Day 8: Snorkel time

Much of today was spent wearing mask and fins, so there are fewer pictures. (Thought about looking for a disposable underwater camera... but never got around to it.)

We arose early to have buffet breakfast for the 4th day in a row. Have I mentioned how great the buffet is? It's pretty great. It's $27.95 great, if you're paying for it. (Which we're not.)

The nice man at the dive shop was giving out maps, and we were delighted to discover that Black Rock Point, one of west Maui's best dive points, is only a mile or two up the road. This called for a quick drive up to the other end of hotel row, to park illegally in the Sheraton guest lot. We hoofed it through the edge of the 13th hole (I'm kidding. I don't know what hole it was) and down to a small beach. It was an odd feeling to just walk out into the ocean holding diving fins.

As it turns out, we started on the wrong side of Black Rock Point. So, we swam out and around to the correct side, which is at the far end of the beach that runs the length of hotel row. The coral reef there is incredible. It's like looking into an exotic fish tank, except the fish are within an arm's length, and often swim right by your face.

We landed on the beach and took a break for a few minutes, and then retraced our steps, so to speak, back around the point to our point of origin. Unfortunately, the current was against us on the return trip, and it was a very long and difficult process to get back to our shirts/towels/sunglasses.

Once we landed, I discovered that my attempt to keep the car key and alarm fob dry, using an advanced, water-proof container commonly known as a zip-lock bag, had completely failed.

Luckily, the key fob still worked, so we were able to drive about an hour south, along the "South Maui" coast, as far as the road would take us. Once there, we parked in a pile of lava rocks, basically, and walked down to the shore.


The cove was very blue and inviting, but the good coral reefs were around the corner and up the coast a bit, and it was very windy. I recalled that some of the literature we had received considered this area to be in the intermediate category for snorkeling, and it was very choppy. We took some pictures and retreated back up the coast a little bit.


On the way, we passed back through a large lava-rock field. It looks like freshly-turned soil, but is indeed jagged, unforgiving lava.

Just up the road a few miles, we stopped at Ahihi Bay, which is in the middle of a large wildlife refuge (also includes the lava fields). There were more kinds of tropical fish in this one bay than I've ever seen, even if you combine every aquarium and pet store I've ever been to. Some of them are so brightly-colored, you can see them from the surface.

Just past that, is another amazing chunk of coast, which is overlooked by a mansion owned by some rich jerk.

In the distance, we could see the Molokini marine refuge, which is a partially-submerged cinder cone a few miles off the coast. Apparently, it is some of the best diving/snorkeling in the world, but it's only accessible by boat, which would mean a most-of-the-day excur$$$ion.


There really isn't much to see in South Maui except beaches, so we headed through the resort area of the town, on the coast, and headed back up towards Lahaina. The lifted pickup is still King of the road, even down here in rich-white-people territory.


On the drive back up, Sabrina got a good shot (standing, out the sunroof, while we sat in traffic) of the wind farm on the edge of the dead volcano. None of them seemed to be turning...


Halfway to Lahaina, around mile marker 14, we stopped to see the coral reefs at Olowalu. As it turns out, there're almost 50 acres of coral reef just off the coast here, in a location that we had driven by 4 or 5 times in the last few days. Unless you took note of the people with snorkels and masks (or had a special map), you might never know that this was there, merely 10 yards off shore.

The sheer volume of coral was incredible. It just kept going and going and going, seemingly forever.

After about an hour there, we returned the snorkel equipment on the way back to the hotel, just in time to sit between the pool and the ocean, to read and watch the sunset.


Pics start at #3 onpage 95.

Day 7: West Maui Loop

Today we circumnavigated the western lobe of Maui.

Our first stop was to see the "Dragon's Teeth", or "Scales", or something like that. Apparently, these unusual formations were created when lava crashed violently into the wind-whipped ocean. Standing on the edge and feeling the pounding waves shake the rock outcroppings today, I believe the allegation.


Shortly after, we pulled over at a beach/park on the northern shore and stumbled upon a surfing competition.
Something I forgot to mention before... apparently many whales spend their winters in Hawaii, many of them off the coast of Maui. Periodically, they can be seen breaching, spouting, and tail-slapping just off the coast. Today, I finally managed to catch a tail on video. Yesterday, we were able to watch them from the pool area at the hotel, traveling up the coastline in a small pack.

The next stop was a 1/2 mile hike down a cliff, to a blowhole at the edge of the ocean. It was so hot and sunny today, we wisely chose to wear bathing suits when we left this morning. So, we were able to cool off in the rain of seawater from the blowhole.


We stopped at a few other random beaches, too. (It seems that wherever you pull over, there just happens to be a beach, at least on the western shore.)

There was a heart-shaped pool down by the edge of the water, but the people there didn't seem to actually be in the water, and it looked pretty low, so we didn't hike down to take a closer look. That hike was even steeper than the hike to the blowhole, and neither of us had appropriate shoes, either.
The further east we drove, the worse the road got. There is a section that is labeled (as is the southern section between Hana and the winery) a "don't drive here" zone on the map of Maui that the nice folks at Alamo gave us. Something like "driving on this road violates your rental agreement". Ha! Again, haven't they ever heard the expression "drive it like it's a rental"?
The northern road that we travelled today was in better condition than the road down by the closed section, south of Hana, but it was closer to cliff edges, and narrower in some spots. Today, I witnessed several vehicles go uphill, in reverse, for about 1/4 of a mile, until the road was wide enough for opposing cars to pass.


Once we reached civilization again, we stopped at a state park way up in the hills, on the edge of the western-mountain crater, sort of. There's a formation that they call the "Iao Needle", which is all that's left of that part of the crater edge. I think one of the informative signs mentioned something about the "needle" being formed from harder lava than the surrounding parts, so it survived a few thousand years of erosion.


Towards the end of the loop, we stopped at a roadside park/beach for a quick swim.


Instead of driving past Lahaina, we went down Front street and stopped at a dive shop to rent some snorkel gear. Maui (apparently) has some of the best areas in the world to scuba/snorkel, and some of them are within walking distance of our hotel. Tomorrow, we complete our tour of Maui with a trip toward the southern part of the west coast, in the Wailea region.

Pictures start at the last photo on page 80.

Somehow I managed to get various parts of me sunburned, through SPF 30 sunscreen.

Day 6: Luau

Today was a take-it-easy kind of day. No driving around, no hiking, no guidebook.

After breakfast, we toured the swan garden and the rest of the hotel lobby. It's often not clear where the boundaries between inside and outside are, so the lobby is difficult to define. It contains a coy pond and a penguin habitat, as well as several exotic birds.
There are other animal areas that we have yet to stumble upon, too. For details, see Hyatt's website. I should turn on Google Adsense and make some money...

Next, we headed to the pool for a bit, and inspected the water slide. It's about 150' long, and is an enclosed tube, so it's dark.


After that, it was time for a nap in a nearby hammock. Then we walked down the beach for a while, and took a brief dip in the ocean. It started getting cloudy, so we fled to the hotel balcony to research travel plans for this week, including booking a helicopter ride over the volcanos on the big island.

Around 5, we grabbed a taxi down to Lahaina, to attend the Old Lahaina Luau. This place is apparently considered the best and most-authentic luau on the island. (3rd google result for "lu'au", 5th for "luau".)


I was struck by the difference in weather facing west vs. facing east.
This luau was incredible. Before it started, there were arts and crafts along the beach wall, ranging from wood carving to fresh coconut splitting and net-making, if that's a word.
Cost of admission included an open bar and buffet dinner, the focus of which was roast pig, freshly dug up from the fire pit.
The performers told the story of the history of Hawaii, and did some impressive hula dancing. It was (mostly) too dark for photos, but we got some video.


After the luau, we grabbed a cab back to the hotel. The first guy we found led us to his cab, which was a green, convertible, Ford Model A. The cabbie was nice enough to take some pictures for us, and then we rode home with the wind in our faces. Everyone passing us on the road waved.

A quick trip to the huge hot tub, and the day is over.

It appears that I somehow managed to corrupt the filesystem on my camera's memory card, losing a few photos and a lot of video. I'm going to take a "forensic quality" snapshot of it, and deal with this mess later.

Pictures start on page 75, but I think I lost the pictures of the Ford Model A taxi.

Day 5: Finishing day 4

Today started with a huge buffet breakfast overlooking the ocean. We were determined to go see Haleakala crater, so we travelled back across the flat part of Maui, headed for the eastern half.


Something I forgot to mention before... I've never seen so many lifted pickup trucks in such a small area. It seems that 1/2 of the local residents have heavily-modified pickups for off-road use. And, in some places, they actually need them just to get around. Once you leave the main road here, conditions deteriorate rapidly.




Anyway, we opted to skip the sunrise bike ride down the mountain, mostly because you have to get up at about 3 AM to do that. Also, it's been noted that you focus a lot on not dying, and miss many of the sights anyway. Aside from that, they don't let bikers start at summit anymore, because: 1) the road is very narrow and steep, 2) there are no guardrails and 3) people have died. On top of that, it's cold up there. The temperature drops about 3° per 1000 vertical feet. So, it was almost 80 at sea level... and just above 50° at the summit. Apparently it can get below freezing at night, and is often in the 30s just before sunrise.


The road to the top is nearly 30 steep miles of curves and switchbacks. On the way up, we stopped at a lookout point, but it was too cloudy to see much.




The summit was incredible, even though we couldn't see into the crater itself, again due to clouds. Not much lives at this elevation, so it looks like the pictures from the Mars rovers; just lava rock as far as you can see, with little to no signs of life.






It's an odd feeling to look out over the tops of clouds, and also to see clouds come blowing up the side of the mountain. Off in the distance, the two snow-covered peaks of "the big island" are visible.


The clouds were rolling up the mountain, churning and swirling at the top. By the time we got back down to the visitor center, we were driving in a cloud.


That poor, poor transmission in the rental car... well, you know what they say: "drive it like it's a rental!"


Continuing south from the bottom of that steep descent, we hit some rain, but got some nice views across the flat interior, towards the mountains on the west side of the island.


We decided to head towards Hana again, sort of finishing the part of the drive that we couldn't finish yesterday, but on the other side of the road closure. The first stop was the Maui Winery and their tasting room. They have a few tasty pineapple wines, that even I (not-usually-a-wine-fan), enjoyed. They were so good, in fact, and the price was pretty great, that I bought a whole case. They were kind enough to throw in a styro-lined box so that we can check it on the remaining flights.



A few miles down the road from there, we encountered a sign warning about the road closing. I had just been chatting with some people in the wine tasting area that had come from Hana, though. They had asked a park ranger in the visitor center near the Sacred Pools (where we were yesterday) if there was any way through. Apparently, the ranger told them that they would be okay if they just took it easy. When I asked the day before, I apparently chose the wrong ranger to ask, because she was snotty about it, and told me that the road was definitely closed, and that we had to go back the way we came.


So, we decided to go see for ourselves. What we found was... several miles of really, really terrible road, and some amazing valleys. Oh, and some construction equipment, and another warning sign.



Right around the corner, it's obvious why the road was closed. There are ugly, jagged cliff edges, with freshly-exposed rock. The guard rails were battered and torn, as if they were made of aluminum foil. There was obvious evidence of ongoing work to put up wire mesh on the cliff faces. I parked on the middle of what looked like a brand-new bridge and took a few pictures.



We were still a solid 12 or 14 miles from the location of the road-closing sign, coming from the other direction. There were still several more miles of crappy, patchwork pavement, and then about 5 miles of "regularly-graded gravel". From the look of the area on the map, it appears that the reason for not paving that section could be that it won't support the weight of the construction equipment.

Even though I was pissed that we could have come this way the day before, but got overly-conservative advice, I didn't bother going any farther. Using google maps, I estimated that going back around the way we came added a full hour of driving yesterday. Luckily, the road from Hana to the airport is the crazy, winding, fun road, so I didn't mind too much. Also, we wouldn't have had time to go up Haleakala anyway, or, if we did, the drive down would have been in the dark.

Aaaaanyway, on the drive back along the southern coast, towards the winery, we finally saw some of the alleged cattle of which the signs had been warning. I learned something new, as well. It's called a cattle guard, and it apparently stops the cattle from wandering off the open ranch. So the cattle can roam freely in the road (and they do), but can't get past the fence, or past the cattle guard where the road breaks the fence. These beasts were walking down the road, and were kind enough to step aside so we could drive through. They actually looked annoyed and angry at the inconvenience, however. They did, of course, walk back into the road as soon as we passed.



On the drive back to the hotel, we stopped at a scenic overlook on the west coast, to watch the sunset.


Pictures start on page 67, with the sun rising.