Maui – Day 7 Part 1 – Molokini/Makena

In terms of time gone from the hotel, this was the longest day yet!  Started off with our second snorkel tour; will go into a more detailed comparison of the two trips later, but, simply put, this was more of a ‘bus’….lots of people and the service was a lot less ‘personal’.  But, it was cheaper, and went where we wanted to go. 

First stop was Molokini Crater; most often, if you mention snorkeling in Maui, this is the place that you talk about.

 

The ocean was very blue near the boat and schools of this brown fish were everywhere.

 

As you headed in towards the ‘beach’…really, towards the rocks, the coral gave the ocean a more greenish tint

And when I really got close to the rocks/shore, things turned more blue again….the top picture here was the biggest fish I saw, and I ‘chased’ him to get this photo…the air bubbles are from the waves crashing against the rocks!

The second stop was at Turtle Town….over near Makena.  One big goal was to see some turtles while snorkeling, and happily, as soon as we hit the water, there was this huge(!) turtle right near the boat.  I have about 45 seconds of video of the big one and about ten seconds of video of the second one I saw (a smaller one) before he took off.  We rented a camera for Kevin and he tracked/stalked the first big one for a long time; he has a lot of great pictures to show for it.

 

This was the big one….got this picture after the video

This was the smaller one; got these pictures as he got close to the surface

just some yellow fish that I didn’t see at Molokini

One other nice feature of the ship (the Pride of Maui) was that it had a slide on the front…helped to occupy the boys who weren’t too into snorkeling.  At the end of the day, I came forward and took pictures….am just totally blown away by how well these came out, I was bobbing up and down in the ocean and timing when to take the picture was tough….I withdraw any complaints about the waterproof camera!

 

The first picture I took….a little off center, but, hey, I’ll take it!

My timing was just a little off here.

Nailed this one.  Matthew’s a total ham!

Also got Kevin mid-flight. 

Maui – Day 6 – Kaanapali

Kaanapali is where we are staying; we did not stray far from the Marriott today.

We did go and attempt some beach snorkeling up the road at Airport Beach this morning.  Had mixed success; Christopher never really tried, Matthew had some issues but seemed to be happy just tooling around with his goggles on.  Kevin, as always, had a great time, and both Suzanne and I made it out to the reef and saw a bunch of fish. 

This afternoon was pool time; took some video of the boys in the pool that basically sums up what goes on for hours at a time….will probably get that uploaded tomorrow.  Suzanne and I had a quiet dinner at the restaurant here while the boys swam, and the boys had pizza later.  Suzanne and I also got some alone time in the evening shopping up at Whaler’s Village while the boys watched some tv; we’re both happy that they are old enough to allow this now.

Videos:

We had some battery/storage issues with the main camcorder late yesterday when we encountered the whales, but, Suzanne got some footage on her camera. 

Am slowly trying to edit and upload some of the footage from the last week; the trip to Iao Valley is done and Suzanne taped us at the Wailea beach (after I wiped out) and I taped the beautiful sunset.

Two leftover photos

Somehow forgot to post these, so, here they are

Matthew, at the corral, before we leave.

Christopher, on Dino, out on the ranch.

Maui – Day 5 - Lanai

Today was the 8 hour long snorkeling-sightseeing cruise.  Left Lahaina Harbor at 7 am; got back at 3 pm.  Circumnavigated the island of Lanai; stopped twice to snorkel.

• Kevin, far and away, had the best time on the cruise……always was standing near the bow of the boat and just had a total blast snorkelling.
• The weather, while still nice, was more cloudy than other days….this was a downer during the snorkel stops as there wasn’t as much light.  But, the views were still awesome.
• Both boys did way better at the second snorkel stop than at the first; Matthew went everywhere with Kevin and Christopher floated around with Mom and Dad making little whale-like noises.
• Both boys fell asleep on the way back.
• On the way back from Lanai to Lahaina we ‘ran’ into a group of humpback whales; a mom and a new calf (was still grey) and two males who were apparently fighting over the mother’s affections; they were very aggressive and it made for some good video, which, I’ll post later.   But they were very close.

Pictures below…just too many for detailed descriptions this time.  First twenty or so are from the cruise, after that are the ones from underwater.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Maui – Day 4 – Piiholo Ranch

The busy days continue…..Day 6 is supposed to be a ‘down’ day…we’ll see.  Today, we were up early, again, to head over for our activities.  Suzanne, and Kevin, went zip-lining.  They had a blast, but, since I wasn’t there, there won’t be much coverage here.

Fric and Frac weren’t old enough for zip lining, so, we had to do something else.  The zip-line was at Piiholo Ranch…..which also had horseback riding.

 

While both boys had fun, Christopher definitely had the most fun, and is already talking about doing this again (summer camp!).  The boys ended up with horses much like themselves, mostly nice to each other but every once in a while can act out towards the other…Christopher’s horse, Dino, reached out to bite Matthew’s horse, Diaz, once or twice.  You can see the wrangler next to Matthew above; she spend a lot of time making sure the boys were ok and doing well, and I certainly appreciated that.

Christopher, with Dino. 

Matthew, with Diaz.

My horse, Blackjack.  Did exactly what I expected him to do; he’s done that tour about a thousand times and just placidly walked along and did what he needed to do.

 

Came back to the hotel in the afternoon and headed out to the beach…..walked a little to the west of the hotel where the beach isn’t so rocky so close to the shore.  Surf is still pretty rough and the current is strong; a lot of pull out with the receding surf until the next wave hit and pushed you back in.

didn’t want me to take his picture

 

I had a blast with Kevin this afternoon getting tossed around by the waves and digging into the sand with our arms trying to stay on the beach as the surf would pull us back (you couldn’t stay there, no matter how hard you tried…).  Christopher and Kevin would get tripped by me, and would trip me, and loads of laughs and giggling would ensue.

 

King of the Boogie Board.  We were at the beach for two hours and I don’t think I interacted with Matthew very much at all; he was always nearby, on the board, while I was falling and playing in the surf with Christopher and Kevin.

Coming Attractions:  Need to try and get some more video edited and uploaded; have some really good panoramas as well as hike and horse video…..but tomorrow is our day-long snorkel cruise, so, our fingers are crossed that the cruise will be a success!

Maui – Day 3 – The Road to Hana

No blogging yesterday, was just dead-ass tired when we got back.

Sunday was devoted to driving to, and past, Hana….we essentially circumnavigated Maui, or, at least, the eastern most lobe of the island.  The road is a series on one-lane bridges, switch backs, and ups and downs.  Thankfully, none of the boys had, or have ever had, car sickness issues, but, we did pass one woman bringing up her lunch!

I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful the Road to Hana was; and the amazing things we saw.  Most of the pictures that are coming aren’t of the car ride.

In the morning, at a scenic overlook.

We peeled off the Hana highway, which doesn’t hug the coast but is actually up quite a distance from it (but, at times, is a one lane road RIGHT NEXT TO THE ROCKS that lead, straight down, to the coast.  The Kipakaone park was at the bottom of one road that led away from the highway; we stopped there.  Christopher found a prickly pear, and, as we were driving off, I spied on the side of the road something that the boys had been looking for all trip; a coconut.  Stopped the car, got out, grabbed the ‘nut, opened the back door, and the smile on Christopher’s face when presented with the ‘nut was better than any picture you’ve seen here!

 

Just short of Hana we stopped at the Wai’Anapanapa State Park to see the black sand beach.  I, bizarrely, have no pictures of the black sand, but, presume that Suzanne does.  I do have these pictures, including one of Suzanne taking a picture of Christopher (on the black sand) and Matthew up against the wall of a lava tube / cave near the beach

 

In Hana, we went down to this beach, on Kaihalulu Bay.  Again, Dad’s pictures do the beach an injustice, but this beach is known for its red sand.  Really, it’s black sand, mixed with some red sand, but, it is/was really cool.  Quite a hike/walk down to the beach, but, well worth it.  Kevin is standing on the lava pools; we were all out there checking out the fish swimming around in them.

   

Once we were past Hana we stopped at Haleakala National Park; the primo attraction here are the 7 sacred pools, and, both Suzanne and I were both extremely underwhelmed…when there is so much natural beauty around, the crowd of humanity around the pools sunbathing and swimming in them was a turn-off.  The family hiked the 1/2 mile up the Pipiwai trail to the Falls at Makahiku.

It hasn’t been rainy here, which has been a good thing for us, all sun for our activities, but, bad for the falls, which weren’t there.  But the view from the overlook was fantastic.

We continued up the trail towards the Waimoku Falls, another 1 1/4 miles distant.  This massive banyon tree is on the route….Kevin is leading the way and Fric and Frac are doing a great job of making their way upward (pretty steep at times)

About a mile in you walk through a bamboo forest; literally, at 3 pm, it’s almost dark as you walk on the path.  Had a hard time getting a good photo here with the flash going off.

 

And, these are the falls….not a lot of water, but, really really tall!

Kevin posed…Fric and Frac not interested in the group photo at this point.

Continued our way around the island to the east; lots of debate on the ‘net on whether you should go around past Hana (parts are unpaved and narrow and you are technically outside of your rental car contract if you go there).  We think it’s much ado about nothing….going around is the way to go.  You can see in this photo the stark change from rain forest and vegetation as we turned the corner to this…..

Another lava arch…..as the day grows long.  Got back to the hotel well after dark….a really long day, but, worth it.  Boys were troopers for the 12 hour ride and hike….they’ve, mostly, done quite a good job this trip behavior wise.