Rafts Explore Big Isle’s Sacred Caves

We sat on the rim of the inflated raft, hooked our bare feet under the safety rope and reached for the hand line behind our backs.

For the next four or five hours we would be bouncing over blue waters and whitecapped surf, exploring sacred caves and grottoes and snorkeling amid rainbows of tropical fish.

The Kona Coast of the Big Island is the newest Hawaiian location for Captain Zodiac Raft Expeditions, already popular along the Na Pali coast of Kauai and off the coral reefs of Maui and Lanai.

How fit do you have to be?

The warning: “No one with a bad back or who is pregnant. If you can’t swim, you must wear a life jacket.”

Numbers Limited

Only 16 people are allowed aboard the 23-foot powered raft on trips. There were six other passengers, plus my wife and I, when we went.

Skipper Mike Swerdlow was an expert in the history, folklore, geography and geology of the Kona Coast, relating anecdotes as he maneuvered the raft over the surf and into sea caves and lava coves.

An accident almost happened when two passengers gestured with their hands while talking and let go of the safety line. We bounced over a wave, and both were airborne. They came down inside the raft, however.

Our departure point was from Kailua-Kona’s Honokohau Harbor, half an hour drive below Mauna Kea.

We stopped to pick up two passengers at the pier in Keauhou Bay, and soon were bouncing over the rolling waves into the waters off the lava wilderness of the Kona Coast.

Beyond the shore, 8,271-foot Mt. Hualalai rose into a crown of white clouds. Over the centuries its eruptions have created the terraced hillsides, sea caves and layers of lava along the water’s edge.

When a monarch died, servants carrying the bones from the funeral procession were lowered by ropes from the edge of the lava cliffs to cave entrances above the turbulent sea.

The servants then carried the bones as far into the caves as possible. The ropes on which they had been lowered were then withdrawn. Thus, the servants died with the bones and their secrets.

Swerdlow pointed out royal bones that had been swept up and then forever encrusted within lava flows.

Near the wall of another cliff of multicolored lava, Swerdlow maneuvered the raft until we could see what looked like the form of the goddess Pele, soaring with outstretched arms.

Tiny white-sand beaches, sealed off by lava, were within small coves and protected from the waves. These are considered holy beaches, preserved by Pele for her people and their children.

The same sea rolling under our raft hammered and sculpted the lava, continuing to form cathedral shapes, some with arches and tunnels that open like skylights.

We stopped in Kealakekua Bay, close to the Capt. James Cook monument marking the spot where he was killed by Hawaiians in 1779.

Received Like Gods

Cook and his men had first been received like gods by the Hawaiian people. But the seamen didn’t act like gods in their treatment of the local women, and Cook died in an explosion of the violence he had tried to prevent.

Now his monument is a place of tranquillity. The bay is a state park, rated among the best of Hawaii snorkeling waters.

We were given snorkeling gear and instructed how to slide over the raft tubing and into the sea.

Sometimes we tingled in the warm water as we snorkeled across cooler currents from hidden springs. Thousands of butterfly fish, triggerfish and other small and larger species swirled around us, making us feel as if we had been adopted into an underwater family.

Our raft went as far as Honaunau Bay, 19 miles south of Kailua-Kona. Early in the 15th Century a sanctuary between the sea and a high lava wall became a sacred place for religious law breakers, defeated warriors and women and children seeking asylum for any reason.

This area above the bay is the 180-acre Pu’Uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park.

During the long ride back, spinner dolphins followed us, playing beside the raft. Between January and April these waters also are shared with humpback whales.

The trip along the Kona Coast costs $52 for adults, $41.60 for youngsters. For reservations, contact Captain Zodiac, Honokohau Harbor, P.O. Box 5612, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740. The toll-free telephone number from the mainland is (800) 247-1484.

The address on Kauai is Box 456, Hanalei, Hawaii 96714. Call (808) 826-9371.

For a similar trip on Maui, write to Box 1776, Lahaina, Hawaii 96767, or call (808) 667-5351.

Adventure Tour Notes:

--Among its many new tours, Overseas Adventure Travel has scheduled departures through Oct. 19 for 19- and 23-day explorations among the highland, island and tropical forest tribal people of New Guinea.

Five days are spent exploring by dugout canoe the remote tributaries of the Sepik River, sleeping in tribal shelters along the way.

Another three days are trekking through primitive villages and bathing in swimming ponds of the Huli tribe. The optional extension of the tour, from 19 to 23 days, is spent in the Trobriand “Islands of Love.”

Good health and hiking experience are recommended for this tour, but the only age limitation is the exclusion of children under 12. The most strenuous part is the three days of trekking up to five hours a day, but the hiking trails don’t go above 6,000 feet.

Tour cost is $2,290 for the 19-day adventure and $3,420 for the 23 days, plus air fare.

To get more information about the company’s tours in Africa, South and Central America, the Himalayas, the Pacific and Indonesia, contact Overseas Adventure Travel, 349 Broadway, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, toll-free at (800) 221-0814.

--Fall color in India’s Vale of Kashmir is the goal of a new bicycle tour planned for the fall by Asian Pacific Adventures. From Sept. 29 to Oct. 13, Asian Pacific will conduct its first bicycle tour through the Vale of Kashmir.

Cyclists will peddle through lake country, over rolling hills, into villages and will see the cultures of the native people. Afterward, up to the highlands and the legendary “Meadow of Flowers.”

The 15-day cycling tour will follow autumn colors into the historic town of Srinagar and a traditional Kashmiri Wazwaan banquet.

The two-wheel safari, supported by a wagon to carry luggage and supplies, averages 25 to 30 miles a day. Hardy cyclists can detour to steep hill climbs and descents along the ancient pony track from Bandipur toward Haramukh, one of Kashmir’s ice-clad Himalayan peaks.

Don and Phyllis Wachob Weiss, India-based cyclists, writers and photographers, will lead this Kashmir adventure. Cost is $1,489 per person, plus $1,350 on Lufthansa round-trip from Los Angeles.

For more information and reservations, contact Asian Pacific Adventures, 336 Westminster Ave., Los Angeles 90020, (213) 935-3156.