Champagne Pond

This past week was fall break here in Hawaii.  We didn't plan for much because I think both of us just needed a real break.  Luckily our friends from Oahu, the Buelow family, were renting a cottage in Kapoho and we spent a day hanging out with them.  The house they rented was right against Champagne Pond.  I had always wanted to go there, but couldn't convince Chris because he seemed to think we'd already seen it.  Champagne Pond is a natural pool of the most crystal clear water.  What's even better is that it's heated with freshwater that's heated from the volcano.  The warmed freshwater doesn't make it really hot, more like a really pleasant temperature to splash around in.

CHAMPAGNE POND AND IT'S "BEACH"

 As you can see from the above picture it has a "black-sand" beach, which doesn't really feel very beachy since the rocks aren't broken up into a sandy texture.  It's definitely a "beach" that made me glad that I had swim booties on!

The Buelows are: Mark, Steph and their two sons, Gavin and Dylan. I won't post too many pictures of the Buelow boys since that's more Steph's story to tell (She has her own blog too!), but I do want to include some of my favorites.

GAVIN, THE SNORKELER

DYLAN (THEY CALL HIM A BADGER)

This picture just makes me laugh and think of all the times I've had with Lindsey and Greg :)  I guess it's just the experience that all siblings have!

BROTHERLY LOVE

 While we were hanging out, Steph got some really amazing news so it was so neat to be there with her and her family for that.  But I won't tell since it's Steph's story to tell (again!).

Chris and I decided to take out the underwater camera housing and go for a swim (the pond is pretty small).

ME THROWING SHAKAS

Chris found a cave/ ledge thing that you could swim under and since it was low tide you could actually breath a little once you sat up a little.  He hung out there for awhile and convinced me to give it a try.  I thought that I saw something gross lurking in the back and so I wasn't too thrilled to hang out under th

DOESN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE I AM UNDERWATER AND IN A CAVE!

We swam to the back and this is what it looked like, looking out towards the ocean:

I was goofing around while Chris explored...

SOMERSAULTING

So I didn't even realize he was taking pictures while I turned somersaults in the water! My snorkel wouldn't stay clipped to my mask for some reason and it was a big pain trying to keep putting it back on so I just stopped trying.  I still kept swimming though.

It was hard to stay underwater since the water was so shallow and it resulted in some weird pictures.

AWKWARD

The bottom of the pond was really neat.  The rocks were different colors.  Mostly we saw a lot of yellow rocks.  It's probably the reaction of the rock/water/volcanic gases.

BOTTOM OF CHAMPAGNE POND

Chris had the camera for most of the time which is why I'm in a lot of pictures.

HANGING OUT ON A ROCK PILE

 I did take some pictures, mostly of the fish.  Mostly I saw these striped guys everywhere.  I don't know what kind of fish they are, but they are little. UPDATE: Chris says these are manini...which mean 'little' in Hawaiian!

We hung out at the beach for a little while. The kids snacked and the adults talked before we decided to pack up and head back (literally just swimming across a little 6 foot area) to their rental.

We spent some time hanging out.  Mark made some banana and peanut butter sandwiches and we ate everything in their house it seemed!

This is the amazing pond they had in the front of their house...the rocks are blue!

This is the pond they have in the back of their house! On the other side of the wall that Mark is standing on is Champagne Pond...told you it was convenient!

  

After we ate lunch and Dylan napped, we packed up in the Buelow's rented van and did a little drive down the coastline.  We stopped at Mackenzie State Park for the boys to explore a giant lava tube.  Steph, Dylan and I stayed up top, but it seemed like the boys had a lot of fun.  They went through on lava tube and then it opens up into a little path before another, bigger and deeper lava tube.

CHRIS AND GAVIN (I SWEAR HE WAS ACTUALLY HAPPY!)

After the lava tube we hit up Luquin's for some Mexican food before it was time to say good-night to the Buelows.  We had so much fun hanging out with the Buelows! (It made me more than a little Oahu-sick...boohoo!)