I like undersea life as much as I like flowers and plants, so today we went back to Wittington Beach Park

but with snorkel gear this time. Wow, was it worth the trip!

The fish were not too plentiful, but the coral was outstanding.

This coral is really this bright, beautiful purple and was everywhere. It was like swimming in a garden of lavender.

 I was in heaven!

 

           

As I said, there weren’t huge schools of fish and the ones that were there were pretty fast, but I managed to catch a few on camera.

This little guy sat very still. I think he thought he was hiding

(click on the picture for a closer view).

        There were a lot of sea urchins tucked in the rock crevices.      

Being a Pisces, I was in my element, and I got to use my new camera. It doesn’t get any better than this:o)

Okay, okay, I know that I said that I was done with orchids and flowers for a while,  but I lied.

On Sunday Tom and I went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens, and it’s beautiful!

 It is 17+ acres of dense tropical rain forest  with winding pathways that lead down into a rather steep valley   and wind around to reveal hundreds of varieties of

 Palms

  ,

Bamboo

,

Ginger

          ,

Anthurium

      ,

Heliconia

  ,

Medinilla magnifica

and, of course the

 !!!!

   

        

But wait, there’s more!

 Parrots

(they, of course, said “Aloha” to everyone who passed.)

, 

 a koi pond,

waterfalls,

 

ocean views

    ,

and more.

    a pink pineapple.

It was lush, lovely and a great way to spend the day.

Another hiking day and today it was to the Green Sand Beach at South Point, Hawaii – the most southern point of the United States.

We packed our lunch, water, tan lotion, and cameras and got an early start. The day was bright and sunny for a change and we knew that it would get hot so planned ahead.

The hike is three miles each way, but as hikes go, it was pretty easy –

dusty but easy with beautiful views along the way.

I said that the hike was easy but that was just until we got there.  

Getting down to the beach is a challenge (it’s a long, steep way down),

But we made it.

(By the way, the green sand is a result of a volcano involving olivine, also known as peridot, crystals. The olivine lava poured into the sea and exploded into olive green sand. Pretty cool, huh?)

Anyway, we swam, played in the waves, ate lunch, and played in the waves some more. It was GREAT!

After the hike back, we headed for home with a brief stop on the way at a little hidden treasure called Whittington Beach.  

 We gazed at the scenery, took a dip in the tide pools with a sea turtle,          

then headed for home.

A very fun day and we’ll sleep well tonight.

Most of you know that I love, love, love plants and flowers so today we took a trip to the Akatsuka Orchid Garden. It is really an orchid store, but the flowers were gorgeous and well worth sharing.

and         

This orchid is very rare and valued at $20,000!

The lovely anthurium was in the entryway.

 They also sell coffee trees, interesting.

 

Okay, I’ve gotten my orchid fix for awhlie. Thanks, Tom.