Aloha & Aloha!

Aloha from Maui!

First stop: the beautiful island of Maui. It’s always been my favorite of the islands, but I might be biased, having been there a handful of times already. But this time really hit home for me. I had been when I was younger, and begrudgingly (as most kids were) went on some of the long car drives to Hana etc. but I think that at this age, and when it’s just Mom and me planning it out, you really appreciate and remember what you do/see more.

First of all, my mom ended up finding a spectacular condo for us, with stunning views of the ocean (right above it), and magnificent sunsets right from our balcony. Also, we were a few steps away from a nice sandy beach and access to a great place to snorkel, where you were almost guaranteed to run into a sea turtle or two.

 

The first day (and about every day) we went snorkeling, and I played around with my waterproof camera. That evening (Friday) we went to Lahina to check out an art walk and grab a bite to eat.

It’s turning into a blur as I write this on the plane (which indicates I should maybe be writing more…) but I’ll skip to my favorite day of the week – Sunday. Saturday night I decided one thing I wanted to do was see a sunrise in some spectacular place. Kind of hard to pick a bad place in Hawaii, but we decided to go up to Haleakalā crater (the highest point on the island at 10,023 ft). Being a 2 hour drive, we got up at 3am, packed some lunches and hit the road. Just seeing the stars at 3am was an amazing sight. My mom can attest to how amazing it was more than I can, since I was driving and she was staring up through the sunroof watching the heavens rotate 180 degrees for each switchback we took.

We made it to the summit around 5:30am and the sky was already starting to be born with color.

The pictures don’t do it justice, but of all the sunrises I’ve seen (sadly few), I’d have to say this was the most remarkable one I’ve witnessed. Being above a layer of clouds, but not in them, and watching the sun taunt the horizon as it rose over the sea, and then the clouds, was breathtaking.

Even looking opposite the sun you could see a rainbow of colors reflecting the sky (a moonshadow?)

Enough about that though – if you have a chance I’d highly recommend putting in the work of getting up early and seeing a sunrise – if not at Haleakalā, then somewhere. I think I’m a sunrise person now – they are so much more gratifying when you work for them by getting up early.

After getting back it was naptime to recharge to see the sunset. The is a beach called Big Beach on Maui which many go to for swimming & boogie boarding. Right next to that beach, over a hill, is another beach called Little Beach. Little Beach is much more liberal in that it’s a nude friendly beach, and more free spirited in general. When I was a kid, by cousins and I snuck over the hill to go spy on some nude people. I don’t remember much, but I think I was upset because I forgot my glasses that day. Times have changed. Little Beach now reminds me of the Burning Man culture, with everyone open and self-expressive. I even stripped down to my burning man boxers :).

Anyways, every Sunday night, there is a gathering of people on this beach to watch the sunset. A group of Hawaiian drummers make a circle and drum for hours on end until just past when sun goes down. People spin fire poi, fire staffs, fire nunchucks and even breathe fire (with actual Coleman fire starter fluid – yuk!). It brings on the same feelings of when I was at Burning man, and it was easy to talk to people. I didn’t want to spin poi towards the end since I only had podpoi (which somehow made me feel inferior? :)) Towards the end we met some younger locals and ended up walking back with them and followed them to a more desolate part of the island to watch the stars, spin some more poi and wind down the night, which for Maui is quite an early occurrence – not much night life so people call it in by 9 or 10. It was nice to meet you Jenna, Kelsey and Sean! Wish I had gotten some pictures w/ you.

Next most notable day was Tuesday – kite boarding day! It’s been my goal for the past… 9 years to be able to kite board, and feel comfortable and safe enough to do it on my own. Today was that day.

Most of what getting that “comfort” involves is being able to go upwind, and be able to get back to the same spot on the beach without drifting downwind or into anything, as well as knowing what to do if/when the shit hits the fan. The winds were epic at around 25-30kts. It was a little gusty, but that gave me good practice of handling the kite power of the 7 meter kite. With my practice land boarding at the last Burning Man (and being able to go upwind) I was ready to give it a go here. The instructor gave me all the safety tips, a once over of the beach layout and kite/board control and I was off. I was carving so well! I drifted downwind a bit towards a second stretch of beach and came in to get some pointers, and then managed to carve all the way back upwind to the place I started! Most of what the instructor did was sit on the beach and watch at that point – and was pretty impressed with the progress I had made. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I lost my one-of-a-kind $5 favorite sunglasses, so no more hours lost searching for them (Whitaker); I almost titled the post that, but too many good things outweighed it. It was the place those sunglasses belonged anyways. 🙂

Needless to say, I was quite sore the next day, mostly my legs, but also a bit of whiplash in my neck from all the magnificent falls I had. Still, I clambered up the energy to make another trek to Hana and the seven sacred pools. Driving up and back from there on the endless switchbacks was quite fun compared to my childhood years, considering I was at the wheel J. The sacred pools weren’t as sacred since the island hadn’t gotten much rain in a while, but it was still worth the drive.

I’d have to say, to my Mom, thanks for sharing this stopover point with me, you really persevered with your healing broken foot, and I was quite impressed with all the stuff we did/places you walked. I shared some great moments and conversations with my Mom and feel like I know her a lot better now – I think she can probably say the same of me, so I’m thankful for that.

 

You can view all the photos from Maui here.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Aloha!