Maui the Beautiful

Our vacation in Hawaii was a very happy one, which does not make it so different from most of our other vacations. However, there was something different about Hawaii, which I felt at the time and which makes me want to go back, the horribly lengthy and inconvenient travel notwithstanding. I tried long and hard to figure out what it was and finally came up with the following scientific explanation:

Sunlight, glinting off the water (nothing but water around for thousands of miles), transforms itself into aloha and showers back down on earth, people, and things, making them glow. You can see it and feel it inside. (Apparently the glow even stays with you for a while after you leave, because my coworkers commented on it when I came back to work.) Abundance of aloha makes the landscape beautiful, the animals unafraid of humans, and the people kind. 

Hawaii is not where you are, or what you do, it is how you feel. In other words, it is not a location or event, it is a state of mind.

If you don't believe me, you'll just have to go and see for yourself.

For this, our first, visit to Hawaii, we limited ourselves to the island of Maui, where we spent 9 days. We came back with about 600 photos, which I selflessly reduced to 111. The resulting album is here.

I will refer to some of them in my trip report, but you are welcome to browse on your own.

• Practical Considerations
• Road to Hana
• Red Sand Beach
• Mount Haleakala
• Around the West Coast
• Lahaina

Practical Considerations

Getting there

Hawaii is very far from anywhere; in particular, from Boston. If you are going to Maui, there is an airport right there in Kahului (OGG), you don't have to fly to Honolulu first. The total flying time would be about 12 hours, which I guess is doable as a direct flight (same length as to Israel). A major difference, though, is that they won't feed you on the plane - "because this is a domestic flight". Yes, on a 12-hour flight too, most likely... they sure didn't feed us on our 8-hour one. If you happen to have a direct flight from the East Coast, look into the food situation. 

In any case, there are no direct flights from Boston, so you have to change planes somewhere. We chose Dallas, TX, which made the first leg of out flight 4 hours and the second 8. (If you change in California, you'll have 6 and 6, which might be easier.) We chose to have a 3-hour layover between flights, which gave us plenty of time for a very good lunch at Reata Grill in the Dallas airport. On the way back, we had less time in Dallas (under 2 hours), which was beside the point because at 4:30 am everything was closed, except Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. At least in our area of the airport. Nevertheless, the way back was easier somehow: maybe because of shorter flying times (7 hours and 3.5), maybe because we were better rested... In either case, we subsisted on sandwiches and snacks that we took with us. 

Hawaii is very serious about cross-contamination, therefore you are not allowed to bring any fruit or vegetables IN or OUT. So don't line that cold cuts sandwich with lettuce or tomato, you'll have to throw out the whole thing. Alex was worried about sogginess and packed sliced vegetables separately, so when he had to throw them away at the airport's "agricultural inspection checkpoint", at least the rest of our food survived... This is only a concern during the return trip, though, because on the way in you'll obviously eat the whole thing way before landing in Hawaii :)

Travel guide

We used Maui Revealed (by Andrew Doughty), which is THE definitive travel guide that everybody seems to use. As somebody who writes for a living, I think this guy should be smacked upside the head repeatedly until he finally learns to stay on the subject. He has a lot of solid and helpful facts there (his opinions is a different matter), but getting them out and lining them up in a way that makes sense is a hard job. 

I've also discovered that whenever he gives directions to a place he always seems to miss at least one important step. Several times trying to follow his directions led us nowhere (or to a completely wrong place) - and we were repeatedly rescued by strangers along the way who helped us get to where we were going. (Haven't I already mentioned that people in Hawaii are kind and helpful?) I will try to point out his omissions in describing how to get to the places where we've been.

To reflect my complex feelings about the book and its author, and to give credit (good or otherwise) where credit's due, I will attribute information gleaned from Maui Revealed to "Andrew" throughout my notes. So don't be surprised with phrases like: "Andrew suggests..." or "According to what Andrew says..."

Maui geography and where to stay

For practical purposes, you can think of the island of Maui as consisting of two unequal circles: a bigger one on the right (East), and a smaller one on the left (West), with very little of interest in between. The circles are more or less aligned at the top (North), and that's where the airport is. There is a huge volcano in the middle of each circle (both volcanoes are dormant; the one on the right is bigger and younger, it last erupted in 1790). As far as tourists are concerned, there is more or less just one road in each half of the island, leading along the edge of the ocean. Most of the towns are located along the edge. In the eastern half there are also a couple of towns about halfway up the mountain, with a couple of roads leading to them, and one road leading ultimately all the way to the top of Mt. Haleakala. 

Tourists live either along the left edge of the left circle, which is called West Maui, or along the LEFT edge of the right circle (which is bigger than the left one, and therefore extends more to the South): this is called South Maui. On the East coast, there is only the town of Hana. You can probably spend a night or two there if you don't want to make the famous "Road to Hana" trip all in one day, but otherwise it is too far from everywhere. Still, if all you want is nature, hiking, swimming, and comparative lack of tourists, staying in Hana might be an option.

On the opposite pole of this is West Maui: that's where you'll find most of the resorts, beaches, nightlife, and teeming humanity. The only town on the island that claims to have a downtown is Lahaina. It has a main street lined with shops and restaurants, and IS the place to go for all kinds of entertainment. The town just to the north of Lahaina boasts the most prominent beach on Maui (Ka'anapali beach), with a lot of resorts and a beautiful but very busy boardwalk. 

South Maui, in my opinion, is the happy medium. Especially South Kihei, which is where we stayed. It has its own share of restaurants and souvenir shops (although nowhere near as crowded as in West Maui), the beaches there are just as good or even better than in the West part, and certainly provide much more personal space. We were there in April, which is admittedly not the high season, but the beach across the road from our condo (Kamaole II) was almost empty and allowed for very nice swimming and snorkeling. We even saw turtles right there, several times. In Kihei you stay in condos, not in resorts, and thus have your privacy while still being close to everywhere. Also, the weather in South Maui is better: least rainy.

South of Kihei there are 2 more towns: Wailea and Makena. Wailea is all about posh resorts and golf. Makena seems to have fewer condos and is not touristy at all. They both are more remote, and also much more expensive.

Whatever you do, don't stay in Ma'alea and North Kihei. This is one of the facts that Andrew (the author of Maui Revealed) got right: these places are downwind from a lot of sugar fields, and when they burn a field and harvest the sugar cane (which is apparently the standard operating procedure), there is a lot of smoke and dust. We saw a field burning one day (and saw/smelled the sugar plant working nonstop, as we were driving north of Kihei, on our way elsewhere), and this was not pleasant. We also saw big road signs "SMOKE AND DUST" near Ma'alea...

Where to eat

Everybody gripes about the food on Maui. Groceries are expensive. Restaurants are even more expensive, also the food is mediocre. Our experience proves this not to be quite true.

If you stay in a condo, you can eat right on your lanai (balcony). That's what we did most of the time. Sure, the groceries are a bit more expensive there than in Boston. Well, include the difference in your vacation price tag... It is not that bad, really. There are supermarkets right in South Kihei (we shopped at Safeway, but there is also Foodland that's open 24 hours) and in West Maui, where the prices are quite reasonable, and there is absolutely no need to go grocery shopping at Costco or K-Mart (as Andrew suggests) unless this is what rocks your boat. 

Because we could eat so well at home, I decided to only go to restaurants if they provided added value: not just a meal, but a view, ambience, unique experience... And I've got to say: there are quite a few good restaurants on Maui. We've been lucky with every single one we went to. But of course, I did a lot of research first. Mostly on TripAdvisor, but I've got to give Andrew some credit as well. Generally, his comments about the places we tried were spot-on. 

Here are the restaurants we recommend:

• Antonio's: in South Kihei, in the Long's Drugs plaza. The first evening upon arrival we were too exhausted to cook, and it was just a few minutes from our condo. No view and no ambiance, but spotlessly clean, with good, attentive service, and the food was absolutely delicious! Italian - and I don't mean pizza: the type of food you get in Italy, veal, variety of good pasta, traditional antipasti and soups - the ultimate comfort food... And the prices are unbelievably low for Maui. Andrew said not to get the calamari and we didn't. Everything else was melt-in-your-mouth good. 
• Sarento's on the Beach: another Italian place, but this one with more of a local flavor. Seared ahi appetizer, entrees featuring local fish, and local vegetables along with more traditional Italian dishes. Located so far south in Kihei that it is almost Wailea - most importantly, located right on the beach, with a beautiful view of sunset. Make a reservation for about half an hour before sunset and make sure to ask for a beachside table, this way you'll just have enough time to order and can then enjoy watching the show. 
  
• 808 Bistro:  in South Kihei, in one of the little strip malls along the South Kihei Road, less than 5 minutes walk from our condo. Relatively inexpensive, reasonably good food ("New American"), BYOB ($5 corking fee; that is, you come with your own bottle and they charge you $5 to open it, but this is still much less expensive than buying the same bottle at restaurant prices). They have no view to speak of, tucked behind a strip mall among some bushes, but they do have a terrace, and after dark - with the candles burning and the tall bushes rustling around, the ambiance is quite nice.
• Leilani's Beachside Grill: at Ka'anapali beach in West Maui, at the Whalers Village. There is a restaurant too, with an indoors seating and a more formal menu, but we stopped for lunch at the outdoor terrace, after snorkeling near the Black Rock. Great ambiance: gardenlike setting right next to the boardwalk, ocean view and people watching at the same time. Delicious lunch menu of fancy salads, sandwiches, a couple of simple entrees (including fresh local catch), and nice desserts.  
• Pacific'o: in Lahaina, on the beach. Contemporary Pacific cuisine, "farm to table" philosophy, highly rated by foodies and right on the beach, with beautiful sunset views. We had dinner there one night, and actually I liked the view even more than the food. The food was good; the view was spectacular. There happened to be an actual wedding on the beach being conducted literally in front of our table... the bride and groom well in their fifties, I'd say, and a small party of their relatives and friends, less than a dozen total. The priest, or whoever (shaman?) blowing into a humongous seashell. Then, as soon as the wedding was over, the sunset show began... 
  
• Honu: also in Lahaina, right on the water edge. "Honu" means "turtle" in Hawaiian, and the restaurant is well named: as we were having lunch on the deck, turtles were constantly poking their heads out of the water, as if to say "goodbye" (this was our farewell lunch, on the last day in Maui). Food was delicious, and so were the cocktails. 
  

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Road to Hana

The famous "road to Hana" is more accurately the road that goes around the right (eastern) "half" of the island. It leads to Hana (a small town on the East coast) but does not stop there. You can most certainly go a little bit past Hana, to get to Ohe'o Gulch, or "Seven Sacred Pools" (also very famous). Soon after that, the road becomes an unpaved one-lane and continues like this for several miles; then it becomes decent again and ultimately connects to one of the interior roads leading to the north coast, thus letting you complete the circle. There are conflicting opinions on whether you are allowed to drive the unpaved portion in your rental car; having done it as an unwilling passenger of my very determined husband I have even more serious doubts as to the advisability of this course of action. The unpaved portions are very dusty and VERY, VERY bumpy. Do not undertake it unless you are comfortable driving backward along a narrow road, as in when you meet another car going in the opposite direction on one of the one-lane stretches.

Still, I am going to write about the trip we did, the way we did it, and you can then custom-tailor that experience to suit your needs.

We started very-very early. At 6:30 am, to be exact. Getting up at 5 was not much fun, but it paid off in the end. Also, the whole drive took 14 hours, including the side trip to the top of Mt. Haleakala in conclusion, to see the sunset. The reason for the early start, even aside from the sunset (which can just as easily be done separately, on another day), is to make the first part of the drive while the road is still empty. This way everybody, including the driver, gets to enjoy the beauty of the narrow, winding road among the lush greenery, with sideways glimpses of the ocean hitting the rocks, and drive it at your own pace - instead of being stuck in an endless procession of cars that develops after 8 am.

For the same reason, we did not stop much along the first part of our trip. If you try to do it all in one day, there is absolutely no way to manage to fit everything  that the guidebook mentions, so you have to pick and choose. We did stop at a couple of waterfalls in the beginning that seemed like low-hanging fruit (just a few steps from the car to take a picture) and I cannot say that I regret these stops, but they were totally forgettable compared to the rest. I didn't even post these photos.

The first truly interesting stop was the lava tube. Just like Andrew says, park in the second turnout after the 23 mile marker. The turnout is on the left (ocean) side of the road, and the entrance to the lava tube (which looks like a cave) is across the road, on the mauka (mountain) side. You will need a flashlight or something similar (we used Temma's iPod :) ), otherwise it's quite dark inside.

The cave, being a tube, eventually lets you out the other end, among the roots of a banyan tree. Lava tubes are formed when lava, flowing like a river, crusts over the top. Lava tubes can be over 20 miles long, but this one is relatively short, just 140 feet. Once you get out, follow the trail back to the road; no need to get back in the cave to return to your car.

When we got back to our car, I was very excited to find a wild Red Junglefowl hen walking around it. The hen was in no hurry to leave, so I managed to take a few pictures. Later, I realized that is was probably expecting us to feed it some banana bread, because there are plenty of fruit-and-banana-bread stands all along the road to Hana. However, since we tried not to waste any time on roadside stops during the first part of our trip, we didn't have any banana bread to share at this point...

We stopped soon afterwards, though, because we were getting hungry, and got 2 different kinds of banana bread (pineapple and macadamia nut), a jar of liliko'i (passion fruit) jam - all delicious - and also a weird vegetable, called chayote squash, which you can either cook like a potato or add to salads like a cucumber, both with unspectacular results (as we discovered later). Well, at least we tried...

Our next stop was Wai'anapanapa State Park, famous for its black sand beach. There are other things to see and do there (photos 64 - 69). My absolute favorite is swimming in a freshwater cave. There are 2 freshwater caves there, accessible via a short loop-trail; if you travel it in the recommended direction (clockwise) then the first cave you see is the one that's good for swimming. It is quite easy to climb down the stone "steps" to the water. The cave goes back a ways; make sure not to turn any corners and always keep the entrance in sight, so you can get back to it. The water is cool and refreshing, and the sunlight reflections playing on the stone ceiling and walls are impossibly beautiful.

The black sand beach, on the other hand, is not that good for swimming (although the guidebooks say it's possible). So, after looking at sea arches and blowholes, and eating our sandwiches (which we packed for the road) we pressed on towards Hana and THE RED SAND BEACH! I'll make it into a separate post, mostly because the guidebook is pathetically inadequate in explaining how to get there. Here is just one photo to show what a treat it is. For more photos and detailed directions on how to get there, look here.

Immediately past Hana, there are a couple other beaches that sound like they are worth a stop, but we didn't have time if we wanted to finish the loop in one day, and especially if we wanted to make it to Mt. Haleakala for the sunset. So we only made one more stop, at the Ohe'o Gulch, or "Seven Sacred Pools" - there are more than seven pools, and they've never been sacred, as far as anybody knows, but it's a catchy name...

Basically, it is a series of waterfalls along a stream that winds its way through a bamboo forest and into the ocean. Consequently, there is a trail that leads from the parking lot upstream, past a banyan tree and through the bamboo forest, to the biggest waterfall of all (which we didn't see, because Temma was almost eaten alive by the mosquitoes in the bamboo forest and we had to turn back). If you go, bring bug spray. And another, shorter, loop that leads to the ocean shore and past some more waterfalls, all very pretty. (Photos 74 - 84.)

Sometimes they let you swim in the pools by the waterfalls. It depends on the water level and waterfall intensity - winter months are obviously more dangerous. In our case, in April, waterfalls were quite tame, and there would have been no problem whatsoever about swimming or bathing next to them, except... the water level measuring equipment in the park broke down sometime in January, so they had huge, permanent-looking signs everywhere saying that swimming was "prohibited because of the dangerous water levels" (probably leftovers from the winter season) and a smaller handwritten note on the door of the visitor center explaining that, until the equipment is repaired, they cannot measure the water level and consequently cannot make a decision that the pools are safe for swimming. They apologize for the inconvenience... Bureaucracy, you are equally idiotic everywhere around the world!

Incidentally, you have to pay an entrance fee at Ohe'o Gulch, and the ticket is good for up to three days to visit the Mt. Haleakala National Park (and vice versa). This didn't make much difference to us because my husband has already reached the Golden Age of 62 (after which one is considered a National Treasure and allowed to visit national parks free of charge). Besides, we were going up to the crater later that day, regardless...

As I said, the road is quite good all the way up to Ohe'o Gulch, and if you turn around at this point you won't have to deal with what comes later. But we pressed on, along the stretches of unpaved dusty road painfully reminding me (and my back) about the old-fashioned washing-board that my grandmother used to have in the old country... A few times we met a car going in the opposite direction and had to back up, which was no problem for Alex but would have posed a hardship for a less experienced driver: the road is narrow and overgrown, and the turnoffs are far apart. Most importantly, there is nothing spectacularly interesting along the way. There is water on one side, the steep back of the mountain - on the other, stretches of tall grass... and wind! At one point, we saw a mini tour-bus stop and dislodge its passengers; we also stopped and followed them up a hill, and there was nothing there, just more of the same: water, mountain, grass, and wind... We didn't even take a picture.

We passed through a couple of small towns, of a sort, and stopped for a burger at a little shack mentioned in the guidebook, Bully's Burgers. Normally, I am not a big fan of hamburgers, but we were quite hungry by then and also didn't have a lot of time for detours. The shack was very basic but had a nice ocean view from its only, outside, table (next to the pig pen) and the burgers were good, especially mine - I got the fancy one, with mushrooms and agave juice. It was more expensive, $10 as opposed to $6 for the basic one, but worth it in my opinion.

Our timing was perfect, we turned onto the road leading to the top of Mt. Haleakala around 6 pm, stopped the car and changed into the warm clothes, which we had the forethought to bring (as opposed to the previous time). So when we reached the first overlook 40 minutes later, where it was very cold and very windy, we were OK and able to enjoy the show.

And what a show it was! Still, we were lucky with both the weather and the timing of our drive: an extra half an hour somewhere - and we would have missed the sunset altogether. So basically I recommend to separate the Hana road trip and the Mt. Haleakala sunset, do them on different days - it makes more sense this way.

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Red Sand Beach

This was one of the places that are not described anywhere but in Andrew's book, as far as I can tell. Also another one of those that we would have never found given just what the book says. Andrew starts by very confusingly describing two different red sand beaches, intertwining their descriptions and pointing to different other unrelated pages, as usual. However, I managed to sort them out and isolate the directions to the more interesting one. Seemingly very detailed directions:

"To get there, park on Uakea near Hauoli. Even though it's a dead-end street, make sure you park facing the correct direction [or you'll get a ticket, blah-blah-blah]. Just before the Sea Ranch Cottages there's a large lawn area owned by the county. Look to the right for the obvious trails leading downhill. Continue straight down, taking a left just near the shore. Be careful blah-blah-blah. All told, it's about a five-minute walk."

We parked on the dead-end street facing the proper way, as he says. (He is right about that: we saw tickets on the windshields of the few cars facing the other way.) Then we started looking around for the Sea Ranch Cottages, lawn, and trails leading down. The Sea Ranch Cottages turned out to be the complex at the end of the street, behind a fence. Before that, on the right, there was a huge lawn plastered with "No Trespassing" signs, also with a fence on the sea side and with no obvious trails leading down or anywhere else.

If it wasn't for a friendly guy raking the lawn, we would have turned back then and there, but the guy pointed us in the right direction. Actually, the lawn Andrew is talking about is on the left side of the street - before the Sea Ranch Cottages for sure, but you have to walk past all the parked cars and the fence to see it. Once you turn left, onto the lawn, and walk a bit that way, then you can start "looking to the right for obvious trails leading downhill" (they will only be on your right after you turn left; if you just face straight along the street and towards the sea cottages, these trails are on your left).

As my father used to say: "You misdial just one digit in a phone number and reach a totally different person." Same here: you just omit one left turn in your directions, and people trying to follow them end up in a totally different place.

After successfully navigating this snafu, we started on one of the trails leading down to the ocean. After a few minutes, we could see a small cove with red sand/dirt down below and a similar cove a bit to the left from it, which was probably what Andrew meant by "go down and turn left, a total walk of 5 minutes." There was also a woman standing there on the trail, contemplating the two coves, and upon seeing us she asked: "Is this the Red Sand beach?" I could quite understand her disappointment (pretty for sure, but nothing special) and answered: "Your guess is as good as mine. We are probably following the same guide book." She turned around then, and we would have done the same if my husband wasn't a compulsive wanderer: seeing that there was a trail forking off to the left along the cliff, kind of midway on our descent, he followed it, and we followed him for a while...

Alex wanted to continue along the cliff, as far as that trail went, but Temma and I were in favor of turning back, because there didn't seem to be much point going on, and the sandy and steep trail looked like it was very easy to slide off of and end up with a lot of scratches or worse. Meanwhile, a couple coming along in the opposite direction got even with us, and the young woman overhearing our conversation exclaimed: "Oh no! This is the worst part, once you turn the corner it's much easier going, and when you get there IT IS SO WORTH IT!" Thus encouraged, we went on, turned the corner and... saw the Red Sand beach!..

So here are the complete, abridged and verified, directions to the Red Sand beach that Andrew should have provided in his best-selling guidebook, but didn't:

"To get there, park on Uakea street, near Hauoli. Even though it's a dead-end street, make sure you park facing the correct direction, otherwise you'll most likely get a ticket. Walk to the end of Ukaea and, just before the Sea Ranch Cottages at the end of the street, turn left onto a large lawn. Look to the right for the obvious trails leading downhill (to the shore). If the tide is low and the sea calm, it is easiest to go all the way down to the shore and turn left; if the lower trail is submerged, then take the trail that goes along the shore about midway down (and be careful because it is steep and sometimes slippery). Whichever trail you take, follow it until you turn the corner of the cliff; you will then see the Red Sand Beach in the cove ahead. All told, it's about a fifteen-minute walk."

And this is how it looks from the beach itself. The sand is actually dark-red, the water is blue, the rocks - black... The jagged wall of the rocks protects the cove from most of the surf. Waves roll in through the gap on the left; they also splash against the rocks on the right, providing fountains of white foam as a backdrop. Swimming is good in the middle, and you only get splashed if you come close to the wall (photo 73). The beauty and serenity of this place is unbelievable, words and even pictures don't do it justice. This is one of my absolutely favorite places on Maui.

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Mount Haleakala

Mount Haleakala (which apparently means "House of the Sun" in Hawaiian) is one of the two volcanoes responsible for creating the island of Maui. The second one does not seem to have an established name: according to our guidebook, it is sometimes called simply "West Maui Mountain", and sometimes "Mount Halemahina" ("House of the Moon", for symmetry with the "House of the Sun") - and sometimes, I suppose, just "Hey, you!"... But it doesn't really matter, because we didn't go there.

Mt. Haleakala, on the other hand, was very prominent in our vacation experience, and with good reason. For one thing, being located in the middle of our, eastern, part of the island, it created a great backdrop for our photos, such as the one on the left.

It is also the bigger and younger of the two volcanoes. The last time it erupted was in 1790, and there are still lava fields and lava tubes all over the place reminding you of the fact. When driving from Kihei all the way south, past the town of Makena, the road will pass through almost 2 miles of lava fields on both sides before terminating at the La Perouse bay. As for lava tubes, we explored one of them on our "road to Hana" trip, but there are quite a few more...

At the top of Mt. Haleakala, there is a huge erosion crater (meaning that the crater was not created during the eruption of the volcano, but rather is a result of gradual erosion) and a national park surrounding it, called Haleakala National Park. It charges an admission fee of $10 per car, which is good for 3 days - for repeated visits to this park, and also to the Ohe'o Gulch ("Seven Sacred Pools") on the road to Hana.

The most popular attraction related to the top of Mt. Haleakala is watching a sunrise from there. In order to do this, you have to get up at around 3 am, drive in the dark to the top of the mountain and then wait in the frigid cold (and in the company of other tourists in search of a spiritual experience) - hoping that the weather cooperates, that there is no rain, and it is not completely overcast. According to the guidebook, if there are no clouds at all, the sunset is not that spectacular either - you need just the right amount, like Goldilocks, and what are the chances of that? Is the experience worth the hassle and the odds? We decided it wasn't, and opted to watch the sunset instead, as described at the end of my Road to Hana post.

Let me say this again: it is very cold and VERY, VERY windy at the top of a mountain in the middle of an ocean.

The summit of Mt. Haleakala is at the altitude of 10,023 ft. The first time we drove to the top, during a sunny and warm day (85F on the beach in South Kihei, where we stayed), I suspected that it might be colder up there and took a light jacket with me. My macho husband decided that he'd be OK without a jacket. Let me tell you, we were neither of us OK... It is about 30 degrees colder and the wind is relentless! Being realistic, we decided to forgo our tentative plans to hike the Sliding Sands trail and just move in short bursts - from the car, to the overlook, to an enclosure if there is one, then back to the car, and so on...

You can get the park maps at the Lower visitor center, soon upon entering the park. The first overlook going up, called Leleiwi overlook, provides a sideways view of the crater and is definitely worth a stop. Keep in mind, however, that you have to walk up from the parking lot to the observation point facing the crater, and that the altitude makes itself felt... I routinely walk four floors up every day at work, without a problem, but here I felt short of breath and had to slow down. After all, you are above the clouds!..

The next stop is the overlook at the Upper visitor center (Kalahaku overlook, which is below that, is accessible only on the way down, because there is a "NO LEFT TURN" sign on the way up). I suppose it is called the Haleakala overlook... anyway, it's the main one, with the best views of the crater.

This is also where the Sliding Sands trail starts (photo 32). The trail goes on for miles, but you don't have to. If you come prepared (with warm clothes, unlike us) you can start along the trail and go as far or as little as you feel like. With the amazing colors and shifting perspectives, even the smallest hike would provide countless photo opportunities...

Actually, you don't even have to go anywhere. With the weather changing every minute, the clouds rolling in or out, the light shifting, it is easy to take almost a hundred photos just from the Haleakala overlook, like we did. What's difficult is sorting through them later, deciding which ones to post...

Another curious thing to see up there is silverswords. This is a plant, endemic to Hawaii, which can live up to 50 years, blooms just once, and basically looks the way it sounds... Here are a few silverswords (some that have bloomed and some that haven't) in the parking lot just below the summit. Incidentally, the local name for silversword, ahinahina, means "gray-gray" (as in, "very-very gray", or "so gray we have to say it twice"). How else would you describe "silver" if you didn't have a separate word for it?

I love Hawaiian language. It only has twelve letters: 'a', 'o', 'u', 'e', 'i', 'h', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'p', and 'w'. I wonder whether there is any correlation between the fact that people in Hawaii are kind, friendly, helpful and laid-back, and that their language does not have any harsh consonants... Since all the words have to be composed of the same 12 letters in different combinations, some of them get pretty long - for example, humuhumunukunukuapua’a, the state fish of Hawaii (we saw tons of them when snorkeling). But I digress...

Up at the summit there is the Science City observatory, which isn't open to the public, and the Puu Ulaula overlook (elevation 10,023 feet, or 3055 meters) very much open to the public, and also to all possible winds from every direction... You can hide in a glass enclosure, only popping outside to take quality photos like this one - the two dark cones visible in the distance, above the clouds, are the tops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa mountains on the Big Island, almost a hundred miles away...

There are more views of the crater in my album (photos 30 - 48), feel free to look at them on your own. Meanwhile, this is my favorite one - taken from the Haleakala overlook - with the clouds rolling in.

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Around the West Coast

The western part of the island, just like the one on the east, has a volcano in the middle and various little towns and beaches scattered along the coast. There is also a coastal road connecting all these little towns and beaches, and we decided to spend an entire day exploring what it has to offer.

Although the road goes all the way around, its last portion (traveling clockwise) is also one-lane, even more narrow than the one in the eastern part. Since there doesn't seem to be anything particularly interesting on this stretch (except a shack selling "the best banana bread on the planet," according to our guidebook - which claim let's leave to the author's conscience - not to mention that we had plenty of very good banana bread left over from our Hana road trip) our original plan consisted of the following:

1. Start clockwise
2. See a couple of attractions along the way
3. Do NOT stop at Lahaina (the most happening town on the island and the only one that boasts having a downtown)
4. Instead, drive straight to Ka'anapali (one town over), snorkel near the famous Black Rock and have lunch at the equally famous Ka'anapali Beach boardwalk
5. Continue clockwise, stopping at the Nakalele Blowhole and possibly a couple more points along the way, to the furthermost attraction, called Olivine pools (right before the start of the one-lane stretch)
6. Turn around, drive to Lahaina, and spend the rest of the day there, including dinner on the waterfront and possibly some nightlife entertainment

This was a great plan, but it didn't quite come to pass... However, I still highly recommend it to those who'll learn from our mistakes.

Our first stop, very soon after passing Maalea, was the overlook near Mile Marker 8, which is supposed to be THE best place on the island for spotting whales. Apparently, for them this is also an overlook, for spotting people... they approach it a lot. Since we were there at the tailend of the whale season and haven't spotted a single whale so far, this was our best bet for seeing one. But no luck! - probably, they already started towards Boston... All we saw was a little sailboat, and we took a picture of it on the impossibly blue ocean, with South Maui and Mt. Haleakala in the background.

Next item on the list, ancient petroglyphs near the little town called Olowalu, proved to be quite elusive. Again, the guidebook seemed to provide perfectly detailed directions, and once again they turned out to be completely unreliable when applied to actual terrain. After a lot of wrong turns and circling around we finally asked a guy, who pointed us towards the petroglyphs, "such as they are." He was right on both counts: there is not much to see.

We returned to the coastal road, drove past Lahaina (according to plan) and stopped at the Whalers Village in Ka'anapali. Whalers Village is a collection of ridiculously overpiced shops selling items that you can totally live without, but it also has a few restaurants and, most importantly, a parking. You are not supposed to park there if you just go to the beach, but in our case we planned to have lunch at one of the restaurants, which both justified and validated our parking.

Ka'anapali beach is large and overcrowded, and makes you happy that you are staying in South Maui, away from the teeming humanity. Still, at the rightmost end of the beach (as you face the sea) there is a tall cliff called the Black Rock, which provides perfect snorkeling opportunities. There is a boardwalk along the beach, follow it to the end and then carefully swim out. "Carefully" because there are tons of snorkelers around, who don't necessarily look where they are going, as well as young daredevils jumping off the Black Rock (from about 25 feet up) so watch out for these, too.

Once you are past this initial stretch along the side of the cliff, it is beautiful and tranquil: lots of coral of various colors and shapes, tons of colorful fish and even some turtles. We spent maybe 40 minutes snorkeling along the cliff's tip, then Temma jumped off the Black Rock a couple of times and we went back to Whalers Village for lunch.

I very highly recommend our lunch choice: Leilani's Beachside Grill, an outdoor terrace with a garden-like setting right next to the boardwalk. It provides ocean view and people watching at the same time, and has a delicious lunch menu of fancy salads, sandwiches, a couple of simple entrees (including fresh local catch), and nice desserts. The slightly tricky logistical part was changing from our swimming attire into something more presentable. Temma and I opted for cover-ups, while Alex went and changed completely (there is a public restroom next door).

The first half of our plan thus successfully completed, we got back into the car and drove to mile marker 38, with the intention of hiking to Nakalele Blowhole from there. This is where we made the fatal mistake, which could have totally been avoided if we'd just taken into account our previous experiences with the guidebook... To make a long story short, we started the hike, realized that once again Andrew's so-called directions had nothing in common with the actual terrain, tried to find our way along the cliffs, in the confusion I badly sprained my ankle - hurt like hell!.. - and that pretty much put the lid on our plans for that day, and severely limited the rest of our vacation activities.

However, it needn't have happened that way. Instead, we should have driven another 1/2 mile, parked in a "wide turnout backed by rounded boulders" and hiked to the Nakalele Blowhole from there. The guidebook dismisses this hike as boring, and who am I to argue? - but it has one undeniable advantage: you can more-or-less see the blowhole from the parking lot, at least you can definitely see which way to go, and thus not rely on Andrew's warped sense of geography. When Alex finally made it to the blowhole, after almost an hour of mad scrambling along the cliffs, he could see the cars in the second parking lot from there. He is also the only one in our family who saw the blowhole (Temma returned with me to the car, which I managed to hobble back to, mainly because there were no other options). We waited for Alex in the car for just over an hour, because once he finally managed to find the blowhole, it was relatively easy to get back to the parking lot from there, following one of the inland trails. The problem was finding the blowhole itself...

Since we were on that road anyway, and unlikely to return in the remaining two days, Alex proceeded to drive to our last planned stop - Olivine Pools, and he and Temma went down there to check them out. It is a short, easy hike for anybody without a sprained ankle. The pools didn't look very inviting - maybe because of our family's dampened spirits - so they decided not to go swimming, just took this picture and returned to the car.

Finally, since we could no longer explore Lahaina on foot, as originally planned, Alex decided that it didn't make sense to turn around and return the way we came, and continued along the coastal road onto the one-lane stretch. This proved to be another mistake, because this portion of the road is even narrower and with fewer turn-offs than the one in the eastern part, so the travel was very slow, and then we got stuck behind a line of school buses - and as a result, it was only 3 hours after the accident that I finally got home and managed to put some ice on my throbbing ankle...

The incident/accident, no matter how you look at it, affected the last days of our vacation, limiting our activities. Still, Alex and I went snorkeling near 5 Caves on Saturday, because we remembered that at Makena Landing the road goes right up to the beach, which is narrow and pebbly (not sand) - so Alex managed to drop me off almost by the water edge and I hobbled in, while Alex parked the car and joined me in the water. We had a wonderful time, and one of the turtles rewarded my resilience by coming right up to me, less than arm's length, so it was very hard not to reach out and touch it. You are not supposed to touch the turtles, it rubs off their protective coating or something... our kayaking guide told us so. Also while at Makena Landing that day, we witnessed some kind of a wedding ceremony - with a bunch of people pushing the happy couple (who, truth be told, didn't actually look that happy) off in a long kanoe-like boat, while a female shaman with a wreath on her head was loudly blowing into a humongous seashell. Like that.

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Lahaina

Lahaina deserves a separate entry, even though the mishap with my ankle 2 days before the end of vacation robbed us of the opportunity to explore it in depth.

Still, we went to Lahaina twice: first for dinner at the Pacific'o on Saturday night (our last night on Maui), and then for a stroll/hobble along the Front street and lunch on the day of departure, because our flight was late in the afternoon.

Pacific'o is, in my opinion, the most romantic restaurant in Lahaina, which is saying something - because there are at least two dozen others vying for this title. It is right on the beach, with beautiful sunset views. Actually I liked the view even more than the food. The food was good; the view was spectacular. There happened to be another of those weddings on the beach, conducted literally in front of our table - minus the canoe, but the seashell-blowing priest/shaman very prominent... what are the chances of seeing two of those in one day? Then, as soon as the wedding was over, the sunset show began...

The guidebook claims that parking in Lahaina is impossible, but we didn't find that so. Maybe because we were not there during the "high season" - but we had no trouble parking near the 505 Front St. cluster of restaurants and shops on Saturday, and on Sunsday morning Alex repeatedly found street-side stalls along the Front street, to make my walking distances manageable. The whole Front street, which is the main street in Lahaina, is lined with souvenir shops, specialty stores, cafes and such; it is a pleasant place by day and is literally jumping at night. I highly recommend staying in South Maui but visiting Lahaina in the evenings, just for the sheer energy of the place.

Most of the historic and cultural attractions are also on Front street. First, there is the Banyan Tree park, which is a whole park made up by a single humongous banyan tree. There is also Pioneer Inn, which looks very old, and some other historic buildings, a former Chinese Temple (now a museum), and at the North end, towards Mala wharf - Jodo Mission, with its pagoda and a huge statue of Buddha, visible from the outside.

For our final meal on Maui, we selected a little cozy restaurant right at the water edge, called Honu. "Honu" means "turtle" in Hawaiian, and the restaurant is well named: as we were having lunch on the deck, turtles were constantly poking their heads out of the water, as if to say "goodbye"... A tiny lizard, called brown anole, was sitting on a pole right next to our table, with its bright-orange throat sac (dewlap) flickering on and off. Food was delicious, and so were the cocktails. The view down the coast was tranquil and beautiful. It was very sad to say "goodbye" to Maui, but we hope to come back someday...

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