Saturday, April 6, 2013

Hawaii - Big Is, Manta Ray night swim

Because we missed out on our planned activity due to the tsunami evacuation, we decided to do something else instead. Lyndon and I had swum with manta rays during our honeymoon in Tahiti and had told the kids about it at various times. When they found the brochure for a manta ray night swim they were very keen to give it a go. The manta rays feed right outside our hotel so it was a short trip out to the feeding grounds and in we went. The water was freezing and the half hour dragged on, but in the end it was all worth it.

A hot drink on the way home warmed us up a treat.

The bright lights in the background is our hotel, so we really did not have far to go. It is illegal to go out and do this by yourself, so the tour companies make a killing.

It took a while for the ray to come up to the light for his dinner...

...but once he did it was amazing.

He swam very close to us and just kept doing back flips while filtering the food through his gills.

Open mouth time.

The boat puts a light in the water to attract the bait fish, which in turn attracts the rays.

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