One of the two main events of the stay on Maui….we made plans to spend the day on Lanai.
So, that meant catching the first ferry from Lahaina over to Lanai…
Hey, a sunrise! That’s a first on this trip…..
Our destination…the island of Lanai
Told the boys to bring sweatshirts just in case they were cold because of the wind on the ship. Completely unnecessary. But probably made them nice and snug and warm for the early morning nap.
Get off the ferry, get in our rental car (more on that later) head up to Lanai City to get a few drinks (and really, any place on the island means that you have to go through Lanai City) and then head west on the road to Polihua. First stop, Garden of the Gods!
A whole lot of rocks….perfect for boys to climb. Turned my back for one minute and Matthew was in a full-out sprint to climb a bluff on the horizon.
Lots of climbing and running around while we were here…
Oh yeah, the rental. Need something pretty beefy to get around on the goat paths they call roads around here. You could rent a Jeep; that only seats four. So we had to go up in size and get the Hummer.
This Hummer has seen some hard use; the back gate doesn’t work, any and every engine light that can be on in this vehicle is on. My one big regret is not taking any pictures of the roads and paths we travelled. They were epic.
You may note that our Hummer is white. And clean.
Made it down to Polihua beach and there is nobody, I mean nobody, around for miles. The beach wasn’t so much sand as it was a fine fine stone. Which was nice, since it didn’t stick to you very much.
Suzanne and I left the boys to swim on the beach while we walked up to a set of rocks to look for turtles or seals.
No such luck. But a pretty walk nonetheless…
The Hummer is a little white dot back there somewhere.
The driver (me) was mocked for caution on the way to Polihua…but that’s how I roll. Go slow and scope things out on the way there, speed up and really get moving on the way back. Boys and Suzanne notice the uptick in speed, and the faster turns, and hey, there were a few puddles. Hit the first puddle and there is mud all over the windshield…have to come to a stop to figure out how to turn on the windshields. Of course, there is no washer fluid.
The second puddle I hit doing around 30…..mud everywhere, the Hummer starts sliding. We can’t see anything as we come to a stop; Matthew and Kevin are laughing and Cpher is not very pleased at all at this brush with death…..
Stop in Lanai City and look at some of the shops (this is quick; there aren’t many). Then we head off again; this time down to Shipwreck Beach. We’ve cruised by here on the last trip. The drive down here is mostly paved, so, a lot easier (and quicker) to get here.
The beach was great, lots of coral and pretty calm so we tried some snorkeling. And the snorkeling was ok….some really pretty coral but not a lot of fish…
So, a few pictures of fish. But not many.
Left the beach and headed clockwise (around the north heading east) along the dirt road) just to see what we could see. And if we knew we were going to stumble into this we would probably have budgeted more time. This is the abandoned Club Lanaii, that another website describes as “a decrepit beach location straight out of the Dharma Initiative on Lost'” It was really weird, I mean we drove through miles and miles of jungle to stumble across this. The resort was only accessible by boat from Maui.
Abandoned since 1996? There is some talk of an effort to rebuild and reopen the resort
But there’s a lot of work to be done.
I didn’t take anymore pictures today……we drove back up, and through, Lanai City and headed down to Hulopoe Beach Park. The park is supposed to be good for snorkeling; the surf was so rough that sand was suspended in the water everywhere. But the boys had a great time in the surf, and we spent the rest of the afternoon here before taking the last ferry out (6:45 pm). We were exhausted getting back to the hotel, so, pizza was ordered and consumed before calling it a night.
