Travelogue: Diving Ni'ihau Island

Our trusty "blue guide book" mentioned that SCUBA Diving off the Island of Ni'ihau was spectacular, so we decided to book a trip with one of the dive operators on Kauai.  We read that this dive offers the possibility of diving with reef sharks and even the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal.

I made a few calls around the different dive operators on the island and ended up choosing Sea Sport Divers.  I heard that the Ni'ihau trips book up early (most diver companies only offer this once or twice a week in the summertime) so I made our reservations three months in advance!

We arrived at the Poipu dive store at about 6:00 AM - we departed way early from our hotel in Kapa'a allowing for the morning rush-hour traffic, but there was none to speak of at this hour (5:00 AM!)  Weather conditions were good and the boat shoved-off at about 6:30.

The boat headed west, paralleling the southern Kauai coast at the start, then headed more southwest towards Ni'ihau, the Forbidden Island.  The dive sites are actually located just off of a small uninhabited rocky outcrop island called Lehua Rock - adjacent to the island of Ni'ihau.  Our itinerary for the day was for three dives at different locations around Lehua Rock.

The first dive site was called "Vertical Awareness" and was a deep dive right off of the large and never-ending wall.  The first thing I noticed after descending was that there is less coral heads here than I normally see when diving the Big Island of Hawaii.  Second, the underwater visibility was not the usual 100+ feet that I am accustomed to back in Kona.  With that said, the underwater landscape was impressive and we would soon encounter large underwater animals making this a memorable diving experience...  Towards the end of this dive, we saw a medium-sized Gray Reef Shark swimming next to us - then it swam ahead and turned around an outcrop of the wall and disappeared.

Following this first dive, the Captain planned for a long surface interval and the crew laid out some breakfast food for us to munch on.  The next dive descended along a similar wall, but we did not descend as deep and instead followed the underwater terrain up onto a plateau and that is when I spotted the Hawaiian Monk Seal perched on the plateau.  Our group kicked over to the seal and I began videoing the encounter.  The seal initially stayed put, its curiosity peaked, then it zoomed up to the surface to breathe.  After paddling around on the surface for a minute, the seal decided to rejoin us humans below and show off some of its tricks.

The Monk Seal acted incredibly dog-like, playfully biting its own fin, covering its eyes (kind of like playing peek-a-boo), and rubbing its head on the ground.  In the middle of its antics, the Monk Seal decided to fill its throat up with air (you could visibly see its esophagus expanding like there was a basketball in it!) and then tilt its head back and growl/howl underwater - you could even hear it!  It proceeded to do this several more times, thoroughly captivating our group as we had formed a loose circle around the seal in deep fascination.  We finally moved on, leaving the seal alone once more on the rocky plateau...

Following this dive, the crew laid out cold cuts to make sandwiches.  During the rest of this surface interval, several of us snorkeled over to a large cave opening and checked it out.

Our last dive would offer the most diverse underwater terrain.  This dive snaked its way around the undulating corals and rocky ledges.  Then, as we made our way over a rise my gaze locked on a speck of bright white - after a millisecond to interpret what I was seeing, I realized there was a 5-foot long White Tip Reef Shark right there in front of me!  I quickly started videotaping the exhilarating encounter.  The shark was quite curious at first, sweeping to the left then the right, and circling our group twice before it finally flicked its tail and darted off almost as quickly as it arrived.  One of the dive masters mentioned that last week they had seen a 10-foot Galapagos Shark at this very location - but we did not see him today.  After this, we changed course and found numerous swim-throughs, sea arches, and several underwater caverns - some of which were lengthy and dark.  You could see large pockets of bubbles suspended by the roof of the caves left there by the many divers before us.  Some of the cave mouths were backlit and gave an eerie glow as divers entered and exited - almost like an abyss-like look to it.

At that point, we headed back across the channel towards Kauai.  Most of us were pretty exhausted from the three tanks of diving we had just accomplished.  We also were not looking forward to the boat trip back as the ocean surface conditions had worsened and the seas looked somewhat rough.  Not long into the rough voyage back, the Captain jammed the engines into idle and yelled at the top of his lungs "WHALE SHARK!" - I needed no second warning - I quickly grabbed my mask and jumped off the boat into the water (at this point we were in the middle of the channel in waters probably a thousand feet deep!)  The dive masters and a few others followed suit.  Just off the port side of the boat in about 8 feet of water was this incredible 25-foot long Whale Shark!  I yelled back to the boat to have my dive camera thrown to me and started filming this chance-of-a-lifetime experience.  The Whale Shark ascended towards the boat in complete curiosity and then lingered just shy of the surface as one of us climbed up on his back!  The Whale Shark then swam gently towards the stern of the boat and then slowly descended back off the port side and disappeared into the blue waters.  Swimming with this beautiful and imposing creature was incredible! 

The rest of the boat ride back I have to admit was... miserable!  Two persons vomited (one of them did not make it to the water's edge and dirtied the inside of the boat.  I was white-knickle gripping the seat and trying to keep my mouth shut, my breathing steady, my eyes on the horizon, and my tailbone from being slammed onto the seat. 

All in all, the diving at Lehua Rock was unique and the memories (along with digital photos and video) priceless.

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