Maui 2013
February 20 - 27
After a long time of planning, we are finally in Maui, in condo room A208 of Aina Nalu, a block off Front Street in Lahaina, Maui.  While our view consists of looking on a parking lot and lush trees, its is a perfect location, allowing us to walk into the main street of Lahaina day and night.  We have two pools with a nice view the mountains. We are spending the first seven days with our friends the Oishis, and then the Norgrens arrive for fourteen days.  After that, five days on our own before our children arrive for fifteen days. 

Our arrival was less than stellar.  We landed on schedule at 12:20PM, on a half full Air Canada flight.  It was windy but warm.  I had pre-booked and pre-paid for a standard size car at Hertz, through Hotwire.  The website said this would be a Ford Fusion, probably four-door, and suitable for four adults. When I went to pick it up, I was informed that we were getting a two-door Mustang, which would not accommodate four adults with four large suitcases.  Supposedly, this was the standard car for this size class in Maui.  I was not happy and told them so.  We were forced to upgrade to a Subaru Forester for and extra $20 per day.  Eventually they agreed to drop this to $10 per day, but still $300 for a month that we were not counting on.  Then we missed the turn in to the store and had to drive a long way around because there were no cross roads near there.  After we picked up the Oishis, who arrived two hours after us, we got caught in a traffic jam on the highway to Lahaina.  We crawled with speeds under 20 mph for many miles.  It did allow lots of time to look for whales.  We saw quite a few major splashes and puffs of water.

Things improved after that.  We were happy with the condo, and walked into town in the evening, enjoying a nice burger at Cheeseburger in Paradise, along with our first Hawaiian drinks.  We also explored the many shops, one of my favourite pastimes. (Not)  It was wonderful to put on shorts and sandals and go all night without even a though of wearing a coat!

The weather on day one was warm (78 degrees F) with some clouds and wind.  We heard reports that there was a major storm last week, and three days of very high winds that downed trees, caused power outages and clogged up the pumps of one of the swimming pools.  (One pool is partial salt water and the other is chlorine.)

On day two we were still living on Vancouver time, two hours later, so I was up by 6:30AM.  I decided this was a good time to check out sunrise, so I explored the grounds, took pictures without the clutter of other people and enjoyed watching it get lighter (the sun came up in clouds over the mountains.).   We had breakfast and walked to a snorkel shop so the Oishis could rent snorkel gear.  Much like my car rental experience, it did not cost as planned.  The tourist book advertised gear for $9 per week, but when  they had to upgrade to any decent kind of equipment, the cost ended up being over $60 (for two.)  I bragged about my flippers, which we bought on our honeymoon 36 years ago still going strong.  Later that day, the heals on one of my flippers started to tear.  We drove to Kaanapali to snorkel at the Black Rock.  As we arrived near the golf course to find a parking spot, the wind whipped up and it began to pour, sideways.  We did a u-turn and decided to head south, where it is generally drier.  We ended up at Po'olenalena Beach, where we enjoyed sunshine, and snorkeled. seeing four turtles.  The water was cool when I walked in, but as soon as I was in it felt comfortable right away.  The visibility was not great because of the weather.  Having had such an early start to the day, we were shocked when we were done with the beach and it was only about 1:30PM.  We looked around the shops in Wailea, ate ice cream for lunch, and were back at our condo by 3:30PM, mainly due to another traffic jam which went for miles into Lahaina.  It was becoming apparent that this would be the norm in the afternoons.  The rest of the day was spent sipping wine by the pool.  We had several fine showers. 

For dinner, we BBQ'd pork chops.  Wade and I discovered that BBQing was quite the social activity.  Lots of people gathered to take turns using the two grills.  All but one couple was from Canada.  After dinner we again walked around Lahaina, and stopped for a coffee on the water.  In the evening we wandered around Lahaina, and visited jewelry and art stores mostly.  Who could ever get tired of this. 

February 22 was once again a very unsettled day, weather wise.  We heard on the radio that over night there were flash floods in the high country due to the heavy rains, and people were evacuated and put up in emergency shelters.  We got up early, taking advantage of still feeling like we were on BC time, and drove to a nature walk near Kihei.  It was a nice walk, although very windy, but the expected birdlife was non-existent.  Ironically, when we got back to the condo, we saw several different types of interesting birds. After having breakfast, we walked to Hilo Hatties, about three blocks away, and came out to a torrential downpour.  We hunkered down in McDonalds with a coffee, and did some grocery shopping.  It then dried up for our walk home.  We decided to go to Oluwalu, a beach along the highway about 10 km. south of town.  It was very windy, but the water was quite calm because it was blocked by the trees along the beach.  There were shark warnings, but there were lots of others snorkeling, so we did too.  It was sunny.  We saw some, but not a lot of fish, and the water was murky.  When we got home, it poured for a little while.  It was dry for BBQing our chicken burgers, and later, for our walk around town to get key lime pie at Forest Gumps.  It poured briefly while we were in a jewelry store, and we had a torrent as I was finishing this blog at midnight.  Weather will be an issue for the duration of the Oishi's stay, with no significant improvement expected for four days yet according to the weather websites.  A flash flood advisory was issued for some parts of the island.

February 23 was better than predicted.  The tin roofs were still dripping, no eaves here, from the overnight rain, but the sky was mostly blue.  We decided to take our chances going to Kaanapali despite the poor weather forecast the night before.  We had a wonderful, sunny and hot day on the beach.  Snorkeling by the Black Rock was great, although the visibility was still not as good as it should be. We enjoyed mai tais and shared a side of fries for lunch at the Whalers Village.  Then we returned home for some relaxing time, including reading a book by the pool while Joanie and Colleen checked out a craft fair under the banyan tree.  We had some sprinkles during the evening.  Dinner consisted of some fabulous St. Louis style ribs, and twice baked potatoes, all prepared by our wives.  We also enjoyed coffee and wine by the pool in the evening, while the women sat in the hot tub.  Despite the showers we have had off and on now since we got here, we have enjoyed nice beach weather every day and there is no need for anything other than shorts and sandals day and night.  Overnight temperatures do not go much below 70 degrees.

 February 24.  We decided to take a chance and drive the highway to Hana, despite the bad weather this area had received the past week.  We set out just after 7:30AM, after going for breakfast at McDonalds to see about the local meals.  Hawaiians apparently love eating spam, and McDonalds had a local breakfast of spam, eggs, and white rice.  Wade and Colleen tried it but Joanie and I stuck with more traditional fare due to the fact neither of us were keen on plain white rice for breakfast. 

Wade was the driver today.  The road to Hana was very picturesque and because it was not that busy, the 60 one lane bridges did not pose much of a problem.  We did have a few heavy showers but it did not keep us from anything except the first walk recommended by our Maui Reveal guidebook.  Several little walks were closed, probably due to flash flooding.  We did one nice walk through an exotic forest of mangoes, guava trees, bamboo forests and very neat large trees which had very soft bark which peeled off in sheets.  However, most of us were covered in mud up to our ankles afterwards.  We had lunch by some lava rock outcrops where huge waves crashed and provided entertainment.  In Hana, we intended to walk to a red sand beach, but the path was so treacherous due to what appeared to be land slides, toppled trees, etc. that we quickly turned back, not thinking a nice little beach was worth risking our lives over.  Highway signs are not always helpful for finding tourist attractions, and we drove past Hana, wanting to see the Seven Sacred Pools, and beautiful spot where water cascades down from one pool to another, and you can go in the pools.  We had been here before but this time, we could not find it.  It was to be near highway milepost 48, but the mileposts went crazy at one point, from the low forties to the fifties and then the thirties. New math?  We gave up, possibly too soon, and headed back to Hana, and then to a black sand beach.  This was an absolutely gorgeous spot.  There was very high surf crashing over the black lava rock shore and huge geysers of water came through a blow hole from time to time.  There was a little cove with black sand where we had stopped for lunch with our girls ten years earlier.  At that time we did not notice the lava tube, a cave beside the beach that you could walk into and see the surf through the hole on the other side.  Conveniently, after we entered this cave, many others crowded around the mouth because of a sudden downpour.  We remained nice and dry.  We hiked around the lava cliffs before going to some lava caves.  One was filled with fresh water, and Joanie and Colleen went in for a dip.  The outside temperature was about 68 degrees and the water was very cold.  While Wade and I were anxious to participate in this torture, we honored our role as photographers and remain outside. 

We saw many mongooses or is it mongeese?  Several darted across the road and we shot one getting into a garbage can. 

We got back to Lahaina about 7PM and went out for dinner at Bubba Gumps.  The food was delicious but we noted that in the future, Joanie should probably not get the "fun" size of drinks. 

This was definitely the coolest day we have had so far, with the temperature averaging about 65 to 68 degrees but we found it most enjoyable.  When we returned to Lahaina, the temperature, after sunset, was still 74 degrees.  Hopefully more settled weather is coming this week. 

Monday, February 25 was a beautiful, sunny day, with temperatures reaching in the mid 80's.  Tomorrow we needed to be at the airport to pick up our next couple, so we checked into a last minute whalewatching tour with Captain Steve, a highly recommended tour on a smaller zodiac boat.  We could get in for the 12:15PM tour, so we stayed around the pool in the morning and then went to the pier for our trip. 

For years, I have had this recurring nightmare where I am traveling, often flying, and seeing the most amazing sights, usually involving exotic animals in breathtaking settings.  I get into a panic as I discover that I forgot my camera, and no one will ever believe the wondrous things I am seeing.  I am totally devastated to not have my camera.  This dream became reality today!  Soon into our trip, after taking only a few pictures of the first whales we saw, my Nikon camera stopped working as I feverishly tried to capture a whale showing its tail.  The battery was dead!  I remember yesterday seeing the low battery sign and thinking "Good, I can recharge the battery and it will be full for the next few days when we go see whales."  Then I forgot.  We saw so many whales.  They travel in pods of three or four, a female, possibly a calf, and one or two males vying to be her escort and possible lover.  At times we were surrounded on three sides by these pods, and there was a moment when a pod came right to our boat and went underneath.  I could see a big dorsal fin surface, pointed towards me, not more than thirty feet away.  And all I could do was look!  I did have an underwater camera that I eventually used to take a few shots but it was not the same.  Then the impossible happened.  One whale breached near the boat.  The one event I had waited to capture for many years, and I had no working camera!  Wade did get the shots.  As his daughter said on Facebook, it was good to have a Japanese tourist as backup.  Despite the trauma, it was a wonderful experience, and we definitely plan to use Captain Steve again on a future outing.

After stopping for some grocery shopping after the whalewatching trip, we were all very hungry, and enjoyed buns and danishes.  Unfortunately, by now it was after 3:30PM.  At 6:30, none of us were hungry and it seemed a waste to BBQ steaks we were not hungry for and have a late evening, so that it would be too late to go anywhere, so the steaks were put away, and it was a quick trip to McD's instead.  Not actually a bad thing.  Following this, we spent the evening wondering around the grounds of the fancy waterfront hotels in Kaanapali, and of course, finished the evening at home with a glass, or two, of wine.  All in all, a fantastic day, nightmares aside.

We woke up to another beautiful sunny day.  I am still getting up at 7AM, which is very unusual for me, but good.  By 8AM we were on our way to Big Beach, not to be confused with Little Beach which is next to it, but smaller.  We spent the morning here.  Everyone did some boogie boarding, although I did the least, choosing to go for a walk along the beach, following a pod of whales that were making their way across as well.  I was therefore spared the pounds of sand that infested the bodily crevices and pockets of the others.  The surf was pretty good and everyone got tossed around a lot. 

I am always on the lookout for different birds and other wildlife, and after seeing some marine birds at the Black Sand beach, we began a regular banter about my quest to see some boobys, which are blue-footed marine birds.  Today I came across them, but the human kind, not the bird kind.  Checking out the Big Beach, I also crossed the outcrop to Little Beach.  Our tour book, written in 2003, said this was often used as a nude beach.  Well it certainly is today too!  Looking down on the nice little beach, it was busy with probably 80 percent of the people prancing around fully naked.  My quest for boobys is over.

We went home for a quick shower and bite to eat before Wade and I drove to the airport to pick up our next visiting couple.  The wind in the central part of Maui was so strong that in some areas, the air was brown for the blowing sand.  Our condo however remained nice and calm and we spent the remainder of the afternoon lounging by the pool.  After a steak BBQ, with double-baked potatoes, we walked to Kimos, a bar we enjoyed on past visits, for a Hawaiian drink.  A good day again. 

February 27 was transition day.  We had a relaxing time at breakfast with the six of us, before doing a few shopping errands.  Yesterday, Wade was given the task of buying water shirts (UV protection shirts) for his grandkids.  Colleen was not there.  When I found him in the store, he was holding two shirts which had white skulls along the shoulders and sleeves.  I found this rather odd.  A few days earlier we had a discussion about people wearing clothes with human skulls on them.  We both agreed it was very unattractive and morbid.  He had stated proudly that he had no clothes with skulls on them.  I kept my mouth shut, which is not easy for me to do, figuring he must have thought these were cute skulls or that his daughters would have like skulls, despite his personal feelings. When we got home, Colleen jumped on him for buying these.  It was then that we discovered that Wade had not even realized that the white images were skulls.  He liked the black and white design and had not examined it any further.  Today, was exchange day.  We also drove Wade and Colleen to the airport.  It was a little sad to see them go.  We really enjoyed our week together.

In the afternoon we drove up to Nahili to sit on the beach.  It was a beautiful beach, with apparently good snorkeling, although we left our gear at home.  The water felt colder though than the beaches in the south, and I did not stay in long.  Robbin only stood in the water and never made it all the way in.  In the evening we did some window shopping in town, checking out some jewelry stores.