobody else in the water.

My mom pointed out a small cove that was protected from most of the waves. We began to walk over there, but were stopped by a sign declaring the cove to be protected by the Ahihi Kinau Natural Reserve. We decided it would be best to turn around and find another spot.

Back through the lava flows we went, and around a couple of idiot tourists parked in front of a “no parking” sign (hey, dummies: if you are on a one-lane road, it probably isn’t the best idea to stop and take pictures while there is a line of cars behind you).

There was one parking lot right after the boundary to the natural reserve, and we pulled in. It didn’t look like much, but the sun was beginning to sink in the sky, and we figured it was our best shot.

A man and woman were walking up the path from the beach carrying snorkel gear. “That’s promising,” I told my mom. We asked them if the visibility was any good.

“Oh yes!” cried the woman. “It’s a little choppy now, but still worth it.” She proceeded to give us directions on where to head once in the water. “You should have been here in the morning; the water was really clear, and the whales swam right by here.”

Emboldened, we made our way down the rocky path to the beach, put on our snorkel gear, and got in the water.

The water was warm, but the waves were strong. We didn’t get very far before realizing that it really was too dark to see anything. I did see some fish and a bunch of beautiful coral, but it was pretty far down, and the sun, now at 4:30, was no help to us. I couldn’t take any pictures with my camera in its fancy waterproof case.

We swam back to the shore, and I tried to sit on a rock in the water to remove my flippers. The waves were relentless, and made it almost impossible for me to even move, much less remove my gear. My mom’s snorkel got swept away. My own snorkel would have been lost, too, if I hadn’t been so quick to see it floating by.

So I didn’t see any turtles, which made me sad. But now I know where to go…and I know that next time, I should go there in the morning.

It was my mom’s last day on the Big Island, and we hadn’t gone snorkeling yet. Ray’s not much for getting in the water, so if I was going to do any snorkeling, this was my last day to do it. After a little research, we had settled on the beach at Pu’uhonau o Honaunau (City of Refuge), and we had made plans to meet a friend’s sister (who happened to be working as an archeologist in Kailua-Kona) for the morning.

Since we knew it would take 2-1/2 hours to get there from Volcano (we were starting to understand just how far away everything was), we checked out of the Volcano Guest House at 9:30 and told my friend to meet us at 11:00.

But then I realized that we couldn’t go snorkeling after all, as my body decided to pick that day to start its monthly courses, and with areas in Honaunau Bay up to 100 feet deep, there was a good chance there could be sharks in the water. Best to stay safe and on land. Our friend had also sustained a nasty cut from the lava the day before, so we all decided on the phone to take a tour of the City of Refuge instead.

John Cleese (our GPS voice) couldn’t seem to find Pu’uhonau o Honaunau (the beginning of a trend for our electronic friend for the rest of the vacation), but I was armed with various tourist maps and was able to navigate us there safely. Our friend, on the other hand, got totally lost and ended up getting there much later than we did…it’s a good thing we had decided not to snorkel, because the heat of noon was upon us, and the morning fish were all gone.

We didn’t have a tour guide to show us around like we did in Waipio Valley, but the brochure they gave us at the gate did a very good job of explaining the area.

The City of Refuge, as it turns out, was the place to go if you had broken a cardinal law. If you could make it by sea across the treacherous reef to the shore, you were absolved of whatever law you had broken. Most people who attempted the journey died in the process, so if you managed to make it, that was a sign that the gods favored you.

Most of the huts and heiaus we saw were reproductions, but the wall itself was original (although repaired in some spots), and held together with no mortar at all, which was amazing.

We did see a couple of turtles hanging out in the water and on the beach, which is different from my last run-in with the Hawaiian turtle population. And I was still disappointed with not being able to actually do some snorkeling, but hey, at least the turtles no longer feared me.

After the walk around the City of Refuge, we decided to head into Kailua-Kona (another 45-minute drive) for a bite to eat. Lunch at the Kona Brewing Company was a bit touristy but very tasty, and all too soon it was time to take my mom to the airport and say goodbye.