1 post tagged “maui”

Some notes on this week's experiences. Summary first: awesome, awesome, awesome. Details:

1. Today: Swam with a sea turtle, saw lots of fish, listened to hump back songs while snorkeling (loud!), watched whales breach up close from a raft (babies too!)

2. Yesterday: Learned to surf! Saw a huge blow-hole (that wasn't blowing much...), snorkeled (lots of puffers), saw the "Olivine Pools" (neat tide pools with cool ecosystem)

3. Thursday: Snorkeled at Molokini (needle fish, trumpet fish, lots of colorful reef fish, parrot fish, urchins... didn't get to see reef shark) then... snorkeled at a place called "Aquarium".

This is worth further explanation. Aquarium is a spot at the end of lava flow near the southern end of Maui. It took us about twenty minutes of hiking over a lava field on a poorly marked path (we got lost several times and might not have made it were it not for a friendly guy pointing the way). When we were finally there, it was tricky getting in and out (lava... not so soft). But the visibility was unparalleled. Like 100 feet. Or more. And there were fish everywhere. Lots of 1-3' colorful fish. It was 2 to 25 feet deep in the areas we checked out and, at any moment, there were 10 to 100 fish in your field of view. Several times I was in the middle of a school of fish (yellow striped ones, big ones with blue strips, medium-sized black ones). My rushed writing is not doing this experience justice. It was magical.

4. Wednesday: Hiked in and out of Haleakala crater. About 5.2 miles round-trip and 100% up-hill on the way back. We were the only people on this hike all the way down. This was really something. We were looking across a giant expanse of lava and saw no one. If you look at a map of Maui you can see how big Haleakala crater is. To be the only people in such a huge place at the center of a tourist destination was pretty amazing. Our private treat. On the way back to the hotel we ate at Big Momma's Fish House which was de-licious.

Tomorrow we're hoping to swim with some dolphins at La Perouse Bay before doing a hike and then flying back home.