A large pod of spinner dolphins spotted off the bow of our Pacific Whale Foundation cruise.
a giant rock. I swam down to take a peek to
If all you’re looking for is a good sandy
find a big-ass moray eel staring back at me,
“drive by” beach to just hang out and get
and to my surprise, hiding behind him was
into the water, I suggest checking out D.T.
a fairly large lobster. I had thoughts of snag-
Fleming Park Beach or Kahekili Beach
ging him for dinner but, alas, Molokini is a
(a.k.a “Airport Beach). Both have facilities
nature preserve so you can’t take anything
and D.T. Fleming usually has a lifeguard on
from there other than photos and memo-
duty. Parking is free at both. Kahekili has
ries.
much cleaner bathrooms though so take
Most of the excursions that go out to
heed if that’s important to you. What’s nice
Molokini leave pretty early in the morning
is there are fish right off the beach at Ka-
from either Makena or Ma’alaea in order to
hekili so you can snorkel here as well. Just
get the best conditions before the water
note that Kahekili, for all its positives, has a
gets choppy later in the day. One sugges-
bit of a rocky bottom once you get into the
tion to make getting up so early on your va-
ocean. To keep from stubbing my toes on
cation less of a hassle is to do Molokini
the coral, I always bring a pair of reef shoes
early on in your trip before your body accli-
when I come here.
mates to Hawaii’s time zone.
Though there are different companies that will take you out in a boat for a snorkel-
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