Aloha, Maui September 2018 Sister Trip 9

This adventure was a first for Jerri and me. You say, what? You went to Maui last year. We did and this is the first time we’ve ever repeated a destination. We stayed in the same condo as last year and visited some of the same places as well as several new sights. This is what it looked like the day we arrived…bright and sunny with clouds off in the distance over Molokai. (photo credit to RD Schmidt). It was very hot and humid unlike the more perfect weather we had last year.

Our first dinner was at Leilani’s at Kananapali Beach. We were delighted they honored a coupon that Bob and I received some 40 years ago and, thus, received a free Hula Pie. Jerri is ready to dig in!

Our first sunset was gorgeous and we took this picture from our condo’s lanai.

We went snorkeling the next morning and were a bit disappointed as the water was murky making it difficult to find our quarry. But we did see one green back turtle (honu) and several varieties of fish.

We had to return to Kahului that afternoon and decided to visit Ho’okipa Beach. It’s a superb place to see turtles from the shore as well as be able to watch wind surfers.

We tried snorkeling at Oneloa Beach and found it to be much more fun than the day before.

The big treat was to espy a honu. Jerri was the best as spotting them. She has a sixth sense about where to find them.

That evening, Jerri said she thought it felt like rain and I thought it was just the humidity. But it was an omen. Clouds did begin to form and we saw another superb sunset.

A bit later, we could see rain in distant clouds.

Jerri was right. We were awakened that night to rain blowing in our bedroom window. This was our view the next morning. Quite a difference from the first day’s view

It rained and rained with a lot of thunder. I’ve never heard thunder that rumbled as loudly and as long as that did. I could feel it affect my insides a couple of times. I was glad we had a roof over our heads. This peaceful guy was a visitor during the storm.

Eventually, we saw a rainbow (after all, Hawaii is the Rainbow State!) and the day improved from that point on at least in our area. We found out that the main road to Kahului was closed due to flooding.

We went back to Oneloa Beach in hopes to snorkel but neglected to think about the possibility of the surf being up because of the storm. It was too rough to snorkel so we tried boogie boarding and that didn’t work. Body surfing was also unsuccessful. There were too many currents and rocks to worry about. It might not look rough but it was.

So we sat on the beach and read a bit. It’s a pleasant beach without hoards of people.

A boardwalk above Oneloa Beach is surrounded by some ultra green plants that houses many geckos and large garden spiders. I just wanted to show you two great pictures that Jerri took.

This shot shows a very successful spider that is just biding his time to go get that little green fly/bug in the upper left corner.

We took a ride through Kihei and Wailea to the end of the road at La Pérouse Bay. You can see it was still cloudy on this day. We had hoped to see a pod of dolphins that lives in the area. You can see it’s still a bit cloudy over the ocean.

We didn’t see dolphins but we did see a lot of chunky lava. It’s called a’a lava because it cools quickly and moves fast so that it tears into clunky pieces. It would hurt to fall down in it. Luckily, neither one of us knows this from experience. That is a cinder cone in the distance.

From there, we went to the treat of the day…Mama’s Fish House, the place that all tour books say is ONO (the best). The daily menu always gives credit to the fisherman who caught the fish and where it was caught. It’s amazing! You can tell we’re happy to be here! Mama’s beach is in the background.

We were so hungry and excited to eat our entrees that we forgot to take a picture of them. BUT here is a picture of our dessert…the Black Pearl. It’s as good as it looks!

Our next jaunt was the trek up to Haleakala. It’s a deceiving drive as you think the entire is shrouded with clouds, but you drive through them and voila! You’re in a clear area.

Earlier, I was complaining about it being so hot and here we have donned windbreakers. It’s because the summit is over 10,000’ and it’s quite a bit cooler than the 85-90º we were used to. Here you can see into the crater. There are hiking trails into the crater and out the other side to Kipahulu.

The sign shows where we are in this picture. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see Lahaina, a town a bit south of where we were staying. It’s a long jaunt up the volcano. A few days later, we drove completely around the large part of Maui while seeing the road to Hana.

This tells the Haleakala story much better than I could.

Halakala is home to a host of living things that arrived and thrived, against all odds, in the most isolated islands on the planet. Today, Haleakala protects the last or only home for plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. The silver, round, spiky plant in the background is a growing silver sword. It will grow a tall blooming spike and then die. The spike beside Cora has run its course.

A sword plant in bloom. They grow only on Haleakala.

Sneaky clouds coming into the crater

Ferns are often the first to grow in volcanic areas. I find that amazing!

The road to Hana is quite often narrow, one lane and sometimes down right scary. Tourist lit. says it has over 600 turns. I don’t know that for a fact, but the road is NEVER straight!

Waves on the Ke’anae Peninsula.

Taro fields on the Ke’anae Peninsula. We got some good banana bread and sandwiches at Auntie Sandy’s. No taro though.

The road to Hana is famous for many waterfalls. Guidebooks have waterfall alerts!

Wai’anapanapa Black Sand State Beach

‘Alau Island. If you enlarge this, you might be able to see coconut trees on the peak of the island. Local boys are said to have swum out to the island and planted them.

Us at the mouth of the ‘Ohe’o Gulch

Highway bridge over one of the falls at ‘Ohe’o Gulch (aka Seven Sacred Pools that are not really sacred)

We drove all the way around past Hana to get back to near Kahului with the intention of stopping at Charles Lindbergh’s grave. By the time I realized I’d missed the turn, we were too far past it. Jerri took this nice picture of the backside of Halakala. Just a few days earlier we’d been above those clouds.

Pokowai Sea Arch

Built in 1862, St. Joseph’s Church is in a remote and sparely populated Kaupa. Services are held only if there is a fifth Sunday in a month.

I’ve mentioned geckos and thought you might like to see one. This little guy somehow got on the hood of a car in Lahaina. The ladies inside the car were quite indignant that I was taking pictures of their car.

We finally got a good snorkeling day and got to see some fun critters. We saw honu both swimming and settled in the coral.

A trumpet fish

Some jacks (ulua) with what I believe is a variety of black tang. The snorkeling was fun but as we were resting on the beach, people just kept coming and coming and pretty soon we were just inches from the people who surrounded us. The beach wasn’t like that last year.

We had an excellent dinner for our last night in Maui. As we left the restaurant, we saw this egret that Jerri named George. He was walking along a row of plants and every so often would sort of wave his neck in a sort of hypnotizing manner. We found out he was hunting for lizards (probably geckos).

The surf was up during our last day, so it was probably a good thing the trip was at an end. There was no way we could have snorkeled that day anyway.

Jerri and I are always excited to go on our sister trip and this time we might have anticipated it a bit too much. We dreamed about swimming almost every day with the honu and its fellow creatures of the deep. Perhaps we dreamed too much and were a bit disappointed in the weather and the relatively poor snorkeling. Another factor was the seemingly large increase in people and traffic since just a year ago. We did get to see new sights, experience new things and meet some fun people with Aloha spirit, so the trip was fun and the food was great! We’ve decided, though, that we’ll not repeat an adventure again as that might bring bad ju ju. With that in mind, we bid aloha to Maui.  We are very thankful, however, that we are able to travel and enjoy each other’s company.