Intern Account: Melanie:
"Kalaupapa was one of the most magical places I have ever been. We stayed in the National Park Service’s guest quarters which are the old hospital for the colony. We were given passes to wear that allowed us to wander around within the park boundaries. It seemed like an ordinary quiet little local Hawaiian town but with a very powerful historical stigma, located in one of the most beautiful places on earth at the base of some very majestic sea cliffs. I ran into one of the caretakers that I had sat next to on the plane and he introduced us to some visiting massage therapists who gave us massages one evening. What luck huh? The diving was awesome. Our offshore islets were around Northwestern side of the peninsula so getting to our sites in the 19ft whaler was a bit exciting but those NPS guys are pretty good at what they do. We dove the leeward edges of these islets to safeguard ourselves from the pounding the windward edges were enduring. The first islet, Mokapu was a beautiful shear rock face that went straight to the ocean floor. It attracted an extraordinary fauna of marine invertebrates and I was in anthozoan heaven. I also noticed a vast quantity of juvenile fish recruits, which is always a good thing to see. Okala, our second site, was right next door to Mokapu. It had a swim thru cave that was essentially an archway that you could surface in and extended all the way to the seafloor. Okala had one of the most extensive beds of Sinularia sp. (leather coral) that I have ever seen. The underwater scenery at these sites was awe inspiring. We also were able have our surface intervals against some of the largest sea cliffs on this planet. It was absolutely beautiful on the surface and underwater. I enjoyed every aspect of this field excursion and felt very lucky to have an opportunity to see Kalaupapa in a way that most visitors are not able to witness. It was an experience that I am very thankful for."