Waikiki and O’Ahu Island, Hawaii
Waikiki was the start and the end of my Hawaii experience. It’s a very good city to stock up your gears, e.g. snorkel mask, new camera (old camera got to much salt water on the Na Pali Coast) and enjoy the city life. When you get out of the city the true Hawaii begins, with amazing Nature. Here some impressions from Oahu, Hawaii:
- Waikiki Beach at night
- Fireworks at friday night on Waikiki Beach
- Hanauma Bay
- Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling
- Beach promenade in Waikiki
- Delicious Acai Bowl
- Live healthy and in a balanced way (here Hawaii with Acai Bowl)
- Opposite of Fastfood, so true and so delicious
- Sunset Waikiki
- Surfing at Diamand Head
- Surfing at Waikiki Beach
- Waikiki from the Sky
- Pali Highway lookout
- Makapuu Point
- Coastal line near Kailua
- Love this scenery
- Surf beach on the North Shore
- Wow big waves at the North Shore
- Mmmhhh some more delicious Acai Bowl
- Bridge in Haleiwa
Surfing in Hawaii
After surfing in Finland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia, I got the chance to surf with Ambrose, a surf guru here in Kaua’i, Hawaii. And what a great surf lesson. After arranging the surf lesson the day before we met at 7am at the beach to check out the weather and he was already starting the surf lesson there, explaining me the weather conditions and a lot of other great life lessons.
Then it was time to find a suitable beach for our surf lesson. And what great waves we found, for my surf abilities: awesome!!! Check out the video and some pictures.
Please support me with a donation for the “Surf for Life” project where I help to build a high school in April 2013 in Nicaragua. Thank you very much for your contribution to this project! More background information can be found here: https://www.surfforlife.org/give/Sven-Koble/
- Surfboards packed time to hit the beach
- Interesting garden fence
- Wow big waves at the North Shore
- Surf beach on the North Shore
- Surfing at Waikiki Beach
- Surfing at Diamand Head
Volcano National Park, Big Island
What an awesome park on Big Island. Great hikes like the Kilauea Iki Trail, including a walk thru Rain forest and a crater. Then seeing lava glowing at night time, a street covered with lava. Just awesome scenery! Here some picture impressions:
- Dask impression in Volcano National Park
- And the moon is out
- Lava tube
- Ready for the Kilauea Iki Trail
- First some Rain Forest on the Kilauea Iki Trail
- Trail sign
- What a coincidence and a great talk with Katherine on the Trail after we stayed in the same hostel in Hilo, Big Island
- Flowers in the crater
- Wow what an awesome trail
- Road sign …
- Lava over the street
- Lava flow from the past
- Lava entering the sea
- Big Truck for the Big Island
- Crater impression
- Rainbow and crater
- Lava glow
- Morning impression
- Crater
- What an awesome National Park
- Steam
- Flower impression
- Flower impression
- Flower impression
Jumping Dolphins in Kaua’i
The Na Pali coast in Kaua’i, Hawaii was the setting for this day. With a sail boat and great crew we went to check out the Na Pali coast. And there was again great encounter with wildlife. First we saw some whales and then some jumping dolphins, awesome! Well although the cruise was great my not water proofed camera did get a bit to much of salt water and stopped working. Here the last pictures with that camera …
- Captain Kurt
- Sailing along the coast in Kaua’i
- Old sugar mill
- Na Pali Coast
- Wow this is a great coast line
- Sunset with a rainbow, nice!
Açai Bowl

Chris introduced me to this amazing breakfast dish. Original from Brazil it is awesomely delicious, refeshing and healthy. So after I went surfing with Chris at Diamond Head in Honolulu we went to a great breakfast place were they served us the Açai Bowl, maid mainly out of the amazonian fruit Açai. Well here a recipe I found on the web, can’t wait to try it out once I’m back in Germany.
Exploring Maui

What an awesome island is Maui. So many things to do: Snorkeling with turtles, Whale watching, Hiking into lava fields, Road trips, Camping, Stand-Up Paddling, Waterfalls, Delicious food, Sunrises.
On the way you meet always amazing people like Rick & Shelley who took me to an amazing snorkel trip with turtles or David with whom I did a two days road trip to Hana and back. Here some impressions from Maui
- Rain troops on a flower in Kihei, Maui
- Raw fish meal: Poke, very delicious
- Jumping baby whale
- Jumping mother whale
- Close up of the whale tail
- I met Rick, Shelley’s mother, Shelley on Maui and we did a snorkel trip together awesome. Thank you for showing me the turtles
- Green Sea turtles in action
- Tree impression
- On the road to Hana
- Amazing to watch water on lava rocks
- Delicious food: Banana bread and pineapple so fresh
- Me next to a blow hole
- Welcome to the Aloha State
- Road trip together with Rick. Thanks mate, this was awesome!
- Camping in the car
- Bambus forest
- River impression
- Waterfall
- Sales lady in shop with money from all around the world
- Yeah mate! This was a great trip!
- Impression
- Impression
- Impression
- Yeah parking slot where I slept at 10.000 feet
- Crater on top of Maui
- Silver cactus
- There we go! Posing for the picture 🙂
- Mmmhhh some delicious breakfast after the exercise
- And some more 🙂
- Black Sand Beach
- Very Black and fine sand
- Hiking in the Lava fields
- Delicous food
- Impression on the way to Hana
- Road to Hana and beyond …
- Delicious fruit stand
- One lane bridges on the way to Hana
- Wine Tour beyond Hana
- I love those big trees
Snorkeling with turtles
In Maui and on Big Island I got the chance to swim with turtles. Very graceful creatures and very delightful to watch.
- Some snorkeling impressions
- A lot of yellow fishes
- Thumb up for the snorkel ground here on Big Island
- Can you spot the fish who is trying to hide
- Yeah I love those yellow fishes
- Let’s swim with them
- Snorkeling in Maui with Shelley and Rick
- Green Sea turtles in action
- Resting Turtle 1
- Resting Turtle 2
- Resting Turtle 3
- Black Sand Beach Impression
- Let’s go for a snorkel with the turtles
- Yeah Turtle in action 🙂
- Amazing animals the turtles
- Rob is preparing my first rainbow shaved ice
On Top Of The World

Together with Adam and Marco who I met in the Hostel in Hilo, I went up to the top of the world, or more precise to Mauna Kea on Big Island, Hawaii. Well first I thought Mt. Everest is the highest mountain on this plant. But little did I know, that they are not only counting the above sea level hight which is 4.207m but also including the parts from the Ocean level and here Mauna Kea wins with 10.200m.
Coming from sea level to 4.207m in a couple of hours was already challenging and I felt a bit dizzy but the view was stunning. With the massive telescopes and a great sunset it felt like a place far away from earth and thus like on top of the world.
- That’s the destination for today: Mauna Kea Summit
- Impression on the way up to Mauna Kea
- Together with Adam and Marco we went to the top
- Mauna Loa
- Impression on the way up to Mauna Loa
- View to Mauna Kea
- Yeah this is amazing stuff walking onto lava
- Small mountain
- Big car
- Mauna Kea impression from Mauna Loa
- GoPro always ready to take some pictures or videos 🙂
- Keck 1 Telescope
- Keck 1 Building
- Yeah mates we made it to the top
- Keck 1 and Keck 2 Telescope
- Thumb up for being
- On Top of The world!
- Rainbow seen from above the clouds
- sunset at keck 1 and keck 2
- Trip to the Top of the world was awesome
- Can you spot some figure in the nightly sky?
Night Snorkel with Manta’s on Big Island
What an amazing encounter with Manta Rays at Kona Coast on Big Island, Hawaii. The boat tour started at 5pm and just before sunset we were at the spot where at night time often Manta Rays go for feeding. Manta Rays are very graceful animals hunting plankton all day and night.
And as plankton likes light we were soon in the water holding onto a surf board with light bulbs attracting plankton which as you can imagine attracted the Manta Rays. And over years the Manta’s have figured out that they can eat the most plankton if they do a roll. Very amazing to see them so close.
Waimea Town Festival

22nd and 23rd of February 2013 and it was time for the Waimea Town Festival here in Kaua’i, Hawaii. And what a great fun event. Waking up at 4:30am to get ready for the Captain Cook Caper Fun Run over 5km. At 6am registration for the event and then with the bus to the start line. Start at 7am and running into the sunrise. Wow this was amazing and maybe that’s why I ran so fast: 18:25min
After the winner ceremony it was time to check out the Towns Celebration Venue. With great music and good food. Very relaxing atmosphere. As they where still looking for participants for the ice cream contest in my age group I joint in last minute. Sitting next to a guy who was very serious about that competition. 2min time to finish the ice cream. He finished it after 1:45min. Wow! And I was still enjoying the ice cream 🙂 Guess what the winner won? Yeah right: ICE CREAM!!!
At the venue I met a very friendly Norwegian couple with there two kids which I met on the airport more than a week ago. We had great conversations and thus another great day here in Hawaii. Check out some pictures:
- Yeah this was a fun race over 5km
- Winner ceremony
- Winner Picture together with the female 5k winner Sheri the runners up Mike
- Yeah Winner Trophy at the Captain Cook Fun Run in Waimea
- Time for some town celebrations with great music
- Clam chowder
- Ice cream contest. The guy in the blue shirt next to me was very serious about this contest and “won” in 1:45min
- Ice cream contest. After two min 🙂