Travelogue

Day 1 - Arrival on Maui, Stocking Up at Costco and Safeway, and checking into our condo at Hale Kamaole in Kihei

Hale KamaoleWe arrived in Maui around 1:00 pm, giving us plenty of time to stock up on food and supplies at both the nearby Costco and Safeway. Our first 4 nights would be in a condo with a full kitchen, so we could make some meals, if we were so inclined.

Still, we had to control ourselves in Costco this time so as not to buy more than we could eat over the next 4 days, which basically meant beer, wine, non-perishable snacks, and a chicken alfredo dinner (which would be good for 2 dinners), and a big salad.

Safeway was definitely a better option for things for breakfast and lunch.

Hale KamaolePerfect timing for our 4:00 check-in at Hale Kamaole, a large condominium complex in South Kihei, right across the street from Kamaole Beach Park III. Our son and daughter-in-law had stayed here last year and highly recommended it as a lovely, reasonably-priced vacation rental in a great location.

The condo was well-equipped and spacious with a nice patio looking out over the well-manicured lawns and pool and the ocean if I stood on my tip toes.

Fortunately, the condo owner had a well-stocked storage closet with beach chairs, boogie boards, snorkeling equipment, and beach toys

Hale Kamaole sunsetIt was getting near 5:15 and sunset was at 5:30, so we grabbed two beach chairs, which the condo owner kindly had in the storage closet, and headed across the street to the grassy Hale Kamaole Beach Park III.

It was the first of many lovely sunsets we would have during our 11-day stay on Maui. Funny how something so predictable and repetitive never gets old and always feel so special. .

Back at the Condo we cooked our Chicken Alfredo alla Costco and then called it a night.

Day 2 - Makena Beach and Herb’s Birthday Dinner (not from Costco)

Makena (Little) BeachToday was Herb’s 69th birthday, so he got to choose how we would spend it. Herb loves a good beach day, so we headed to one of Maui's finest - Makena Beach, with its beautiful crescent of golden sand almost two-thirds of a mile long. It’s the type of beach most people think of when they think of Hawaii.

There are actually two beaches at Makena - Big Beach and Little Beach. Big Beach is the one closest to the parking lot, and Little Beach is reached by climbing over a rocky lava rock promontory at the northern side of Big Beach.

Makena (Little) BeachWe headed over the rocks to Little Beach, which is as its name suggests, “littler” than Big Beach. The water is calmer than on Big Beach, because it is tucked between two rocky lava outcrops creating a small cove.

It was a pretty hot day, so we grabbed a spot under some trees which would give us some shade for at least an hour or two.

The waves were a little more feisty than I like, but it was still fun getting plowed down by them and pretending I was body surfing. Herb went out a bit further than I liked and kept drifting towards the lava rocks, so I kept gesturing at him to turn back.

Another Hale Kamaole sunsetI wasn’t sure if I was embarrassing him, but felt better when a little later a young girl was doing the same thing to try to keep her boyfriend from straying onto the rocks. I told Herb that I probably saved his life. He just laughed.

By mid-day our shade was gone, so we went in and out of the water more often to keep cool. I love the feeling of water evaporating on my skin on a hot day.

The Birthday BoyDespite my poor attempts at body surfing, it was lots of fun.

Since it was Herb’s birthday, there would be no Costco reheat for him, but rather some fine dining at Cafe O'Lei Kihei, a highly rated restaurant known for its fresh seafood and fresh locally-sourced cuisine.

It was within walking distance from our condo, which was great.

I wanted something special for Herb’s birthday, and this place was perfect, a bit more elegant than most of the other restaurants along this strip.

We both had the Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi with lemon-caper butter, steamed rice and local farm vegetables. It was absolutely delicious. That plus a fancy tropical cocktail hit the spot.

What a birthday bash!!

Day 3 - Haleakala National Park

Haleakala CraterOur absolute #1 reason for going back to Maui was to revisit and hike the Sliding Sands Trail down into the Haleakala Crater, which we had found so stunningly beautiful when we were here back in 2018.

The drive up to the summit of Haleakala summit, and the start of the Sliding Sands Trail, is an endless series of steep, nausea-inducing switchbacks. If you’ve ever seen Hawaii travel footage of cyclists careening down a steep, windy road requiring no pedaling for miles, this is the place. However, it's not like the old days where cyclists started their descent from the 10,000-foot Haleakala summit. The Park banned commercial cycling back in 2007, so now biking tour companies have to drop bikers off at 6,500 feet, outside the boundaries of the National Park.

Haleakala CraterThere are two Haleakala Crater viewpoints along the way that are worth the short walk: Leleiwi Lookout and Kalahaku Lookout. We stopped at both, but nothing compares to hiking down the Sliding Sands Trail from the Summit, even if only to the first lookout about a quarter mile down.

Unlike the last time we were here, when we got to the Visitor Center on top the skies were clear, which is great for not getting soaked as we did last time, but a lot less dramatic in terms of clouds and weather. Blue skies can be boring.

Haleakala CraterHowever, under any conditions, Haleakala Crater is awe-inspiring, humbling, and as Mark Twain once said, “the sublimest spectacle” he had ever seen.

Haleakala Crater, which is actually a giant, majestic shield volcano, is huge, taking up 75% of Maui’s 727 square miles.

Haleakala SilverswordsAt a little over 10,000 feet above sea level, It’s one of the highest peaks in the Pacific Ocean. However, it’s actually much taller than that if you measure it from its base on the Pacific Plate from which it rises 28,000 feet, making it 675 feet taller than Mount Everest. Only about 5% (just its top) is above sea level.

However, the part that is above sea level is absolutely stunning with numerous multi-colored cinder cones tinted by red, orange, yellow, green, and blue volcanic ash and rock and shimmering silverswords dotting the landscape like blotches of paint.

Haleakala CraterThese cinder cones, called pu’u in Hawaiian, were formed during an eruption when gas became trapped in the lava, forcing it to eject like a fountain of sticky cinders around the base of the fountain, forming a steep conical hill with a prominent crater on top.

To hike down and amongst this surreal,multi-colored stunning landscape was why we came back to Maui, and it didn’t disappoint.

Haleakala CraterThe Sliding Sands, or Keonehe’ehe’e Trail, is the premier access to Haleakalā Crater. The trail departs from the summit of 10,023’ Haleakalā volcano and descends 4 miles to the crater floor 2,400 feet below.

What makes this hike particularly difficult is the inability to acclimate to the 10,023 foot summit, when driving up to it from sea level in just a little over an hour.

Lolo of HaleakalaOn my last hike down into the crater along the Sliding Sands Trail in 2018, I suffered a terrible bout of altitude sickness on my way back up the trail. I was nauseous and felt like there was an ice pick in the back of my head.

This time I would be smarter - take Ibuprofen ahead proactively and stop every half hour or so to drink water.

So off we went down into a surreal world of multicolored cinder cones, tinted by red, orange, yellow, green, and blue volcanic ash and rock, constantly changing with the light.
It was breathtaking. Actually, on the way up, it would be literally breathtaking.

The long slog upOne of the main dangers of this hike is the false sense that you get when descending into the crater, as it is much more difficult to climb back up on the return, so you have to be careful to not get in over your head. We had done this hike before, so we knew what to expect.

Plus, we were reminded of that by the strained faces of the hikers we were passing on their way back up. At this point, we were feeling quite chipper.

Adding to the already colorful palette of colors were the shimmering silverswords dotting the landscape like blotches of paint.

Haleakala SilverswordThese lovely plants are known for their striking appearance, with long, slender leaves and a silver-white color. Their Hawaiian name is ʻāhinahina,” meaning "very gray."

They are an endangered species and are only found on the cinder cone slopes of Haleakala Crater.

The most fascinating thing about silverswords is that they only flower once in a lifetime. When they are somewhere between 10 and 30 years old, thousands of aromatic flowers erupt from their human-sized stalk and are pollinated by native Hylaeus bees. After it has finished flowering, it dies. Fortunately, the thousands of seeds it produces will start the cycle all over again.

Young SilverswordBoy, that would have been something to see.

3.7 miles into the hike, we got to the point where we could see the crater floor. Although it was only about a third of a mile away, it was 600 feet below us at the end of a very steep and rocky section of trail.

We both looked at each other and said, “Why?” The most beautiful part of the trail was behind us and we knew the hike out was already going to be tough. Plus, we had been to the crater floor before.

My favorite cinder coneSo, rather than continuing on just for the sake of touching the crater floor, we turned around and headed back up what would already be a strenuous hike, stopping along the way to take photos.

By now clouds were moving in and settling atop the crater rim behind us, where Maui meets the trade winds. It was hard to tell whether they were clouds or giant waves. In either case, they added to the awe-inspiring beauty of the landscape.

Almost backThe hike up was tough and I imagined our faces looked more like the ones on the people we passed coming up while we were going down, but it was nothing compared to the way I felt in 2018 when I got altitude sickness.

When we finally got to the top, we were greeted by a Partridge, with its distinctive white face with black band across its eyes down to its neck, and a gray-brown back striped in black and white feathers.

Chukar PartridgeHe was adorable and quite willing to have his photo taken. This little guy (or gal) is not native to Hawaii, but was introduced in 1923 as a game bird. They are native to Asia and eastern Europe.

I had taken so many photos on this hike that I had to force myself to not look at them when driving down the long twisty road back to sea level or I would have escaped altitude sickness and replaced it with car sickness.

There would be time for that later when eating the second half of our Costco Chicken Alfredo dinner back at the condo.

Herb and I have hiked on a lot of incredible trails in our lifetime, but the Sliding Sands Trail is definitely in our top 10.

Day 4 - PacWhale Adventures Molokini Island Snorkeling Tour

You can’t go to Maui and not snorkel, so based on a recommendation from our son and daughter-in-law, we booked a Molokini Island Snorkeling Tour with PacWhale Adventures.
While a lot of companies offer snorkeling tours to Molokini Island, PacWhale is the most environmentally and ecologically focused and is staffed by Certified Marine Naturalists with degrees in marine biology.

PacWhale Eco-Adventures is wholly owned by nonprofit Pacific Whale Foundation, founded in 1980 with the mission of protecting the declining humpback whale population from global threats such as commercial whaling and climate change.

Profits from their tours help fund the Pacific Whale Foundation’s research and conservation projects, so we felt good that the cost of our trip was going to a good cause.

8:00 am sharp, we and our fellow snorkelers boarded the Ocean Voyager in Māʻalaea Harbor and cruised 3 miles over to Molokini Island for our first snorkeling stop.

Molokini Island (or more correctly Crater) is actually what's left from an eruption that occurred around 230,000 years ago. Once a cinder cone, thousands of years of erosion has reduced it to a crescent atoll, making it a perfect place for marine life and, therefore, snorkeling.

The island stretches over 20 acres and rises 160 feet above a coral reef with more than 250 species of tropical fish.

The entire island is a protected marine conservation area, so there are lots of rules. Firstly, it is only accessible by boats with certified tour operators, so everyday there is a line up of at least half a dozen anchored offshore. Secondly, snorkelers are not allowed to even touch the crater, which would result in a $10,000 fine. So let’s just say that they are very serious about protecting this unique and special place.

After anchoring, we were all let loose to explore the crystal clear waters above the coral reef. I recognized many of the fish as those that inhabited Herb’s dad’s tropical fish tank, like yellow tang and parrot fish.

From Molokini Crater we moved on to our second snorkeling destination for the day, a turtle cleaning station in an area called Coral Gardens just north of Maalaea Bay.
Along the cruise there we were told to keep our eyes out for whales, but unfortunately it was a little early in the season for them to be here, so all we saw was a spout. However, our crew knew there were plenty of them below us, so even if we couldn’t see them, they would try to let us hear them.

Apparently humpback whales are quite the singers and are known to actually create “songs” that can last up to 23 hours. They are not just random noises but a pattern of regular and predictable sounds that are considered by some to be the most beautiful music on earth.

So, the crew stopped the boat and lowered an underwater microphone called a hydrophone into the water. Sure enough, one was singing. We spent an incredible 10 minutes sitting quietly and listening to a humpback’s song, which was more like a series of moans, snores, and cries.

Pretty amazing!

We continued on and anchored at a place the crew said was near a turtle cleaning station, where we were very likely to see turtles.

I had never heard of a turtle cleaning station before, so I was intrigued.

Apparently turtle’s shells get pretty covered in algae that can be itchy and slow them down, so they need to find a way to get that algae off.

So, they have developed a symbiotic relationship with the local algae-eating fish (tangs, angelfish, etc.). The turtles get cleaned and the fish get fed. Nature is pretty amazing.

Cleaning stations are often the focal point of every turtle community, so they select them wisely. First, the reef has to have adequate food and shelter to attract fish. Then the turtle sets himself (or herself) on a conspicuous coral head where the fish can easily find him. Then the turtle presents himself to the fish for a picking over.

Pretty awesome day, and I would highly recommend a PacWhale snorkel tour for seeing and learning about Maui’s incredible marine life.

We wrapped up our stay in Kihei with dinner at Moose McGillycuddy’s, a lively pub with good food. We had the Mahi Mahi Macademia, which was good but not quite as good as Herb’s birthday dinner at the more elegant Cafe O'Lei Kihei.

Tomorrow we would hit the Road to Hana.