Wed 9 Feb
Up early today for our flight to Hawaii! We were gently woken with the tinkle of teaspoons on teacups, courtesy of our hostess, who brought us tea/coffee in bed. How awesome! Had a quick breakfast then off to the airport. Car rental return etc was painless but then got caught in the full body x-ray security queue and it went sloooowly. But eventually got through, allegedly with no more radiation than what you get every 3 minutes sitting in an aeroplane at altitude. Allegedly.
Landed in Honolulu airport, for our connection to Maui, with great views of the islands as we descended. The terminal is really unique; sort of a set of airy buildings, all built in the 50s or something, connected by passageways with a least one side totally open allowing the breeze to flow through. And boy did we need some breezing as it was hot and humid and very sticky. Coming from (slightly) cooler LA we were both dressed in jeans and trainers. And we were pretty much the only people wearing longs and closed shoes in Honolulu. It was wonderful.
Temp: 30 Deg C with 70% humidity
Time: -2 hours i.e. GMT -10
Connecting flight to Maui took less than an hour and the bag and rental car collection were painless. La was chief navigator, she setup the GPS and double checked that its directions agreed with those from the B&B to the T. They did (thanks again Francis!) and we were quickly underway on the road northwards to Lahaina where we would spend our first 3 nights. Gorgeous views of the setting sun from the road and we arrived at our destination about half an hour later.
Our room was waiting for us with the keys in the door; a very comfortable upstairs suite, with views of the ocean from a shared lanai (balcony) directly outside our door. Awesome.
Headed down to Lahaina town centre for some supper - by this time I was starving (tiny breakfast, shrivelled sandwich early lunch and no tea make me hungry) and the B&B had recommended a cheap and cheerful place called 'Aloha Mixed Plate', which serves salads, stir fries, burgers and the eponymous Hawaiian mixed lunch plates. You can actually order these any time of day, but they have their origin in the lunchtime meal eaten by sugar cane labourers. It consists of two scoops of rice and one scoop of macaroni salad with some sort of meat/veg/fish. I had mine with teriyaki chicken and La settled on vegetarian stirfry with noodles with tofu. Delish! The place was pumping and is very popular with locals and tourists.
Snack, sarnie, AMP. Day 25
Thu 10 Feb
So, perhaps this place we're staying in (Garden Gate B&B) should just be called a "Bed". Breakfast barely existed. It was billed as "continental" but I reckon there would be a lot of 'sacre bleu!' and tutting from any continentals. Basically a few yoghurts and stale bagels, no butter, no cereal, no pastries (do mini muffins count?). At least there was coffee, but no milk, only that dodgy flavoured cream in little plastic cup things. Anyways, we did have a nice chat with a friendly retired couple from Ohio who have been coming back to the same Bed for 10 years, so it cannot be all that bad.
We borrowed some beach stuff from the Bed, which was very well stocked with grass mats, body boards, surfboards, cooler boxes, beach towels, swim noodles, snorkeling gear etc. Headed northwards, passing through Kana'apali with its high-end resorts, which block direct access to the beach on one side of the road and have landscaped the other side into gorgeous golf courses with fairways right next to the road; no fences or hedges. Beautiful.
We stopped in Napili, found parking in a side street and then headed for Napili Bay beach. A gorgeous crescent of reef, sand, palm trees and shallow, gorgeous blue ocean. Not a beach with big waves but still powerful enough to knock swimmers over and breaking very close to the beach so when you get dumped, you sort of end up with your head in the sand. Actually, this can be quite dangerous as evidenced by the guy receiving paramedic treatment (CPR, drip, neck brace, the works) as we arrived on the beach. This beach was also lined with resorts, but not quite as luxurious as earlier.
The day wasn't that sunny but with the humidity we were wonderfully comfortable. We sat, we read, we ate (chicken sandwich for me; humidity makes me hungry), we walked, we read, we sat. Paradise. Of course, in homage to our adopted country, I hand't really applied that much sunscreen because it wasn't that sunny, right? Success; that evening, my shoulders, face and chest were a healthy (well cooked) crustacean crimson. With red chili sauce. Hot hot hot.
Rounded off the day with some take-out pizza and a crisp Rosé at sunset on our lanai. What a great first day! We were sun- and heat- tired, a little sunblushed, but it was paradise!
Mini-breakfast, noon and night. Day 26
Fri 11 Feb
Our second morning in our Bed began with a simple breakfast again, and this time we asked for milk! Yay. Then drove to Ma'alaea harbour to check out the options for snorkelling trips. You can buy these pretty much anywhere on the island but we'd been told by the Ohians that the harbour had some good deals.
Chatted to Scott, a tour guide-booking dude in a hut in the harbour. He gave us some brochures and ideas and then we headed for Ma'alea beach; not as nice as Napili Bay, but very quiet and more secluded. Headed back to the harbour and booked a snorkel trip for Saturday morning with 'Frogman' tours. By this time I was starving (talk of goggles and fins makes me hungry) so headed for 'Beach Bum's bar and grill' for some lunch. La had a veggie burger and I had a regular one and did some sampling of their hot and very hot homemade BBQ sauce. Delish.
Some time during lunch, the weather turned from 28 Deg C, humid and slightly overcast to 28 Deg C, more overcast and more humid; in fact, torrential rain type of humidity. Apparently it only rains 7 days a year in Maui and I think we experienced all 7 days of rainfall in 2 hours. We did the obvious thing in these situations - went for ice cream. I had chocolate with macadamia (grown on the island) and La had choc chip mint and coffee ice cream. The rain continued but was very localised apparently - we drove back towards Lahaina and within a few minutes we were out of the rain. Bizarre, but I guess not really for an island with big volcanic mountains to tease the weather gods.
Back in Lahaina we did some shopping (T-shirts and boardshorts and shorts, tally is now La 3, Dave 7), loads of window shopping in the crowded 'old' town, walked along the boardwalk, saw this huge Banyan tree which took up pretty much all of a park. The Banyan trees sort of spread their branches, then drop more roots from the branches which become more trunks, then grow more branches so you can walk under the tree and there are benches and grass, but all under the same tree. Very cool.
Also had the always pleasant experience of timeshare salesmen parading as discount tour operators. The bastards. And the sales woman still didn't answer my question on how they could sell me whale watching for $5. All in all another great day in paradise, topped off with more chilled wine on our Lanai.
Morning, noon and night. Day 27
Sat 12 Feb
Snorkel trip day. We had to check in to our boat (Frogman II; allegedly the first one was swallowed by a whale) by 07:15 which meant we missed "breakfast" at our Bed. But wait, no we wouldn't because our Bed doesn't do breakfasts on weekends. Grr. But I digress...
On the boat we had some jokey boat safety stuff and some hilarious boat toilet humour (jokes about the boat toilet, not what you were thinking), then we set out. The sun was beginning to rise and it was alreayd wonderfully warm. Had a continental breakfast on the boat which was better than what we had to choose from (on weekdays) at our Bed so that was nice and then the boat dudes (tall, blond, very bleached and La says very well built, but I'm not to worry apparently) took us through snorkeling 101 and issued goggles and snorkels and fins.
We arrived at Molikini crater, our first snorkel point, which is a partially submerged dormant volcano crater (half in the water, the other half out, with the inside bit a relatively shallow spot packed with fish and covered with coral.) With some initial trepidation, we entered the water and then underwater bliss. The water wasn't too cold, just about 23 Deg C, and we didn't need a wetsuit. And fish and fish and coral and fish and it was incredible! Beautitiful views from the boat of Molikini and Maui.
We snorkeled for about an hour, then back onto the boat and off to the second spot, an area of reef/ocean just off Wailea (or was it Maluaka?) beach, unofficially known as Turtle Town. We did spot one or two from the boat, but unfortunately were not as lucky from the water. Ah well, still loads of fish and fantastic coral views. We heard later from the owner at our second B&B that other tour operators have more dudes on shift and in the water spotting for animals and pointing them out, but what can you do? We still had a great time.
On the way back to the harbour (note we were about 11 miles from where we started so not that close) we had sandwich lunch on deck which was just as well because I was starving (saltwater up my nose makes me hungry) and had a DIY sandwich and salad meal but that was ok as gave more options for La. And they also had a coke/sprite etc soda gun thing and let me tell you, cold ginger ale is the best thing for thirst on a boat! Delish. Also did a little whale spotting from the deck - December through April is Humpback whale season in Maui so we were always on the lookout for the telltale spout and cries of 'thar she blows'. More about whales another day.
Back on dry land, we drove back to Lahaina and parked at Hanakao'o beach which is close to Kana'apali beach which has all the posh resort hotels. We then walked along the beach to the areas in front of the Hyatt and Mariott and soaked up the atmosphere on their decks and swam in their parts of the ocean. So there! The resorts look great but not sure why most people were at the pool when the beach was like 20 metres away? Go figure.
Back to the Garden Gate Bed where we had left our bags, ate some leftover pizza in their garden and then headed south to our next B&B in Kihei, more south than Ma'alea harbour, where we did the snorkel trip. On the way, we stopped at a lookout point along the road . The sun was almost setting and this spot is great for whale watching. We had at least half a dozen sightings but they were too far out to see much detail.
Checking into the new B&B was interesting. Owner (Eva) was not around but she had left notes taped to the garage about how to find our room and left it unlocked. Must be a Maui thing this, i.e. owner not present at check in. Our suite was quite large, but weird as the entrance from the driveway takes you straight into the bathroom and then you access the rest of the suite from there. Very strange. Also, the big clothes cupboard could be accessed from both the bedroom and the bathroom - basically they had turned their garage into a suite and the doorway between the bathroom and bedroom had been converted into a cupboard. Also, no sea view, no sea breeze, very dark and the linen and towels smelt damp. Mrs C was not happy. Not quite bad enough to sacrifice our deposit (actually, the full amount for 4 nights) so we thought we'd see how it went.
Did a drive-by of the main Kihei road looking for restaurants for supper and settled on a fantastic place called 'Cafe O'Lei', which was not a coffee place, so don't think the pun was intended. Very trendy, very busy, we had to wait for 45 minutes for a table, but it was worth it. I had steak and La had Mahi-Mahi (a firm white fish, very delicious). Very nicely presented, great food and not too pricey.
Snorkel, noon and Maui Mahi-Mahi. Day 28
Sun 13 Feb
Not a great night. May have mentioned earlier that our suite is a converted garage and that the driveway is directly outside our door and windows? Well, it is, and our hostess is an early riser and feels the need to run errands at 05:30 and being American she drives a huge Toyota truck (that's a bakkie for South Africans) and we had the window blind things open to get some air movement. So that woke me up. Then had just drifted back to sleep when she got back from errands. And every time I tried to go back to sleep I got wonderful whiffs from the damp linen. Humph. Then she was getting breakfast ready, but the kitchen and upstairs lanai eating area are directly above our room. She also has some dogs, so we heard her back and forth and the pitter-patter of unclipped toe nails. (sigh) I won't complain about the noisy birds because they are beautitiful and natural and a joy to hear in the morning.
But this place (Maui What a Wonderful Life B&B) does do a decent breakfast. Fruit, juice, teas and coffees with milk, cereals, yoghurt, toast, jams and boiled eggs. So this somewhat made up for the damp, noisy no-sleep. And Eva is charming and helpful and offered information on what to do and what to avoid.
We decided to not do the beach thing today as still looking a bit lobstered from snorkeling and previous beaching. Instead we picked up maps and borrowed an audio guided tour of a driving route to Hana, a pristine, relatively untouched viallage about 60 miles away, to the North-East of the island.
They say the road to Hana is about the journey, not the destination and this is true. It is a beautitiful coastal road, winding up and down with the sea on one side and the foresty mountains on the other. The twists and turns are so sharp and the road so narrow that the speed limit is restricted to about 15 mph. But the drive is gorgeous, deep cuts into the mountain with glimpses of waterfalls followed by sharp bends out towards the sea. We stopped a few times along the way to take photos at viewing points and to investigate swimming options in numerous waterfalls, giving a miss to several roadside bamboo shacks selling coconuts and fresh fruit.
We had a forgettable lunch at Hana beach and then drove through Hana village, which consists of a school, a few hundred houses, a luxury hotel and the famous (in Hawaii, at least) Hasegawa General Store which is actually quite something. Want to buy a spare part for a tractor, some deoderant and an ice lolly? You got it! Then it was back on the road, taking all 600 or so twists a second time back towards Kihei, only briefly stopping at Paia Bay to watch crazy surfers catching some huge Hawaiian waves.
Back in Kihei, we scouted out some restaurant options for that night and Valentine's day, then sat for about an hour on Kamaole Beach to watch an awesome sunset. That evening was one of the clearest of our stay in Maui so we took full benefit of the lingering dusk and took some classic snaps of the sun dipping down over the ocean. Breathtaking.
For supper we went to Cuatro, a fusion Latin/Hawaiian restraurant that is apparently the best restaurant in Kihei. La had the seared tuna and I had Mahi-Mahi. The owner entertained us with war stories about moving his family from the mainland USA to Hawaii, how he and his wife also run a cleaning service (including crime-scene clean-up - eugh!) and explained why early bird supper was so popular on Maui - a combination of discounts and the age demographic of most of the tourists. Apparently Maui is for "the newly wed and the nearly dead". I suppose as this was a delayed honeymoon for us we did fulfil the former.
Breakfast, scenic drive, and sunset. Day 29
Mon 14 Feb
Woke up early and went for a run in Kihei along the main strip which takes in some of the beach. It was hot and humid, but not as bad as it had been in Lahaina a few days ago. After another great breakfast we headed further south to Wailea beach, a beautiful wide beach. Sunned and read and swam a few times and snooped on the views from the Four Seasons' pool.
Had simple lunch of rolls and salad and leftover steak from a few nights before - delicious - then headed for Kihei town centre to try book into a whale watching tour. The company that we had snorkeled with also arranges whale watching but due to their 2 for 1 deals, they had no space till the following Saturday. Instead we took a chance and drove to Ma'alea harbour where Pacific Whale Foundation is based and managed to get into their last trip of the day.
Now, at this time of year they say that it makes very little difference which tour company you use for whale watching as there are so many whales to be seen. But we were very happy with this crew because they always have at least one marine biologist on board (in fact we had two on ours) and any profits from their tours go towards supporting study/observation of whales and saving whales etc.
The trip was awesome! We saw whales to the left, to the right, the front and behind. Most of the whales were mom and calf pairs. And occasionally a male 'escort' - a suitor hoping to be next year's dad and who had probably successfully driven off other suitors for that privilege. We saw several full breaches, when the whale leaps out of the water, both adult and calves doing this. Hundreds of head slaps, dorsal fin waves and tail flaps. Then the staff lowered a special microphone under the water and broadcast the whale song over the PA. Incredible. Snapped nearly 200 action shots during the 2 hours, some of them even usable!
Supper was a mostly forgettable Italian meal at Aroma de Italiana. It wasn't terrible, but nothing particularly special. But then the elation of the whale watching was a hard act to follow.
Breakfast, beach, whales. Day 30
Tue 15 Feb
For our last day in Maui we decided to rent snorkel sets and do some of our own fish spotting. After breakfast we headed down to Snorkel Bob's rentals and picked up masks, fins and snorkels. Our first spot was a reef accessed from Wailea beach where we had been yesterday and actually this was close to the region known as turtle town where we had snorkeled previously with Frogman II.
We sat in the sun to warm up a bit then I headed into the water kitted up. You sort of duck wade till waist deep and then swim about 20 metres then you're at the reef. Coral and rocks and fish. Beautiful. Then I sat with our stuff while La went out alone. Then we went out together. Snorkelling rules!
Picked up some sandwiches then picnicked down the coast a bit at another snorkeling spot called Makena landing. Several other people snorkelling there that day had spotted turtles but we weren't as lucky. Did see loads of fish, though, and heard whales singing again (they in the know say that whale song can travel up to 3 miles). Incredible. We had asked a young Dutch couple to watch our stuff while we were in the water and we had asked another young couple from Saskatchewan to watch the Dutch couple. Hawaii is very popular with Canadians, it seems.
Rounded off the day with a bit of window shopping and a sunset drive then watched the sunset from a park near Maui Sunset Condos, an affordable-looking complex to the north of Kihei. Then supper at Stella Blues Cafe where I had a pretty decent burger and La had a huge portion of Nachos with tuna and Mahi-Mahi. It was a gorgeous cool, but not cold, evening and perfect end to our week in Hawaii.
Breakfast, snorkel, night. Day 31
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