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A first-ever trip to Hawaii. My expectations are high, but the islands exceeded my wildest dreams. The islands are stunning, spectacular, magical, incredible. Maureen and I will return soon.

Hawaiian Islands, part 2

Domz
2004-04-06 18:54:16

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ago, yet, due to lack of rain, we see very little vegetative growth. One exception is the silversword plant, which we have the great pleasure to see. This plant occurs no where else in the world. It lives 5 to 50 years, and blooms once in its life, then dies. To our fantastic good fortune, many are blooming for our ride.

After the ride, we visit the northwest Maui coast, where we find very rough waves and rocky beaches. We observe Nakalele Blowhole, which is the most impressive blowhole we see on the islands, given the vertical height it is pumping up to. We visit a few stunning Maui beaches. The most attractive is Kaanapali Beach, a beach so pretty and romantic that a couple is getting married there when we arrive.

We eat dinner in Lahina, a wonderful, funky, walkable, traditional town on the west Maui coast. The town contains Front Street, which represents Maui's version of the bustling, festive Duval Street/Key West scene in Florida. We dine at Maui Brews, which serves Kona draft beer. I order the "volcanic-spiced" ahi fish dish, which is simply DELICIOUS.

Overall, we drive about 190 miles on our first day on Maui.

Our second day at Maui starts at 6 a.m. to meet our Mike Severns dive boat for a dive out at the most popular and dramatic dive in Maui—Molokini Crater, a marine and bird sanctuary. The "tuff" crater rim emerges offshore from Maui, and the volcanic mountain is mostly under water (photo at right). There are several dive sites both inside and outside the crater. Our dive is The Back Wall outside of the crater, which is said to be the preferred place to dive the crater. The very clear water—which normally ranges from 100 to 180 feet— was deceiving, since even at our maximum depth of 75 feet, looking up to the surface during the dive creates the impression that we are not very far from the surface. On the day we dive, the vis is a staggering 160 feet.

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