A Dose of Maui Sunshine

One of the most awesome things about living in Hawaii is how easy it is to island hop. From busy Oahu, I can be on lush Kauai or beautiful Maui in 30 minutes on an easy jumper flight. Each island has its own unique feel and personality. Oahu is the most crowded, but the big volcanic spine of the Ko'olau Mountains through the middle of the island keeps it full of intriguing wild spaces. Maui on the other hand feels like sunshine. It's energy is warm, serene, and wonderful. There are beautiful beaches, gorgeous reefs, and big mountains. Haleakala is the volcano in the middle of the island. While the rest of the island is green, Haleakala is barren with a moon scape at the top. One of these days, I will backpack across that crater.

This visit was with friends. We met Duane, Angie, and Taylor in the gorgeous west Maui coastal town of Lahaina. Mike and Duane were friends years ago in both the Army and civilian worlds. It's been really fun to reunite. Mike and I arrived early Saturday morning. We ate breakfast at the beautiful Sea House restaurant in Napili Bay. The restaurant is right on the water with big open windows and a fabulous view. We had the sweet potato frittata and Haleakala custard pancake. Both were gluten free and delicious.

Next we took a little hike up Mahana Ridge Trail. I thought I had read that it was a four mile roundtrip. Nope, that's Waihee Ridge. Oops. We ended up doing a nine mile roundtrip to the Arboretum. The full loop through the Arboretum adds and additional eight miles for a total of 17. I was not up for 17 miles. Our hike was fun though. We followed it up with some super tasty Mexican at Frida's Beach House. We split the Diego Plato with beef. It was super tasty and we were once again seated right on the water. However, the service was terrible and prices were very high. We stayed in a darling two bedroom condo close to everything in Lahaina. When our friends arrived, we took a walk to find dinner and entertainment for the night.

 

The next morning we had a dive trip to Lanai scheduled. At 0700, we boarded a boat and rode about 45 minutes to the neighboring island. On the way, we had to stop to watch whales jumping and playing in the ocean. Two even swam very close to our boat. So cool! The diving was ok. Visibility was over 100 feet and there were lots of swim-throughs and fish. I saw a huge lobster and a turtle. What made it not amazing was the number of divers on the trip. There were three groups of nine divers all hitting the same sites at the same time. The sites aren't big, so there weren't a lot of areas to enjoy without others bumping into you. The second site was First Cathedral which is a big cavern under the water. It's stunningly beautiful with light streaming in through smaller "windows". Again, ten people (a photographer had joined us) packed into a small space under water is not my favorite way to experience it. I think I was just spoiled rotten in Truk with our small dive groups. Lahaina Divers is a top notch company and provides muffins, sandwiches, chips, fruit and chocolate chip cookies. I had chips and fruit, but the guys loved the cookies. After everyone showered, napped and drank wine, we had a BBQ by the pool in the common area of the condos.

Our final morning we all hiked up to the Lahainaluna High School "L". This is only a 3ish mile hike if you know where you're going. We turned it into a 5.5 mile hike complete with GPS and drone reconnaissance to get us there. We'd gone the wrong way around a new solar power plant (which hadn't existed when the directions were written). So, adventure route, which I like. The path down was well marked except for right at the beginning. It also smelled wonderful. The trail wound down through lemon gum eucalyptus trees. Reading more about the hike, we may have been trespassing. Whoops!

Duane, Mike and I went spearfishing at Hanakao'o Park. We rented guns and went with a local guide. Keoki was awesome, but the price wasn't worth it to me. We go at home for free. So I struggle with paying someone to swim with me and put my fish in a bag. That's ok. We had a great time. I saw a bunch of octopi and almost caught one! We swam with a big eagle ray. I shot three fish, but one got away. Duane also shot three fish. The first was a porcupine or puffer fish and blew up like a spiky balloon. It was hilarious! Mike was unlucky but had a good time anyway.