Hawaiian Black Sand Beach and Sea Turtles

Sheesh! It’s been a while since I’ve done a WW post – goes to show how crazy busy it’s been around here lately! Either that, or I’ve been lackadaisical in taking pictures to share, a mode I wasn’t in while in Hawaii for the last week of summer – which means I have plenty to share in the upcoming weeks!

This week you get to enjoy a few pictures of some fun we had while in Hawaii visiting the Black Sand Beach which is located on the southeastern Kau coast – Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach, one of the most famous black sand beaches in Hawaii.

The beach has black sand made of basalt (an aphanitic igneous rock) and created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools. So basically the black sand is tiny volcanic stones.

It’s definitely not a beach for swimming or snorkeling, as there are lots of rocks under the water, and the waves crashing onto the shore are problematic (except when you’re taking pictures, it’s actually cool):

Princess Nagger had fun running through the sand, though she was hesitant to have me take pictures – but I managed to get one good shot:

She looks so excited, doesn’t she? Coconut palms fringe the upper edge of sand, which is cool to see:

And, if you’re lucky, you might discover large honu, or Hawaiian Green Sea turtles, basking on the beach. We were lucky that day:

These turtles are protected – in fact, there was a sign posted to make sure you know that, in case you weren’t paying attention to the warnings given by the tour guide:

They sure were cool to look at, though – we saw six of them basking in the sun taking a nice nap:

According to our tour guide, because the weather had been kind of dicey the prior weeks, the turtles hadn’t been sighted in a while. We were the lucky ones to get to see them that day. And he reiterated that although it may be tempting, do not touch these protected turtles and do not remove any black sand from the beach.

There are hefty fines if you’re caught either getting too close or touching the turtles, and there are hefty fines if you’re caught purposely removing sand from the beach. The tour guide told a story of a couple who tried to take some home in a bottle but got caught at the airport. Pretty expensive vacation for those two.

My cousin’s daughter regaled us with stories of people who accidentally took some black sand home with them – and ended up having bad luck. Someone who discovered some black sand stuck in the treads of the bottoms of her shoes kept having bad luck and ended up mailing the black sand back to Hawaii Island to have good luck returned to them.

Needless to say, I discovered some black sand still present in the bottom treads of my shoes – should I mail it back? Maybe I should send it to my cousin’s daughter (who lives on the island) with some of my wine to decrease bad luck and increase good luck, you think?

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