Day 7: Honolua Bay and Drive Around West Maui Mountain

Day 7: Honolua Bay Snorkeling and the Drive Around West Maui

Honolua Bay snorkeling was fabulous! Tons of fish, blah, blah, same old, you already heard the same song and dance. Anyway, we worked our way up the left of the bay, and then swam across the mouth of the bay. And then it happened - we saw turtles!!!!! In the deeper water of the mouth we finally came across some. I have been waiting for this to happen in all of our snorkeling ventures. I was very happy.

We then worked down the right side of the bay for more outrageously great snorkeling. My neck is starting to hurt from the constant snorkeling - fortunately, I have a break from snorkeling for a few days to recover. Honolua Bay was completely recessed and protected, making entry a piece of cake. No surf, no currents, easy swimming.





Up past Honolua Bay, you begin to swing around the north part of West Maui Mountain. We stopped to check out the Nakelele Blowhole, but it was not blowing very much - just a little spray of 20 feet or so, so on we went to the Olivine Pools. They are protected from the ocean surf and are good for swimming. It was a little cloudy and we decided not to swim, but sat on the lava ledge and watched the crashing waves.

On the way back south, we stopped at a shop where local artisans display work - Kaukini Gallery - and it was fabulous. Tons of gorgeous stuff.

This road on the east side of West Maui Mountain is very narrow, one lane, winding, and cliffside. Yikes! But we safely made it!

Then we headed "home" to repack our stuff (we are having a lot of trouble with the 50 pound weight limit thing). Day 8 we fly to Kauai!

Day 6: Aquarium Snorkeling and Ka'anapili Beach/Black Rock

Day 6: Aquarium Snorkeling and Ka'anapili Beach/Black Rock

Yay! More fish pictures! How thrilling!

On day six's fine morning, we headed back to La Perouse to continue our lava hike around the coves and to another cove called Aquarium (because it has so many fish in the cove). This cove definitely lived up to its name.

But first, we had to hike!


At first, the hike is not too bad. Even though you are hiking through lava, there is somewhat of a path of crushed lava rock. But this did NOT last. The trail becomes very indistinct, and might I venture to say, non-existent! Well, maybe just non-existent to us. As we wound our way around the peninsula, I am sure we off-trailed a few times. By the way, this lava is called a'a, which is the very sharp kind. You don't want to fall on this stuff! There is also a smooth lava, but I can't think of the name right off - it begins with a p.

So on we trekked through lava for about 45 minutes before finally reaching Aquarium cove. This was totally worth the effort. This cove was teaming with fish - tons of variety, tons of quantity. It was amazing. We swept around the cove to the right, and then as I swam across the mouth of the cove and back the left, I was swept into a current and was zipped down a channel between two reefs. What a rush! At the end of the current, it swirled and I had to swim pretty strong to cross the swirl and then I was home free. For all you trepidacious people out there, don't worry - most of the cove was calm and easy swimming.

Oh and did I forget to mention that we were doing this at 8 in the morning? Something I have learned here on Maui is that it is very windy. And as the day wears on, it becomes even more windy. So most of our various activities are best done in the morning before the wind comes in. I have become a morning person!! (shock, amazement) I have also taken to wearing cloth headbands (purchased our second day here) because otherwise I can't see anything for all the hair blowing in my eyes.


In the afternoon, we headed back up to West Maui to try out Ka'anapili Beach, bordered on its northern side by Black Rock (pictured here). People climb up on black rock and jump into the ocean - you can see someone here in the air. It is a beautiful beach with the plus of having good snorkeling around the Black Rock. We snorkeled for a while - some currents were pretty strong here, and the snorkeling was not as good as the Aquarium, but fun non-the-less. We also took a stroll through Whaler's Village (shops) before heading home to get ready for our special dinner on Maui.

One guess where we went - yes, you are right! Roy's!!! This was our special treat, and boy did we enjoy it! I got the pre-fixed with ginger chicken spring rolls, and a salmon dish, followed by the excruciatingly wonderful chocolate souffle. Bill got the szechun baby-back ribs and the surf & turf, as well as a chocolate souffle. Of course, we love the food, but mainly go for the souffle - fond memories of the Newport Beach Roy's come flooding back at this point......right Ray?

Now I must rhapsodize about the chocolate souffle for a moment. This desert is incredible. The center is molten chocolate, the souffle wonderfully moist. The excruciating part is that it is so rich that I feel a little sick eating the whole thing. Exciting news - there is a Roy's on Kauai!!! Maybe next time, Bill and I will share a souffle - that will be a lot saner. OK enough about souffles....

Day 5: Molikini Snorkeling and Lahaina Sightseeing

We took a boat trip out to Molikini in the wee hours of the morning (well, 7:00) on the Four Winds II, a large powered catamaran. They were very service oriented and ran a great operation - they provided plenty of food and drinks the entire time and didn't keep us on too tight a leash (figurative!) at the snorkeling site.

Molikini is a crescent-shaped crater that has abundant fish life and coral growing over the lava. We were given two hours of snorkel time. You can see me floating around there taking a picture on the left, and Bill diving down on the right. We have fifty million fish pictures of course, which I know you are dieing to see.

It took an hour each way, and on the way back, the captain took us by a spot


where green sea turtles congregate. We probably saw ten, maybe more and that was neat. I am still waiting to see turtles right next to us while we are in the water snorkeling! All in all an amazing trip. Visibility at the crater is around 150 feet which is much more than we are getting at the cove sites. There was a greater variety of fish at the crater, although I would say there were actually more fish per area amount in the La Perouse cove 3 & 4.

Once back from our snorkeling trip, we had an afternoon to decide what to do, and we decided to continue on up to Lahaina for some sight-seeing of the old town.

Lahaina's Front Street runs along the ocean shore and has tons of little shops of all kinds. Lahaina also has some historic type things - a courthouse, prison, and the Banyon Tree Park.



We walked Front Street up and back, and on this particular day, there were vendors in the Banyon Tree Park, so we looked over their wares. There were some women selling leis and other beaded jewelry, as well as other artisans selling pictures, painting, ceramics, and some selling junk.

I decided to get a lei to commemorate my trip - I chose one made of kukui nuts and shells. I will bring this bit of Aloha spirit back to cold New England and infuse it into our stoic culture. : ) I also got Abby a shell lei, but don't tell her yet - I will surprise her. (Abby if you are reading this, pretend to be surprised when I get home and give you this!)

We then finished off our day back at the b&b, eating our leftover dinners from Cafe o' Lei (yum!) and zipping down to the beach to catch the sunset. We had originally planned to finish that off by going to Cold Stone Creamery, but we couldn't remember where it was!!!!!!!!!!! and so, having forgotten our trusty guidebook, had to go home empty-stomached. This was probably for the best.....

Day 4: La Perouse Bay and Big Beach

Day 4: La Perouse Bay and Big Beach


La Perouse Bay is down in South Maui near the very bottom of the island - basically as far as you can drive south. We hiked over sharp lava rock along the right side of the bay, which brought us to coves 3 and 4. We bypassed coves 1 and 2 because the guide book said the snorkeling was not as good in those coves. Bill and I had some debate whether we actually were at coves 3 and 4, as nothing is marked and there are tons of little coves and pools besides the bigger ones to confuse you. But we did settle on the correct thing and donned our snorkel gear and hopped in. These coves had decent visibility, not as good as some spots around the island with over 100 foot visibility, but enough to see tons of fish that were swimming around in there. We spent a couple hours snorkeling around these coves before heading back over the sharp lava to our car.

We had some debate over whether to hike further over the lava to the Aquarium (we've heard it is great snorkeling), but Bill's reef shoes had begun to bother him, so we decided to come back another morning. Another factor in this was that as the morning progresses, La Perouse becomes progressively windier, making snorkeling pretty rough. We plan to return early some other morning.

We returned to the b&b for lunch (leftovers from dinner) and then went down to Big Beach for the afternoon. Right is a pic of Bill bodysurfing which he did for quite a while. Big Beach was less windy than other beaches, which was a great plus, as well as being picturesque.

We ate at Cafe o' Lei, a pacific rim type restaurant which was fabulous. We plan to eat those leftovers tomorrow night for dinner!

By the way Sue, the half suit has totally been the thing! The water is up toward 80 degrees for the most part, but the suit makes swimming for a long time even with no sun shining, much nicer! Plus it keeps the sun off! (the sun is usually shining)

Day 3: Oho'e Gulch, Hamoa Beach, Back from Hana

Day 3: Oho'e Gulch, Hamoa Beach, and Highway Back from Hana


This was the view that we woke to in our cabin. It was a little cloudy, but still very pretty and peaceful. From Hana, we continued on around towards the southeast of Haleakala, heading for the Oho'e Gulch, also called Seven Sacred Pools.

As we began to round that southeast part of the island, the scenery became impossibly lush and vibrant, peppered with stunning views out to the ocean. Again, there were waterfalls for us to view along the way. This is a view of the Wailua Falls.

This drive was quite something! Hairpin turns and tons of tiny one-lane bridges were built right next to cliffs dropping down to the ocean. One bridge along the way had been replaced with a steel bridge, and there were men working on it, as there had been a mudslide the night before. The old stone bridge beside the steel one - Bill remembered from his previous trip to Maui. They were having some repairs to the NEW steel one!


Our goal was to reach the Oho'e Gulch and spend some time there checking out the views, hiking around, and frolicing in the waterfall-fed pools. There are seven "pools" fed by a variety of sizes of waterfalls. First, we started up the Pipiwai Trail to check out the Infinity Pool. This pool is found at the top of a large waterfall. To the left, you could slip right over the edge (pictured on the left), but on the right, there are rocks to keep you in the pool. The picture here was taken by me as I climbed out onto the very edge of rocks on the right.

On our way down from the Infinity Pool, we encountered a man and woman hiking up. They asked us what we had hiked to and we filled them in on trail info - what we had done and what was further down the Pipwai Trail. After leaving them, Bill said to me, "That was Flea!" I of course had no idea who Flea was, but Bill being up on his pop culture, filled me in on the details of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anyway, I was skeptical at first, but Bill had catalogued every arm tatoo this guy had, as well as the gap in the front teeth, etc. So I realized he must be right. We encountered them again as we were leaving, and had another short conversation as to how they had done on their hike. At this time I actually took a good

look and sure enough, all the tatoos Bill had described and so forth were there. (Flea, if you ever happen to read this, I hope you appreciate the fact that we are nice people who would not disturb your life or vacation and act like we know you and ask for silly autographs and otherwise bother you in any way.) And yes, when we got back to our place that night and Bill showed me his pictures, it definitely was him.

But I digress. We then hiked down to the "seven pools" and started exploring them. The bridge pictured here on the left is above the first of the falls and there was a group of crazy kids jumping off the bridge. You can see one the guys here. What you CAN'T see is that the pool they were jumping into had rocks on either side and about a ten foot window for error! When we later looked down from the bridge, I was slightly mind-boggled! Yikes!!

Bill, pictured diving in on the right, was slightly more sane and cautious, as you can see. After playing around in the pools for a while, we hiked up a little further beyond the bridge and swam in some of those smaller waterfalls and pools before leaving.

At this point, we turned around to head back to Hana and back down the Hana Highway to South Maui where we had a new bed and breakfast to stay at in Kihei. Before reaching Hana, we stopped in at a couple beaches.

The first was Hamoa Beach which was a great beach. Bill did a ton of body surfing, and I quit after my first attempt when the bottom of my suit came off and my whole suit was filled with three pounds of sand. I merely swam out beyond the surf and then sat and watched Bill the rest of the time.

We also stopped in to see the Red Beach pictured below which had fascinating sand. We drove back around the island again, appreciating the gorgeous scenery once again and ending at our place (which we love) in Kihei that afternoon.

Day 2: Highway to Hana

Day 2 we began heading east to Hana. This highway is a winding road, mostly at 15 mph, that took us through tropical rain forest and along sweeping cliffside ocean views. This road winds down the north side of Haleakala, and the whole way, streams have ripped their way down the mountain, falling eventually to the ocean. The results of this are many waterfalls sprinkled all over this side of the island, many of which you can view and even swim in.

One of the waterfalls we visited (here on left), was a boulder scramble up the river for about 800 feet to this towering cliff-surrounded pool - it was amazing! I hopped in and swam around a bit - one of the best things about this particular gem was that we were the ONLY ones here. Most of the time there are plenty of other people viewing the same thing - not in this case.

There were many waterfalls along the way of all sizes and waterflows. The Lower Puohokamoa Falls was a particularly spectacular sight, dropping 200 feet.

Then we ventured down a narrow road to Nahiku - this proved to be an extremely lush and gloriously colorful drive down to the ocean view.

Another stop getting closer to Hana was at the Blue Pool. This waterfall drops about 100 feet down a cliff right at the edge of the ocean and forms a beautiful pool there. There are boulders around the pool keeping the ocean from crashing into the pool, making it a calm and incredible swimming spot. To get there, we picked our way across boulders right at the edge of the ocean. Once there, we hopped in - waterfall crashing on one side, the ocean crashing on the other!

We also visited the Black Sand Beach in the Wai'anapanapa State Park - this was a beach made from volcanic lava crashing into the ocean, and it was very cool! The "sand" is really these tiny black rocks, and some larger ones. There were also a series of caves to explore - Bill did that - it was too cold for me!

Finally we landed in Hana and checked into our cabin. We rented a cabin that was literally feet from the ocean cliffs there in Hana - a million dollar view, but basically a camp-like cabin, although it did have a kitchen, laundry and so forth. Our bed (a little lumpy) was right in front of a bank of windows (a little rusty) that offered a spectacular view and a sunrise the following morning.



left - volcanic black sand beach below - blue pool

Day 1: Haleakala

Day 1 found us rising early to catch the sunrise from the top of Haleakala. After winding up the 10,000 foot mountain, we settled in on a rocky overlook to watch the sun break over the clouds below the summit. The whipping wind made the 50 degree air feel much colder and I was wrapped up in layers of jackets plus a blanket. The sight was stunning and worth the effort of getting up - although still being on eastern time made that no big deal.

We then ate a picnic breakfast in the car at a scenic overlook so that I could thaw out some. We hiked many of the small overlook type trails to various views of the crater and the ocean and island below. The horseback ride down to the bottom of the crater that we had scheduled was canceled - they could not get their vehicle up the mountain (we heard there was an inspection problem), so instead we hiked down the Sliding Sands trail maybe a mile and a half of the four it takes to get to the bottom. We were cautious because we had no food and limited water, and at 10,000 feet elevation, we knew the climb OUT of the carter would be difficult.

The crater was a bit reminiscent of the Grand Canyon because is was very colorful and very dusty and dry. The colors were more swept in various cinders and cones and slopes as opposed to being stacked in layers though. Still, very beautiful! We made the hike back out the crater with just enough water to get us there and then wound our way back down the mountain.

We then took stock back at our bed and breakfast (this one was about half way up Haleakala in Kula) and went down to Kuhului to get lunch and stop in at Walmart for some things we needed. Then we continued on to Kama'ole Beach I for a little swim, beach walk, and relaxation before eating a small dinner and heading back up to reorganize our packing and go to bed early.