Maui 2004

Maui Bound

We’re leaving for Maui in the morning, so posting will be sparse for the next few days. I do hope to have some images to share in the near future; I’ve already scouted out possible wifi hotspots!

Worth noting is that the Best Western Grosvenor hotel, very close to SFO, provides a great park and fly deal, where for just a bit more than the price of a room you get to leave your car in their parking lot until you return. They provide a free shuttle to the airport as well. The best deal is that they provide free in-room wifi access; hence this last minute post.

Aloha!
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Maui 2004

As we first approached the island of Maui I was reminded of what a lush, luxuriously green paradise we were about to visit. In some ways, returning to Maui feels a little like returning home after a long absence.

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Here’s another aerial view, this time looking south, towards Kihei.

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We’ve rented a condo with a relatively decent ocean view. It’s located in the Kahana area, between Kaanapali and Napili, home of many budget priced, ocean view accomodations. The place is a one bedroom unit with a full kitchen, which is very convenient.

 
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Here’s a picture of some Protea flowers and a couple of Birds of Paradise. We got the flowers while upcountry, on the road to Haleakala. On the way back down we saw them growing wild along side the road. The bushes were quite striking, reaching 15 to 20 feet in height.

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Of course, Maui is famous for its rainbows:

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The view from Mama’s are as good as the food. We each had the stuffed mahi-mahi and split a Black Pearl for dessert. The mahi-mahi was stuffed with crab, lobster, Maui onion and macadamia nuts. It was accompanied by grilled asparagus and lemon rice. Very, very good. Very, very much the most expensive lunch I’ve ever eaten, but well worth every dollar. The pearl part of dessert was made of chocolate mousse, with a shiny chocolate glaze and the shell was baked using almond flour.

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One of our absolutely favorite things to do while visiting Maui is snorkeling. We think the best place to snorkel is at Honolua Bay, so that’s where we went first. The water was warmer than I remembered, with pretty good clarity, especially the further out one went. Even so, runoff from the recent rains left a slightly red haze lingering near the top of the water. The usual wide variety of fish, along with some corals were there, just as we remembered. We did see a very large eel, but I was already out of film by then. Here are a few pictures that came out reasonably OK:

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No real dramatic sunsets yet, but this one wasn’t bad at all:

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Memorial Day 2004

At times like this, the sacrifices made by soldiers in service to our country is certainly felt more deeply than during times of peace. Protecting our freedom and civil liberties is (supposed to be) one of the key reasons our nation puts its soldiers at risk. Well, as this photo demonstrates, freedom of expression is alive and well and driving around the streets of Maui.

The slightly hard to read black and yellow sticker says: “We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can’t bomb it into peace.”
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Maui Sunset

We’ve been busy the past couple of days, doing something we love: driving! We’ve circumnavigated both lobes of the island of Maui, first going around the top, smaller section, and the next day spent an epic 11 hours going to Hana and then returning by driving around the back side of Haleakala. More on both those trips, along with photos, at a later date. For now, here’s a picture of the sunset last night in Lahaina:

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Driving Around Maui: Wailuku via Kahakuloa

One morning during our recent trip to Hawaii we drove around the upper of Maui’s two halves. Top down and tunes playing through the radio via the iPod and iTrip, we were ready to roll.

Starting from just north of Kaanapili our route took us north by Kapalua, Napili and on around the top of the island. The road narrows and continues on around, through Kahakuloa and finally ends up in Wailuku. We had a great lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant located just off Main street. There is no sign; we literally found it by following our noses! From there we dropped by the Iao Valley before continuing on back through Lahaina and back to our condo. Here are a few of the pictures we took along the way.

There is a nice beach, down some steep steps, at Makuleia Bay. It’s adjacent to the much more accessible Honolua Bay.
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Honolua Bay is our favorite snorkeling destination.
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Closeup of the reef at Honolua Bay.
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A very isolated retreat right before the village of Kahakuloa.
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Kahakuloa Head, guardian of the town of Kahakuloa.
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The tiny town of Kahakuloa. The road is very, very narrow in these parts and strict attention must be paid to oncoming traffic.
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Looking back towards Kahakuloa one can easily see where the lava flowed down from the volcano that formed this part of Maui.
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Another view looking back towards Kahakuloa.
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Goats on a hill reflect Maui’s continuing strong agricultural traditions.
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One of the impressive spiny peaks that enclose Iao Valley.
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Kids were leaping into the creek, and one older fellow jumped from the bridge we were standing on. Looks like fun; hopefully no one gets hurt.
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Wailuku suburb looking towards airport.
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Wailuku suburb looking towards Haleakala.
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Wailuku suburb looking towards Maalea and Kihei.
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Driving Around Maui: the Road to Hana and Beyond

The drive to Hana is legendary; something all visitors to Maui should do at least once. As we’ve done on previous occasions, we not only drove to Hana, we continued on and drove around the back side of Haleakala, looping all the way back around the island.

The road past Hana really isn’t too rough, but it is very slow going in some parts. It is also very beautiful with breath-taking views around almost every corner. One of the cool things is that on clear days the big Island of Hawaii is visible from this part of Maui. Interesting too is the fact that driving through the very sparsely populated, fenced ranchland is not unlike driving through similar farmland on the mainland … Though not for everyone, if you are the least bit adventurous you should definitely consider the road beyond Hana, around the back-side of Haleakala.

View of Haleakala from a few miles south of Lahaina.
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Keanae peninsula, seen from a hilltop a few miles away.
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Center of the Kenae peninsula; taro is grown here, among other things.
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Right side of Keanae peninsula, where a river runs into the sea.
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Bananas in a tree.
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Waianapanapa Park is one of my favorite locations on the island of Maui. The intensity of the black lava rock contrasted with vibrant, bright green vegetation is only partially captured in these images.
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The beach at Waianapanapa Park.
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Interesting lava arch at Waianapanapa Park.
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On the far backside of Haleakala, beyond Hana, looking back from where we came.
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Same area as above, looking at the road and view ahead.
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Near the end of the unmaintained roadway, looking down towards the newest part of Maui; the lava seen below is from only 200 years ago. (Still not as fresh as what’s currently flowing on the Big Island, though!)
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Maui Finale

Here’s a Maui wrapup, full of images that didn’t fit elsewhere or that simply deserved a second chance to be seen. There are a lot of sunset photos; what can I say?

 
A pair of sunsets.
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Kahakuloa Church, cows so close to the ocean one wonders if they are an offering for a local seamonster and a view of the upper portion of Maui as seen from a Kihei beach.
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Kihei sunset, a beautiful Maui double rainbow as seen from our room (look closely to the right to see the 2nd rainbow) and a bright hibiscus flower.
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And so ends another trip to paradise … Maui–Noi Ka Oi
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