Our Hawaiian adventure!
Tom & I really wanted to go on trip this year and so on June 23rd we looked for the cheapest destination and on June 24th we booked our flights to Hawaii for June 29th. Last minute is always fun!
Day #1: On June 29th at 4:45am we jumped into our taxi and headed for the airport where we took a flight at 7:05am to L.A. then another to Kahului, Maui where we arrived at 1:20pm. We headed over to Alamo (fyi - the worst place in the world to get a car) to pick up our rental car and 1.5hrs and 4 different cars later, we were off to South Kihei to our hotel the Maui Lu Resort, a pretty cheap and decent hotel; unfortunately we had annoying neighbors. Anyway, our first day there, we had a quick early dinner at 4:30pm, then headed back to our hotel for a quick swim in the ocean.
Day #2: We woke up at 6am and wanted to go snorkeling at the Molokini crater, which you have to take a boat too. We had a great time snorkeling in the crater. We saw a lot of fish! Then after a good 30mins we jumped back on the boat and headed closer to shore to check out the Pacific Sea Turtles! We had NO idea that we were even going there! It was very very cool. They are the cutest and funniest looking turtles. They are very curious and like to come check out the weird four legged white creatures with long black fin feet and googly eyes. After we got to shore, we drove down to a public beach where the waves were pretty big! We had a lunch that consisted of grilled Mahi Mahi steak sandwich and fresh fruit smoothie. Then ended the day with a sushi dinner.
Day #3: We left the Maui Lu Resort and drove up the West Coast to Napili where we found a beautiful condo in a beautiful resort for an amazing price. We spent 3 nights there. By the time we arrived and found the place it was already 11am and couldn't check in until 3pm. So we dropped off our luggage and found a cheap lunch place where Tom had another Mahi Mahi steak sandwich and I had mahi mahi tacos. We had also bought a fresh papaya and mango from a street vendor and we had those for desert - the BEST we've ever had! We then headed back to our resort and hung out on the beach until our room was ready. The rest of the day was really relaxing.
Day #4: We woke up at 6am again and drove across the island to go to the Haleakala crater. This is the youngest of the two volcanoes on Maui. It is at 10 000 ft and it was a 20 mile drive up the mountain. At the top, we hiked down 400 ft into the crater where we walked along the edge of a cinder cone from one of the vents inside the crater and then walked back up. The walk up was very taxing as the oxygen is lower at that altitude - we could really feel it. We then drove back to our resort and by 3pm we were on the beach!
Day #5: We drove up the West coast of Maui and all around the other volcano, but not without any adventure of course! The drive along the North/East coast was very interesting. I started by driving along a 2 lane straight road to driving around insanely tight turns with 2 lanes to driving along a 1 lane road around insanely tight turns along insanely high cliffs with no guardrails and where you encounter cars going the other direction and somebody is suppose to back up or move to the side to allow the other to pass - I was STRESSED. Our nice big SUV was great for this type of driving. Oh well. I drove it tensely but I drove it and we came out without any scratches or heart attacks! Directly on the opposite side of the mountain from where were staying we found a hiking trail through the rain forest (this side was the wet side of the island) that went up about 4miles and 4000ft. At the top we had a nice lunch in the clouds. After our hike we headed back to our condo and went straight for a swim in the ocean.
Day #6: Up at 5:20am. Drove to the airport, dropped off the car and on a plane at 7:30am to Kona, Big Island via Honolulu. Arrived in Kona, picked up our car (NOT from Alamo) and drove down to South Kona where we found a great bed & breakfast called Areca Palms run by a retired couple from Oregon. The house was beautiful and the breakfasts were amazing! Plus Janice, one of the owners, was a great help at planning our days. She had suggested itineraries printed out, pamphlets, maps - great lady! After settling in, we visited an ancient Hawaiian village, after we were nice and hot, we went next door to Two Step beach where we went snorkeling. This was the BEST snorkeling. Apparently Spinner Dolphins are often seen here, but we didn't see any :(
Day #7: We drove 1.5hrs South to the Volcanoes National Park where the most active volcanoes in Hawaii are located. About 3 days before our visit, one of the volcanoes became active. Lava had been spotted spewing out of a crater. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it was one that we couldn't see unless we took a helicopter tour. Instead we hiked across the crater floor to another smaller crater where we found out we had been walking on "a thin crust area"!!!! On our way back along a different path, but still across the crater floor, we walked by and probably over, cracks that were venting sulphur dioxide vapour - not such a nice smell. Good thing it was windy! After this 4 hour hike, we walked a 1 mile through a lava tube and then drove down to the ocean where you can see the lava flow from 1983 that covered a road and falls into the ocean. In 2003 a second eruption occurred where lava flowed over the 1983 flow. On some days, not ours of course, you can see hot red lava flowing into the ocean and a plume of steam and gases coming up. After the sunset we drove all the way back to our nice little b&b where we ended up stopping for dinner at McDonald's because EVERYTHING else was closed; It was only 9pm!!!
Day #8: After breakfast, we moved to another bed & breakfast in Waimea, which is on the North/East coast of the Big Island. We stayed at the Waipio Wayside Inn. Another beautiful house that was set on an old sugar cane plantation. We then drove to the top of the Waipio Valley where it used to be densely populated because of the rich, flat soil but in the 60's a tsunami that came from Japan flooded and killed everything in the valley. People have slowly moved back in and today about 50 people live there now. To get down into this valley, you need a 4WD. It's a 1 mile long road but it's at a 25% grade! Even car rental agencies won't allow people to take the rented 4WD trucks down that road! So, how do you get to the beautiful black sand beach at the bottom of the valley? You walk down and then back up! Which we did of course. Walking down is surprisingly harder then walking up - it really hurts the knees. The beach was beautiful and very quiet, obviously not many people venture down. We had a nice swim and nap on the beach and then headed back to Waimea for dinner.
Day #9: We decided to spend our last day on the beach. We drove across the island to the North/West side with a stop at a Farmer's market where we got authentic Lau Lau and teriyaki steak - so good! We ended at the most beautiful beach on the island: Hapuna Beach. The water was a lot calmer than in Maui and it was really clear and warm, and the sand was white, which is rare in Hawaii. After spending the whole day swimming and lying in the sun, we drove along the scenic route back to Waimea where we seemed to have crossed across a few different climates: 1) dry desert like, 2) wet and rainforest & 3) green pastures full of ranches. We made a stop in Hawi then at the Polulu Valley viewpoint and then drove back down to Waimea through ranches. FYI: Waimea is the capital of ranches in Hawaii and it actually has the biggest privately owned ranch in all the US. Since we were the only ones on the road we decided to stop and check out the cattle that was hanging around by the road. So Tom pulled down his window and moo'ed at them, a bunch of them stopped and looked up at us curiously. We laughed. Then I moo'ed....apparently I'm much more scary then Tom because I started a stampede!!!! They all started running!!! So naturally, we drove away as quickly as possible!
Day #10: Dropped off our rental car, flew to Honolulu where we spent a few hours walking around Chinatown (which is really dead and a little sketchy on Sunday) and then the Harbour. At 8:50pm we said goodbye to Hawaii as our plane took off :( By 6am on July 9th we were back home and wishing we were still in Hawaii!
Enjoy the PICTURES!
Tom & I really wanted to go on trip this year and so on June 23rd we looked for the cheapest destination and on June 24th we booked our flights to Hawaii for June 29th. Last minute is always fun!
Day #1: On June 29th at 4:45am we jumped into our taxi and headed for the airport where we took a flight at 7:05am to L.A. then another to Kahului, Maui where we arrived at 1:20pm. We headed over to Alamo (fyi - the worst place in the world to get a car) to pick up our rental car and 1.5hrs and 4 different cars later, we were off to South Kihei to our hotel the Maui Lu Resort, a pretty cheap and decent hotel; unfortunately we had annoying neighbors. Anyway, our first day there, we had a quick early dinner at 4:30pm, then headed back to our hotel for a quick swim in the ocean.
Day #2: We woke up at 6am and wanted to go snorkeling at the Molokini crater, which you have to take a boat too. We had a great time snorkeling in the crater. We saw a lot of fish! Then after a good 30mins we jumped back on the boat and headed closer to shore to check out the Pacific Sea Turtles! We had NO idea that we were even going there! It was very very cool. They are the cutest and funniest looking turtles. They are very curious and like to come check out the weird four legged white creatures with long black fin feet and googly eyes. After we got to shore, we drove down to a public beach where the waves were pretty big! We had a lunch that consisted of grilled Mahi Mahi steak sandwich and fresh fruit smoothie. Then ended the day with a sushi dinner.
Day #3: We left the Maui Lu Resort and drove up the West Coast to Napili where we found a beautiful condo in a beautiful resort for an amazing price. We spent 3 nights there. By the time we arrived and found the place it was already 11am and couldn't check in until 3pm. So we dropped off our luggage and found a cheap lunch place where Tom had another Mahi Mahi steak sandwich and I had mahi mahi tacos. We had also bought a fresh papaya and mango from a street vendor and we had those for desert - the BEST we've ever had! We then headed back to our resort and hung out on the beach until our room was ready. The rest of the day was really relaxing.
Day #4: We woke up at 6am again and drove across the island to go to the Haleakala crater. This is the youngest of the two volcanoes on Maui. It is at 10 000 ft and it was a 20 mile drive up the mountain. At the top, we hiked down 400 ft into the crater where we walked along the edge of a cinder cone from one of the vents inside the crater and then walked back up. The walk up was very taxing as the oxygen is lower at that altitude - we could really feel it. We then drove back to our resort and by 3pm we were on the beach!
Day #5: We drove up the West coast of Maui and all around the other volcano, but not without any adventure of course! The drive along the North/East coast was very interesting. I started by driving along a 2 lane straight road to driving around insanely tight turns with 2 lanes to driving along a 1 lane road around insanely tight turns along insanely high cliffs with no guardrails and where you encounter cars going the other direction and somebody is suppose to back up or move to the side to allow the other to pass - I was STRESSED. Our nice big SUV was great for this type of driving. Oh well. I drove it tensely but I drove it and we came out without any scratches or heart attacks! Directly on the opposite side of the mountain from where were staying we found a hiking trail through the rain forest (this side was the wet side of the island) that went up about 4miles and 4000ft. At the top we had a nice lunch in the clouds. After our hike we headed back to our condo and went straight for a swim in the ocean.
Day #6: Up at 5:20am. Drove to the airport, dropped off the car and on a plane at 7:30am to Kona, Big Island via Honolulu. Arrived in Kona, picked up our car (NOT from Alamo) and drove down to South Kona where we found a great bed & breakfast called Areca Palms run by a retired couple from Oregon. The house was beautiful and the breakfasts were amazing! Plus Janice, one of the owners, was a great help at planning our days. She had suggested itineraries printed out, pamphlets, maps - great lady! After settling in, we visited an ancient Hawaiian village, after we were nice and hot, we went next door to Two Step beach where we went snorkeling. This was the BEST snorkeling. Apparently Spinner Dolphins are often seen here, but we didn't see any :(
Day #7: We drove 1.5hrs South to the Volcanoes National Park where the most active volcanoes in Hawaii are located. About 3 days before our visit, one of the volcanoes became active. Lava had been spotted spewing out of a crater. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it was one that we couldn't see unless we took a helicopter tour. Instead we hiked across the crater floor to another smaller crater where we found out we had been walking on "a thin crust area"!!!! On our way back along a different path, but still across the crater floor, we walked by and probably over, cracks that were venting sulphur dioxide vapour - not such a nice smell. Good thing it was windy! After this 4 hour hike, we walked a 1 mile through a lava tube and then drove down to the ocean where you can see the lava flow from 1983 that covered a road and falls into the ocean. In 2003 a second eruption occurred where lava flowed over the 1983 flow. On some days, not ours of course, you can see hot red lava flowing into the ocean and a plume of steam and gases coming up. After the sunset we drove all the way back to our nice little b&b where we ended up stopping for dinner at McDonald's because EVERYTHING else was closed; It was only 9pm!!!
Day #8: After breakfast, we moved to another bed & breakfast in Waimea, which is on the North/East coast of the Big Island. We stayed at the Waipio Wayside Inn. Another beautiful house that was set on an old sugar cane plantation. We then drove to the top of the Waipio Valley where it used to be densely populated because of the rich, flat soil but in the 60's a tsunami that came from Japan flooded and killed everything in the valley. People have slowly moved back in and today about 50 people live there now. To get down into this valley, you need a 4WD. It's a 1 mile long road but it's at a 25% grade! Even car rental agencies won't allow people to take the rented 4WD trucks down that road! So, how do you get to the beautiful black sand beach at the bottom of the valley? You walk down and then back up! Which we did of course. Walking down is surprisingly harder then walking up - it really hurts the knees. The beach was beautiful and very quiet, obviously not many people venture down. We had a nice swim and nap on the beach and then headed back to Waimea for dinner.
Day #9: We decided to spend our last day on the beach. We drove across the island to the North/West side with a stop at a Farmer's market where we got authentic Lau Lau and teriyaki steak - so good! We ended at the most beautiful beach on the island: Hapuna Beach. The water was a lot calmer than in Maui and it was really clear and warm, and the sand was white, which is rare in Hawaii. After spending the whole day swimming and lying in the sun, we drove along the scenic route back to Waimea where we seemed to have crossed across a few different climates: 1) dry desert like, 2) wet and rainforest & 3) green pastures full of ranches. We made a stop in Hawi then at the Polulu Valley viewpoint and then drove back down to Waimea through ranches. FYI: Waimea is the capital of ranches in Hawaii and it actually has the biggest privately owned ranch in all the US. Since we were the only ones on the road we decided to stop and check out the cattle that was hanging around by the road. So Tom pulled down his window and moo'ed at them, a bunch of them stopped and looked up at us curiously. We laughed. Then I moo'ed....apparently I'm much more scary then Tom because I started a stampede!!!! They all started running!!! So naturally, we drove away as quickly as possible!
Day #10: Dropped off our rental car, flew to Honolulu where we spent a few hours walking around Chinatown (which is really dead and a little sketchy on Sunday) and then the Harbour. At 8:50pm we said goodbye to Hawaii as our plane took off :( By 6am on July 9th we were back home and wishing we were still in Hawaii!
Enjoy the PICTURES!
posted by Marie & Tom at
11:13 AM
