Napili Bay

Located just north of where we were staying is the area of Napili.  Having heard wonderful things about the bay there, we decided to check it out.

 

 

Isn't that water color amazing?  This is a view of the island of Lana'i as seen from the beach in Napili Bay.

 

 

 

 

Off to the right, you can see part of the Napili Kai resort.  Also, paddle boarding was definitely THE sport du jour for this bay.  Saw everyone from kids to seniors tooling around.  I hear it's great for your abdominals, but that's more exertion than I want to put in while I'm on vacation.  I'm totally addicted to the snorkeling and fish photography anyway and couldn't wait to see what this location had in store for us.

 

 

The bottom here was more rock and covered with plant life than at Black Rock.  Not as much in the way of coral, either, unless you swam farther out.  Also, the waves were a bit bigger and the current stronger so not only did I want to stay closer to shore, but the quality of the photos was affected by all of this because the water wasn't quite as clear in some of the shots.  This is a pair of Convict Tangs munching on the plant life.

 

 

This was the farthest out that I went and you can see that the plant life is less and there's ONE head of coral.  It had attracted a pair of Four Spot Butterflyfish.

 

 



 

Right around the same area was this pair of Moorish Idols.

 

 

Turning back towards more shallow area, I found a pair of Chub and a Brown Surgeonfish.

 

 

FINALLY!  I had chased this type of fish at several locations trying to get a good shot because of its incredible coloration, but they were so darn fast that most of my photos are just blurs or part of a tail fin LOL!  This is a Surge Wrasse...and if you ever think you make color errors in your jewelry, well, just look at what Mother Nature thinks is a good color scheme!  It's like an acid trip!

 

Ryan went bonkers when he spotted this fish.  He thought it was a puffer fish and was screaming at me underwater with all his might to make sure I got photos of it.  When we looked it up later, we found out it is a Spotted Trunkfish.  This is the male.

Later in the day, I was able to get a photo of what I thought was the same fish...but notice how the spots go all over the body?  According to the fish guide, this is the female Spotted Trunkfish.

 

 

 

This is a Threadfin Butterflyfish.

 

And, just to prove that the turtle curse was TRULY broken...

 





 

We ran into turtles at Napili as well.  They came in to munch on the plant life on the rocks.  This one let me get right up close while he was chowing.  Look at the amazing patterns and textures on his skin and shell!

Of course, I say "he" but I have no idea if any of the turtles we saw were male or not.  They could just as easily have been females LOL!  Probably no one knows except another turtle!

 

This one came out on the sand, but I had just dried off and sat down in my chair after snorkeling for several hours and by the time I got up, grabbed the camera and ran down to where it was, it was already heading back into the water.  It's a shame because I thought a land shot would be really interesting to go along with all the underwater shots.  They are so graceful in the water and NOT at all the same way on land.

 

Of course, after all these turtle encounters, it suddenly dawned on me that if all these turtles are coming so close to shore and mingling with humans...what does that mean for those animals that EAT turtles...

 

KJ