Last day on Maui and a less hectic day to wrap up the holiday. Flight time was 7.30 PM so we spent the day by doing a bit of site seeing and hitting a couple of spots that we had not yet visited during the week.
First stop was the old Lahaina Jailhouse where there was a geocache hidden in a 1923 Model "T" Ford touring car. Not much left of the car but there was enough metal to hide a cache so I was happy.
Click on any picture to see a full size version of them
The afternoon was spent at the Maui Ocean Centre, an average ocean aquarium but with an awesome walk through tank that had sharks and Manta Rays gliding over your head.
Various free standing tanks or small buildings housed indoor tanks where you could see everything from reef and coral inhabitants, to the more delicate creatures like seahorses.
Sadly this was the only good picture I was able to get inside the walk through tunnel. This exhibit alone was worth the price of admission
Annette looks menacingly at Ed who is wandering around muttering "pretty sure there is a lever some where around here that operates the shark head"......
While we still had the rental car we ran up the North Coast of the island to Ho'okipa Beach where we could see Green Sea Turtles. Funny thing is, we where here 3 days ago and did not know the turtles where here. If we had walked 30 feet to the edge of the small hill and looked over we would have seen them.
But here we are back again and glad we came to see them and spend some time watching them. Well, they are turtles after all so they don't move too fast, but we watched 5-6 arrive and take up residence on the beach. This is an active beach with surfers constantly going in and coming out of the water but the turtles and the surfers seem to avoid each other and we did not see any conflicts while we were there. The beach goers are allowed to walk around the turtles as long as they keep their distance, but the public like ourselves had to keep their distance to allow the turtles their quiet time.
There were approximately 50 Green Sea turtles on the beach, the turtles get their name from the colour of their skin. The turtles have a long life span of 80 years and grow to five feet when adults and can weigh up to 700 lbs.
The Gathering - Green Sea Turtles resting on the beach, many of them covering themselves with sand to keep them from dehydrating in the sun.
All in all a pretty cool sight to see and we were glad we made the drive out to catch this bit of Maui nature.
All pictures from our last day can be see here on my Flickr site
Last look at the beach for my Baby before we jump in the car and head to the airport to await our flight.
Saddest picture of the whole trip - bags are packed and just waiting for our plane to arrive so we can board that old jet plane that takes us away from paradise and back to our day-to-day world.
BUT - we will be back to enjoy the Sun and Surf again.
