Kihei and Wailea

Today we (and apparently everyone else) are checking out the towns of Kihei and Wailea along South Maui (which is technically the Southwest part of the  Island because it absolutely faces West (go figure.) They are both excellent beach towns. The guidebook doesn't say too much about them because, well, they're primarily about  beach - type stuff. There are great snorkeling places and tons of shops and restaurants. Wailea is supposed to have arguably the beach beaches on the island. We'll see if it compares to Turks and Caicos (sorry Hawaii. ) We have another beautiful day and hopefully the sun holds up. I have yet to bike down Haleakala and I'm now worried that I'll be picking a crappy, rainy day to reserve that activity. The forecast for the rest of the week, including today, is for rain, clouds and thunderstorms. But so far it looks beautiful... Except that ominous cloud perched over West Mali Mountain... So perhaps the weather forecast is inaccurate... I'm crossing my fingers and shooting for Haleakala on Monday...

The Road to Hana... DONE!

We left the condo at 7:30 this morning and are almost back... It's 6:30. We are all exhausted. But the drive and the $5.20 per gallon gas prices were worth it... We saw a ton of waterfalls and so much green I'm almost sick of it. The soft top was such a great idea. For most of the trip, I was looking up in awe at the towering trees. We made it to the black sand beach (pic 1) at Wai'anapanapa (Yep, good luck with that pronunciation) but missed the red sand beach. Nahiku (pic 2) was as amazing and green as our guidebook promised and at the end of the road, there was a small area close to the crashing waves where we could see the entire coastline for miles (pics 3-5)

After driving thru Hana, we continued around the Southern part of the island along the edge of Haleakala volcano, stopping at the Seven Sacred Pools.  The scenery changed dramatically from lush tropics to windswept grassland (pics 6-8) as we drove the coast.

Then, exhausted from travelling all day, headed toward West Maui where a beautiful sunset welcomed us back home. 

The Road to Hana

Today we are taking the road to Hana, a small town around the Southeast corner of Maui. Hana isn't really the reason for the trip. It's the journey. Skinny, winding roads, extremely lush cliffs above and below and a few little known detours should make for an exciting day.  Also, thank god, it's our first day with sun. Perfect for a soft top Jeep.
We got a late start so we should have a ton of company on the road. My poor brother in law, who is driving, will be the one who suffers a bit from that. It apparently takes a lot of concentration to not drive yourself, or someone else, off a cliff...
Our intention is to make stops at a black sand beach, a red sand beach and an incredibly lush little town called Nahiku. I have a very detailed guidebook called Maui Revealed that details down to the tenth of a mile every interesting nook and cranny worth seeing. I hope the last few days of rain have contributed to plentiful waterfalls. Hopefully some good pics today :)

Aloha! (Maui day 1)

Well,  true to form,  I'm writing my first blog while suffering from jet lag. Not so much jet lag, as a tremendously uncomfortable sleeper sofa and nearly deafening crashing waves just outside the patio door...  I'm sure by Friday,  mom and I will consider it white noise...
After an interesting experience on the flight out, having a passenger pass out and collapse on the floor a few rows ahead of us,  we touched down yesterday afternoon,  rented a jeep (after spending a total of $250 for 2 weeks in France I was appalled that 10 days here was $830) and headed across the island toward the condo in Lahaina. Well,  after a stop at Safeway for some essentials...  Like stuff for dinner, breakfast,  gin, vodka, rum and wine... Most grocery items seemed to be about 30% more expensive and some were twice as much...  Beer and wine seem about the same on sale as the mainland. Today we're headed to Costco so we'll see how it compares.
We approached the west side of the island at around 5ish so traffic was pretty bad. I've heard that Hawaii is very laid back and that it's best to adopt that attitude, that it's easy to do, but that the quickest way to lapse back into mainland road rage is to drive in Lahaina at quittin' time. Seemed about right.
So the weather sucked yesterday and I assured Janis that it would clear up on the other side of the mountain, which it did not. But at least it's not cold.  We're hoping for better weather this week so she can spend her birthday trip getting tan,  not soggy. Hopefully I'll have some nice pics for you :)