Maui
Day 1 – Delays?
The trip out was a rough one. Mark had planned out an itinerary minute by minute, but we arrived late to the airport, and they wouldn’t check our bags in so we ended up a few hours later to Hawaii than planned. Always remember that when you have checked bags to arrive at least 2 hours before your flight!!
Pala Fish Market and getting to the AirBNB
Once we got to Hawaii, we checked out the nearest beach while the sun was up. We had a chance to get some awesome food at the Pala Fish Market.
Day 2 – Scenic Road to Hana
The road to hana was a magical one. The number of stops is immense, and the pictures really speak for themselves. Here were the highlights.
- Fruit stand! with friendly peacock
- Swimming under the Twin Falls and seeing the 8th wonder of the world
- Red Sands Beach
- Haleakala National Park (the jungle side) where we went on an amazing bamboo forest hike to a giant waterfall.
- Dozens of waterfalls on the side of the road
- Black Sands Beach
- Seeing a V-22 Osprey flying around
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Day 3 – Haleakala National Park
This time we went to the highest point of the national park. This was also carefully coordinated with scuba diving since the altitude would make us sick if we had done this in reverse. Always do the high altitude stuff first, then scube, then wait 24 hours or so and go back up to altitude/plane ride. See… not too complicated! The red sand volcano hike was auspicious. We waited until sunset and lassoed the sun! Just like Maui.
Day 4 – Molokini Crater Dive and Luau
We dived bright and early that morning in a ship wreck and saw some very cool fish/coral. The Luau was a night to remember, we got to sit right by the band, get an amazing meal served course by course, try awesome drinks, and watch not only hula dancing but fire dancing!
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Last Days in Maui
Surfing. We’re newbies and raising our confidence in the wave machine that is Hawaii’s waves in Kihei was just awesome. We gained so much confidence with a ton of friendly Hawaiians guiding us along.
The best beach was hard to find; Secret cove is by far the most beautiful spot we’ve ever been on. Next time we go we’re going to bring a good book and stay there for a few hours.
Driving up the North West: We drove up the scenic rout to the airport to find a 1 lane road with mountain on the right, cliff on the left, and cars going both ways. The danger makes it fun.
The best snorkeling was easily at the Marine Reserve down south. We had to drive through a good amount of lava fields, but if you bring some reef sensitive sunscreen (zinc oxide) I think you’d have the best snorkeling experience of your life.
Kona
Landing
The plane flew over the mountains and landed during a full moon over the ocean.
So many things to see!
While in Kona we saw turtles, gorgeous beaches, learned to play ukulele, and Dani learned to hula! Over the days we drove around the island and went to Rainbow falls, green sands beach, the southern most point of the contiguous United States and a number of other beautiful sites!
Volcanoes National Park
The lava flow had just ended when we got there.l But we were still able to see awesome steam vents, the new land, take a nice hike, and speak to the national park ranger.
Mauna Kea
We could easily see the milky way with our naked eye. The guides had laser points going to infinity! We learned so much about the constellations. Great night. It was very very cold but very very cool…
