Sitting on the beautiful island of Kauai’i with only minutes to spare before midnight, my final post of 2006 features our unexpected visit from an amazing and endangered species: honu (in Hawaiian)—the green sea turtle.

We were snorkeling a reef on the south shore off Poipu when our friend here crawled out of the water too. Tina snapped this shot as a crowd formed. I appreciated how the lifeguards on Poipu are trained to handle these visits. They quickly roped off a nice buffer zone around her to give her some space. The green sea turtle, once numerous in the south pacific, is now an endangered species and getting up close and personal like this is more and more a rare thing. Our friend here was a good three feet in diameter and probably older than most of us on the beach. Amazing.

Opinions toward the sea turtle differ. Christopher Columbus believed them to be nature’s most important reptile. Native Hawaiians consider them an “owl-like” totem of wisdom. Carl Sagan once said that sea turtles never dream because their entire state of consciousness is a dream. However, Stewie Griffin showed reservation when his mother, Lois, first put him in the public pool using a turtle shaped floaty ring. He felt uncomfortable having his life entrusted to what he called “nature’s D student.”

All in all, I was pleased to encounter this one and I think anyone who has ever swam with one will lean more towards the Hawaiians or Sagan. Sorry Stewie, but these are magnificent creatures.