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....