Maui

We arrived in Kahului, Maui on January 22, rented a PT Cruiser (with which Matthew had a varying love/hate relationship throughout the trip) and headed to Costco. One of the things everyone should know about Hawaii is that Costco and Wal-mart are the only places in the state where you can get mainland prices on most items. This is a great blessing for the frugal traveler, especially on Maui, where the prices are noticeably higher than on both O’ahu and the Big Island, which in themselves are already much higher than back home.

The first stop was the Iao Needle which is basically a big rock that sticks up in the middle of the Iao Valley and everything around it has eroded away and has been replaced with lush vegetation. It was a nice place to do some short hikes. One of the bloodiest battles in Hawaiian history was fought at this place between King Kamehameha and one of the Maui chiefs. (It eventually became apparent after learning some Hawaiian history that killing each other in horrifying ways seemed to be one of the ancient Hawaiian’s favorite past times.)

Kihei, south of Kahului, had some great beaches that we enjoyed several times while on Maui. It was there we tasted our first Maui Gold Pineapple—amazingly sweet and delicious, and Matthew showed off his skills as a body surfer using the techniques of Duke Kuhanamoku (a legendary surfer). We should have taken a picture of this but we were both in the water. There were lots of people in the water trying to body surf and they were all staring at Matthew in amazement because he can catch pretty much any wave he would like. You will have to ask him to divulge his secrets as the internet is not really a sacred enough place to pass on those details.

Aside from excellent body surfing, Kihei, and really the whole south side of Maui, offered great whale watching. We saw whale activity about any time we glanced at the ocean. This was really a highlight. Some of the whales would breach (jump up out of the water) over and over again, others preferred slapping their massive side flippers or tail fins in the water, and of course there were plenty just surfacing to get a breath of fresh air. It really was amazing to see so many in such a small place and at such close range. Those buggas are huge!

Lahaina was the next town we spent time in. It is an old whaling town and has a lot of interesting history and quirky shops. The thing that Lahaina is famous for is a very large banyan tree that covers a whole city park. It is the largest banyan tree in the U.S. and it is very impressive. For those who may not know (Michelle didn’t) a banyan tree is a tree that grows vine-like roots that drop down from the branches. Once these vines touch the ground they grow into the ground and form another trunk so it allows the tree to have branches stretching out a long way from the central trunk, appearing to be a network of connected trees; only it’s really all one big plant. They are really cool because they have lots of leaves growing thickly. At night tons of myna birds roost in the tree making a huge amount of noise and a lot of bird poo, which you have to look out for. So, we enjoyed some time relaxing beneath the banyan tree. We thought we saw Tarzan living under the tree only later to realize that it was Lahaina’s own beloved Bible-thumping, Hawaiian bum who just hadn’t shaven for about 10 years. Our mistake!

Pa’ia was a nice place to visit, just east of Kahului. This town has a lot of alternative shops like the Hemp House and is supposed to have a lot of interesting people walking around, though we didn’t see anything too freaky. Near Pa’ia is Ho’okipa Beach. This is where serious windsurfers do their thing in Hawaii…although they might just be seriously insane. We enjoyed an afternoon watching these guys brave some of the biggest surf we saw the whole time we were in Hawaii. The surf is shown in this picture (left) but it really doesn't do justice to its intensity. There were about eight professional windsurfers out there braving the waves and of those only one lasted the afternoon without getting pounded and separated from his equipment. A couple guys even had to come in to grab a spare sail or board because theirs had been ravaged by the surf. There were also a couple of kite boarders out there, one of which was demolished within the first 20 seconds of his ride. It was really amazing to see the power of Mother Nature and the insanity of some people. We guess they know what they are doing…right?

Haleakala National Park covers the highest part of the island, the Haleakala volcano standing at just over 10,000 feet. You can drive right to the top of this mountain on paved road the whole way, which is great (should have rented that Lotus). We were really excited to do some hiking in and around the crater at the top of the volcano…that is, until we got out of the car. At the upper visitor’s center, which is just a couple hundred feet below the summit, the wind was roaring at 50-60 mph and the temperature was around 40 degrees. So you get out of your car wearing every piece of clothing your brought to Hawaii (not much), a few clouds zip by covering you in dampness and then you just let the wind literally blow your body into the visitor’s center, being careful not to let it blow you right over the guard rail at the edge of the crater. It quickly became apparent that we didn’t have the right gear to do much of any hiking in those conditions. But, even if we didn’t get to do any hiking at that elevation, we did enjoy a beautiful sunrise from 10,000 feet (see slide show for lots of pictures). It was worth the drive and we were lucky enough to secure a front row spot in front of the visitor’s center window (inside where it’s warm).

The Hana Highway drive is either something you love or something you hate. If you like constant turning, one lane bridges and endless lush green this is your thing. If you like straight roads you should probably let someone else drive. Lucky for us Matthew loves a good driving adventure. The Hana Highway is the road between Kahului and Hana (the biggest town on the east side, and that’s not saying much) and is about 54 miles long though it takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours to drive it. It is famous for waterfalls and beautiful landscapes of the jungle next to the sea. We took a whole day to do the drive, starting at 8 a.m. from Kahului, and I think this is recommendable. We were able to stop along the way and see almost everything we were interested in, which included nearly a dozen waterfalls, waves pounding on lava rock, hikes through bamboo forest and some natural caves. There is a lot of natural beauty along that highway. Once in Hana, we enjoyed the Hana Bay Beach Park and the General Store (which has an assortment of about anything you can think of.)

South of Hana, we camped in Haleakala National Park in its little slice that extends from the top of the volcano down to the ocean. We pulled up in the dark, set up our tent in a nice grassy spot, climbed in to read for a bit and sleep for the night. Shortly thereafter the rain started and got harder and harder until it was a torrential downpour. Michelle has never been in rain like that in her life and Matthew’s comparable experience was when he was living in Sydney, Australia. It sounded like five garden hoses were aimed at the tent spraying full blast and lasted from about 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. The thing that made this experience interesting rather than horrifying was that the tent withstood it all. We were perfectly dry the whole night! The next morning when we got out to survey the damage there wasn’t even a single puddle on the ground. We later found out that that area gets about 400 inches of rainfall per year and that volcanic rock is really good at absorbing water because it is so porous. So the secret to camping in this area is a super rain fly—luckily we had one! While in the park we did a beautiful hike through rain forest to see a 400 foot waterfall.

Also south of Hana, we saw Charles Lindbergh’s grave, visited a red sand beach, lounged next to Venus Pool, which is a spring fed/sea fed pool at the edge of the ocean with beautiful clear water, and did some beach combing in hopes of finding a Japanese glass float. We found plenty of foam and plastic but no glass. The Big Island Some of you may know that we didn’t originally plan to go to the Big Island at all. We made this decision after two weeks on Maui, when we decided we had seen everything there and wanted to see more. It was a good thing too because the Big Island ended up being our favorite of the three, though they are all fantastic.