Monday, May 28, 2007

Moloa'a Bay


Conor and I got our first taste of this beach when our friends Megan and Chris were visiting. Moloa'a is one town southeast of Kilauea, where we used to live, and about 10 miles from where we live now in Princeville. This pristine white sand beach served as a location for the pilot of Gilligan's Island. The bay is set off the main highway, so it's usually not very crowded.

Moloa'a Bay quickly became a favorite of ours for many reasons. It has an area of active, large waves, but if you walk to the other side of the bay the water is very calm and good for swimming. The water has lots of rocks and reef throughout, which make for interesting snorkeling. The varying depths of water create many gorgeous shades of blue. And there's lots of volcanic rock around to lounge on.

There are only a few houses along this beach front, making it seem even more remote and secluded. If you look to the left in the panoramic shot, you'll see a large area of open green field. This is Moloa'a ranch, a huge property that goes along the sea cliff. All in all, Moloa'a is a quaint little neighborhood off the beaten path, and it's been added to our list of possible retirement spots if all goes well.


A panoramic shot of the view as you first step onto the beach:


View to the right/south of Moloa'a Bay:


We swear we didn't add the coconut as a prop...it was there:


The southeast shore of the bay is a nice place for a swim:


Clear skies mean water of various shades of blue:


Mr. N poses on some volcanic rock. This rock is millions of years old, but next weekend we'll see brand new volcanic rock being formed from the lava flows on the Big Island:


The undeveloped green cliff in the background is part of privately owned Moloa'a ranch:
If you look close, you can see the reflection of me taking the shot in Conor's glasses:
Mrs. N does her best mermaid impression:

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What stitching software did you use for the panoramics? I still have about 5 of them that I need to put together but hadn't had the time to!

Jessica said...

I used this software called Panavue Image Assembler. If you look closely, you can see that there are some areas that are kind of messed up. I wasn't really planning to take a panoramic at the time, but once I got home I noticed the photos I had made a nice panoramic shot of the bay. So I attempted to stitch them, but because I hadn't really lined them up carefully the software kind of had to fake it in certain places. So it's not the greatest, but it gives you a decent idea of the view of the entire bay when you're first walking onto the beach.