[Dez]

Definitely check out Ahihi Bay. This was Jacques Cousteau's favourite place to snorkel in the world. It is right by Oprah Winfrey's old vacation home. I stayed with a friend who has lived there for 6 years and is a scuba diver. I was just there 3 weeks ago. Ahihi bay was by far my favourite spot. You won't see tour boats there, but there are people that snorkel there. You just drive up and park. By far the most life/corals other than Molokini. We went snorkelling/scuba diving almost every day we were there (11 days). Ask any local where Ahihi Bay is and they'll know.

Ross mentioned Olowalu. I did a Scuba shore dive off the Olowalu camp ground and we ran into a Hawaiian Monk seal, it was amazing. There are less than 1300 left and are very endangered. If you snorkel there, look to see if you see a dive boat or snorkel boat, you have to swim out probably a football field to get to the good stuff, usually people go by boat, but a shore dive is way cheaper. The locals call it the "maze" because if it's low tide, then you can't swim over the reef, but have to maze your way around it. At first it looked like there was nothing to see cause you can basically wade out for 50 yards waist deep, but if you keep swimming, it's amazing. Like I said, if there is a boat, just swim toward it, that's what we did.

Mackena Landing is a good place to snorkel as well. We saw a couple of octopi there and they were changing colours. My friend saw a white tip shark there, but I didn't catch a glimpse of it. Oh, there are tons of turtles there too.

Always be on a lookout for a dive or snorkel boat from the shore as your are driving. Where ever there is a boat, it's usually clear and there is stuff to see.

Hope this helps. I was there from beginning of October to mid October this year, so this is pretty current info.

Oh, and if you want to try spear fishing or lobster hunting, it's a ton of fun and yummy. Just look at the signs as some places restrict you to fish only certain kinds of fish, and some places like Ahihi are a nature reserve, so you can't fish.

Hope this helps.