Maui Part I

Saturday, October 8, 2011

We flew from Oahu to Maui Saturday morning to start our week on the new island.  Doing a couple of quick loads of laundry, we caught some lunch and watched the end of the later afternoon college games which were actually on at lunch time in Hawaii.  It just seems strange that the bars open up at 7 AM on Sunday mornings to broadcast the early NFL football games.  Not sure I could get used to that.

After lunch, we did a quick stop at the Iao Needle.  It's an interesting geological formation.

 Then we drove into the hills a ways and checked into the Hale Ho'okipa Bed and Breakfast which is the same one Kara and Chris stayed at on this side of the island.  It's owned by a delightful woman and has an amazing 15' circumference Norfolk pine in the garden area.

 Sunday, October 9, 2011

We headed out early to catch a boat called Quick Silver which took us out on a snorkeling trip to an island called Molokini.  The island is the remains of a volcano crater where the majority of it is now underwater.  The underwater portion provides a prime location for a large coral reef and tons of colorful fish and we even saw an eel.  Here's the approach shot to the island and an adjacent boat to us when we anchored.  (The adjacent boat happens to be the one Kara and Chris took when they did this.)

We took good advice and rented wet suit tops which made the cold water temps tolerable.  Tina was really styling in hers.

 

Here's the pic with most of the fellow passengers out snorkeling and Tina enjoying her pulled BBQ pork sandwich on board after a couple of hours of snorkeling at Molokini and another place named Turtle Town due to the abundance of sea turtles.  We saw several turtles but didn't get pics of any.

Monday, October 10, 2011

It's amazing to be at a place where you're playing around at sea level one day and then up at 10K feet altitude the next day, but that's Hawaii for you.  On Monday we drove up to Haleakala which is the main volcano which formed the island of Maui.  It's also home of a very unique plant known as the silver sword.

 We were dressed a wee bit different this day than the day before.

 After stopping by the visitor centers and driving to the summit, we did a hike into the main crater area down from the summit.  The problem with this concept is that it's all downhill for the outgoing leg ... and all uphill for the coming back leg.  That's really less than desirable.  Regardless, the landscapes just amazing.

Driving back down some 10 miles or so from the summit, we came to a lower hiking trail which took us through some scrub lands on the outside of the crater before finally leading us to an awesome overview of the crater itself.  As we were hiking, the clouds were moving in on us which made for a somewhat surreal experience.

 The next day we left the west side of Maui and headed for an east side town called Hana, but that's another post.