Maui Days 2 - 3 - 4

DAY 2

Day 2 was a quick skip to the north central coast to check out Ho'okipa Beach Park. We had heard it was pretty cool place to see, so we did the drive and had a look around the area. Unknown to us, we were only a hundred yards away from where the Green Sea Turtles pull themselves onto the beach to rest. We wold find out a few days later and return here on our last day on which we spent the day touring the island before we turned in the rental car and caught our flight home.

Click on any picture to see larger versions of them. The scenery deserves nothing less 

DAY 3

Ensuring I looked like the tacky tourist I picked up an Hawaiian shirt and wore my Canucks hat for the day to hang around the beach. Sandals and long khaki shorts completed the picture of the snow white tourist from the world of cold.

Annette and I organised a few tours/outings starting on Day 3, Annette had a stand up paddle board lesson scheduled in the morning and I was free to take the pictures.

With instructions from their instructor the small group headed off down the shore for practice near the shoreline. Annette later said it was difficult to get the hang of the standing on the board as the waves kept pushing her off balance.

When they got back to the launch area Annette had managed to stand up a few times but it was as clearly not as easy as you think it should be.

The morning work out was rewarded with a great plate of fish tacos at the Paia Fish Market in Lahaina.. Annette's reward seems to have been a great deal of sun on her body. Something she wold pay for in the coming days.

DAY 4

Day 4 was a very long day indeed - we took a bus tour around the island. Pick up time was 6.30 AM, (it was still dark), drop off time turned out to be 6.30 PM (in the dark). That was a long day to be on a 15 passenger bus but it was worth taking the guided tour.

The Road To Hanna as it is commonly referred to, is a 64 mile long stretch of narrow two lane road cutting through the tropical forest side of the island. The road boasts of over 600 turns and 51 one lane bridges. Many of the turns are blind corners and they suggest you honk your horn in case a larger vehicle is trying to squeeze around the corner.

The road is a very busy land connection for both the locals and the tourists. Doesn't take long for a backup to form once you have a stoppage in the traffic. The views are spectacular and I couldn't possibly try to do the drive justice on this write up. Instead I'll post a few pictures here and you can see all the other pictures by clicking here for the link for Days 2 - 3 - 4 on my Flickr site.

As the chain of islands are volcanic in nature, in many places historically recent lava flows dominate the landscape. This leads to dramatic seascapes where the harsh jut of land causes the waves to crash over the rough shore.

Where the road rises on the side of the mountains it affords beautiful views of the lush vegetation and of the always present seashore.

The islands have always attracted people to the warm climates, both famous and non-famous. One of the surprises on the day was visiting the small graveyard where Charles Lindbergh is buried.

"Lava, lava everywhere" sums up the north east coast of Maui. This has had the most recent volcanic eruptions and it shows. For many miles the road cuts across a barren lava flow that has just recently allowed vegetation to gain a foot hold.
The first picture shows the road descending through a cut in a lava wall. The second picture shows a small crater, one of the many where the lava pushed up through the land when the main chimney was blocked.

This was the end of the most scenic part of the drive, more pictures of the trip can be seen here.
Day 4 would find us on a helicopter tour over the same land path we took on Day 3, only it would take just one hour to cover the same land and we would do it from 10,000 feet. 
Watch for that story shortly ...

Check out more pictures from our many travels here at my main Flickr page