After a few days of lounging on the beach and reading, we decided to explore the island of Maui in a bit more depth (lounging around is nice and all, but I tend to get a bit stir crazy after a few days). I hadn't gotten the chance to go diving in over a year (it seems like a lifetime ago when I was in the water at least twice a day on the weekends) so when I had the opportunity I jumped at the chance. The site of my first dive after the hiatus could not have been better - a shallow reef inside the remains of a volcanic crater. While it was nice to be underwater again (I was surprised at how quickly my buoyancy control came back to me), the clear highlight of the dive was listening to the humpback whales underwater. The crater is shaped like a half-moon, and the hard rock walls amplify and reflect all the sound that comes into it, making it one of the best underwater spots to hear whales singing. And it wasn't just underwater that we found whales - they are everywhere around Maui this time of year, and we saw close to a dozen on the boat ride between the harbor and the dive site. Sadly, none of them breached, but you can't have everything...
The day after the dive trip (which turned out to be more chaotic than I'd have liked - my dive computer flooded and I almost left my camera on the dive boat...), we found ourselves with access to a rental car, thanks to the arrival of my friend's sister. The weather was not outstanding as we drove around the island (in case the giant crashing seas in what is supposed to be a tropical paradise didn't give that away), but we made the best of it and trekked to blowholes, swimming holes, and the best banana bread stand in the world. Getting to the banana bread stand was the hardest part - although we had to climb over lava rocks to get to the swimming holes, getting to the banana bread stand required a fairly long drive up one-lane cliffside road, with a good amount of traffic moving in both directions. The village that the banana bread was in was worlds apart from the resort complexes that most people think of when they imagine Hawaii - it was a very rural and economically depressed area, and it didn't look like many visitors made it to that part of the island.
Sadly, there was one major disappointment of the trip. We woke up at 3AM to go watch the sunrise over a volcanic crater, but the weather conspired against us - after two hours of standing in a cloud/fog bank/something cold and very damp, all that happened when the sun rose was that the cloud turned from black to a lighter shade of dark gray. Inspiring it was not, but now I have a reason to go back. Following the mountain adventure, we headed down to Pa'ia to sit on the beach for one last time, and then it was off to the airport to fly home to Michigan. When I made it back, there was still snow on the ground (which has thankfully since melted).
Sadly, there was one major disappointment of the trip. We woke up at 3AM to go watch the sunrise over a volcanic crater, but the weather conspired against us - after two hours of standing in a cloud/fog bank/something cold and very damp, all that happened when the sun rose was that the cloud turned from black to a lighter shade of dark gray. Inspiring it was not, but now I have a reason to go back. Following the mountain adventure, we headed down to Pa'ia to sit on the beach for one last time, and then it was off to the airport to fly home to Michigan. When I made it back, there was still snow on the ground (which has thankfully since melted).
For more pictures, you can check out the gallery here.
RSS Feed