To follow up our most recent post, I’ve pulled together some more of the thousands of pics we took during our 17 day sailboat charter.
More Tahiti Pics
(click the photo or use the arrow keys to move through the set)
Fish Pics
Other Underwater Pics
Comments rss
TrackbackA few days after our Haleakala wilderness hike, we packed up and left Maui. But instead of flying north and east back to the mainland, we flew to Honolulu, met up with the Minister of Leisure and some other friends, then flew due south to Tahiti to set out on a 2.5 week sailboat charter. And none of what followed would have been possible without the Minister’s generosity, so thank you very much Ted!
Curie anchored off Bora Bora
Our home for 17 days was a 55′ Catana sailing catamaran named Curie, which we picked up at the Dream Yacht Charter base in Uturoa, the main town on Raiatea. Our plan was to sail Les Iles Sous le Vent, Tahiti’s Leeward Islands, which include, from east to west, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora Bora, and Maupiti. The geography here is very different from Hawaii or the Caribbean; each island has a high central peak, a deep (50 meters or so) lagoon right offshore, and a shallow (1-2 meter) sandbar studded with motu, or little lslands, lying outside the lagoon. The whole thing is then surrounded by a live coral reef that drops off into the deep ocean. The varying water depths create the most unreal shades of turquoise, which cameras can’t come close to capturing. Each lagoon has at least one deep-water pass out to the ocean. The pass forms naturally because all the water dumped into the lagoon by the ocean waves has to escape somehow, and the constant current scours out a pass through the sand and coral.
Sunset from the cockpit
The boat was equipped with the requisite toys and amenities (kayaks; stand-up boards; nice sound system), as well as a few luxuries (twin roller-furled headsails, including a self-tacking inner one; electric primary winch; air conditioning; a reverse-osmosis watermaker). After completing a provisioning run and the checkout formalities, we motored a short distance south to an anchorage in the lee of a small motu off the coast of Raiatea. Because most of my crew had been bareboat chartering with us on previous vacations, we all quickly fell into the onboard routine.
Heather at the helm
Mornings usually found Todd up first, straightening things up from the night before and making coffee for the crew. Ted and I were usually next, in time to catch the last remnants of sunrise. Heather and Wally followed, Heather pouring some of Todd’s coffee and then making a beeline for the fridge (my favorite wife must eat within 5 minutes of waking up or she gets quite grumpy). And I think the nicest way to put it is that Mike and Aaron are good sleepers.
The morning snorkel
After breakfast some of us took a morning snorkel, some paddled around on the stand-up boards or kayaks, and some relaxed in the true spirit of vacationing. Mid-day found us either moving the boat to a new anchorage, or exploring ashore, or lounging on the boat. Afternoons there was usually time for a swim, followed by Heather and Todd’s famous rum drinks. Evenings, after either dinner ashore or cooked onboard, usually evolved (devolved?) into a spontaneous dance party on deck, with Mike, Ted and me spinning tunes from one of the dozen or so iPods/iPhones/iPads on board.
Dinner on deck, courtesy of Heather
At this point, rather than bore everyone with a day-by-day account of our trip, I’ll just cover a few of the many highlights of our cruise.
Maupiti
The remote island of Maupiti has been on our “to visit” list since our previous trip to Tahiti 9 years ago. It is a particularly difficult island to get to. First, the pass into the lagoon is narrow and shallow, so even a modest south swell (very common in Tahiti) or medium-strength winds from the south-east (also very common) will cause the pass to “close out”, a surfing term where a wave breaks completely across a channel or harbor entrance, rendering the area un-navigable by anything but a powerful motorboat. Second, many charter companies won’t allow their boats to visit because of the challenging navigational conditions. And third, because of its distance from the main island group, a visitor must have a long enough charter that they can commit a half-day each to cruise over and back, plus a couple nights on the island.
Maupiti
We were very fortunate in that the weather gods, the charter gods, and the vacation gods all got together and presented us a perfect weather window for a Maupiti visit on the third day of our trip. We left Bora Bora early (anchor up at 7am), drove out the pass, and pointed Curie due west. Unfortunately the wind was almost non-existent, so we were forced to motor the whole way, but the light wind gave us the benefit of a relatively smooth entrance to the lagoon. The south swells were still running a bit over a meter, and our 55′ home rode a couple waves on the way in. The transformation from rough ocean to calm lagoon happened in 30 seconds; one minute we were pitching and rolling in the open ocean, and the next we were in tranquil, turquoise heaven.
Curie anchored off Maupiti
We cut between the two motu bracketing the pass, then navigated the narrow channel for about half a mile to the main anchorage by the town. The town itself was pretty small, and sat nestled directly under a tall ridge topped with cliffs. Going ashore, we wandered this outpost of Tahiti which has only barely been touched by tourism. The town boasts one restaurant, two boulangerie (this is still France, after all), and three tiny grocery stores. For dinner at the restaurant, I was informed that their specialty was crevette cru, basically raw shrimp and cucumber marinated in coconut milk and vanilla. Normally the words “raw” and “shrimp” don’t go to well together, but I gave it a shot and was rewarded with an incredibly delicious meal. Score one for adventurousness, I guess.
Maupiti’s lagoon and pass from up high
On Maupiti we also had a “really???” moment; while wandering around the rural island, we spied a young girl sitting on a rusted old bike holding an… iPad? This in a place where the houses rely on cisterns for fresh water, and where luxury might be a ceiling fan, let alone an air conditioner. And we thought we had gotten away from it all.
Tahitian Feast
We actually attended two local-style feasts. The first was a Sunday brunch put on by a restaurant in Huahine, and it had all the requisite trappings; food baked overnight in the underground oven, ukulele players, staff decked out in flower leis. But the second one, on Tahaa, was the fun one. A local man and his family and friends put on a real island-style hoe-down once a week, adding a whole dancing and fire show routine to the usual buffet dinner. This one was particularly nice because our host and his family were genuinely friendly, and not just going through the motions. Ted distributed glowsticks to the kids, and the dancers came and pulled all of us out onto the floor, so it was a delightful evening all around.
Dance party
Snorkeling
Tahiti is home to some seriously good snorkeling. It helps that the islands are in the middle of nowhere, about as far from continental pollution as you can get. We had experienced pretty good snorkel conditions 9 years ago on our previous trip, and were mentally prepared for a let-down this time. Fortunately, our paranoia was unnecessary, and throughout the trip we had amazingly clear water, a large variety of fish, and plenty of iridescent giant clams to gawk at. Particularly nice spots included the shallow area 1/4 mile west of Bloody Mary’s restaurant off Bora Bora, the point off the old yacht club on Tahaa, the Coral River next to the Tahaa Pearl Resort, the shallow pool east of the Maupiti Pass, and the point off the abandoned resort on Huahine.
Giant clam
Pearl Farm
At the suggestion of the charter base we visited the Anapa Black Pearl farm, a small operation off the western coast of Raiatea. They maintain a couple of moorings for visiting sailboats, so we pulled in around lunchtime near the end of our cruise. The unique thing about this farm is that they allow visitors to snorkel with the pearl farmers.
Untying a line of oysters
Oysters waiting for harvest
Heather picks out her oyster
The prize – a black pearl
Black pearl oysters grow best between 15 and 30 feet below the water, and farmers set up underwater grids of lines supported by buoys that are tethered to the bottom and float to within 10 feet of the surface. The strings of oysters are then hung from this grid for several years, while the bivalve mollusk does its thing. At harvest time, a diver gathers up a handful of strings and carries them to a little hut perched right at the outer lagoon drop-off, where the oysters are opened and checked for pearls. After a demonstration of the pearl extraction, they open up the catalog showroom (naturally) and get down to the business of selling. Whatever they did worked, because my favorite went home that day with a pair of pretty earring studs for her birthday.
Newly harvested black pearls
The Night Sky
I implore you, if you visit Tahiti, to take time to study the night sky. First, the view from the southern hemisphere is not completely unique, but different enough to warrant a close look. Second, the low latitude makes for great satellite spotting; we invariably saw one or more satellites ghost by each evening. And third, the sky is incredibly clear, far from any light pollution.
Our private infinity-pool anchorage at Maupiti
One night in particular stands out; it was a rare day with zero wind, so the lagoon was mirror-calm. We were anchored out away from the main island (Maupiti) on the edge of an enormous sandbar with an uninterrupted view out over the reef and the ocean beyond. The planets Venus, Saturn and Mercury, as well as a razor-thin crescent moon, were suspended over the horizon just after dusk. It was so beautiful Heather and I brought out our pillows and sheets and lay down on the boat’s trampoline up front. And we just lay there and stared… and stared… and eventually fell asleep under the Pacific sky.
The Swim-up Bar
Many fancy hotels and resorts boast a swim-up bar. We created a new, and much more exotic, interpretation. As noted earlier, the lagoons are invariably ringed by shallow sand bars, so one afternoon off Bora Bora we decided to make up a pitcher of rum punch, dinghy over to a shallow sandy area, and use a stand-up board as a bar. Much better than hanging out at the Ritz!
Our version of a swim-up bar
The Guns of Bora Bora
As part of the general panic after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US military rushed to set up coastal defenses throughout the Pacific. They chose Bora Bora as one of their bases (Operation Bobcat) because of the large central lagoon and easily defensible single pass. The island was far enough from the action, though, that they installed WWI surplus battleship guns instead of the more modern coastal defense guns of WWII. And that’s how it came to be that if you walk up a half-mile path from the Bora Bora Yacht Club, onto the small ridge above the main town of Vaiatape, you will come across a pair of rusting 7″ Mark II Naval Canons manufactured in 1907 by Bethlehem Steel. The guns were originally installed as secondary canon on the battleship USS Vermont or her sister ships, and now guard the pass in Bora Bora, hopefully to repel cruise ships.
The ID plate on one of the guns
Guarding the pass
One of the guns above Vaiatape
The Post-Vacation
People who know us know that we always like to take a post-vacation, to transition more easily back to “real” life. We turned in the boat, flew to the main island of Tahiti, and rented a car for a couple days of touring. We burned some Starwood points to stay at the Le Meridien Tahiti, a few miles south of the capital Papeete.
Our final evening at the food trucks in Papeete before our midnight flight to Hawaii
From there, we flew back to Honolulu, rented a car, and spent our 14-hour layover taking in a last blast of the tropics. We had hoped to visit the Arizona Memorial, but the government shutdown nixed that plan. Instead, we visited Punchbowl, then drove to the north shore for lunch in Haleiwa at one of the famous shrimp trucks, then sat on the beach and watched the surfers at Pipeline.
Kayaking at Le Meridien Tahiti
The grounds of Le Meridien
Relaxing during the post-vacation
And then all too soon it was late afternoon, and time to head back. We drove down the beautiful and (relatively) remote east coast of Oahu, up through the pass above Kaneohe, and down into Waikiki. A final dinner on the beach at Ala Moana (two types of Ahi Poke and a seaweed salad from the poke bar at Foodland), and then it was time to return to the mainland, our 5-week tour through the Pacific officially over.
Checking out Pipeline on Oahu
Comments rss TrackbackOur recent trip to Maui included a most un-tropical component; we spent three days and two nights in Haleakala Crater, over a mile up from sea level. The National Park Service rents three wilderness cabins by the night, and by “wilderness”, they mean wilderness. The cabins have no electricity and are heated by a wood stove. There is running water in a kitchen sink, but it’s non-potable, and the only restroom facility is an outhouse about 50 feet away. It is as far as you can get, spiritually, from the $1000-per-night hotel rooms in Wailea or Kapalua, but we would not have traded those three days for a week at the fancy hotels.
The area around Paliku cabin
Haleakala tops out at 10,000 feet. The “crater” is technically not a crater, but the eroded and collapsed central part of a volcano. Over the years smaller eruptions have built some cinder cones and partially filled the basin with lava, so the floor is now between 6,500 and 7,000 feet above sea level. This means that, at best, the crater gets to about 60 degrees during the day, and drops close to freezing at night (hence the wood stove). Palm trees and turquoise water this is not.
The Air Force observatory at the summit
A moment of clear skies at the summit
The crater floor as seen from the top
Our hike started at the summit, in alternating clear skies and fog, and descended Sliding Sands trail to about 7,000 feet in about an hour and a half, where we emerged from below the clouds. Another hour and a half brought us to Kapalaoa cabin where we stopped for lunch. The thought of hoisting our 35 pound backpacks for another two hours made me wish I had reserved Kapalaoa for the first night, but our destination was Paliku, a full 10 miles from our starting point. By the time we reached our first overnight spot we were grateful to shed the packs and slip into our flipflops.
Paliku Cabin
I fired up the wood stove while Heather began preparations for dinner. Once things were settled we took a quick walk around the cabin to admire the location; steep cliffs just to the east, a forest to the north, grasslands to the south, and an incredible view of the setting sun to the west.
The late afternoon sun from Paliku cabin
And then, somehow, Heather crafted a “wilderness shepherd’s pie” out of powdered mashed potatoes, dried mushrooms, re-constituted beef jerky, and freeze-dried green beans. It was a fabulous dinner, with the added touch of some red wine I had snuck into a pint water bottle. Kind of put to shame most camp menus of freeze-dried beef stew and powdered juice.
Shepherds pie and red wine
And when the sun went down at 6:20pm, since we were miles from the nearest electric light, it got dark in a way that’s hard for city dwellers to appreciate. Some candles kept the night at bay, but there was really no need; by 7:30 we were struggling to stay awake – the 10 mile hike with 35 pounds on our backs had taken its toll.
The next morning we feasted on hot oatmeal, then cleaned up the cabin and set out on the 6.5 mile hike to Holua Cabin, our destination for the evening. The trail gradually left the vegetation behind until after about 1.5 hours we were walking on bare volcanic cinders. The different colors were surreal. The only signs of life were occasional Silversword plants, something unique to the high desert environments of Hawaii.
Trail through the cinder cones
At Holua, the mist was rising out of the Ko’olau Gap and washing over the cliffs behind the cabin, giving the landscape a surreal quality. Dinner on night two was tortellini with pesto sauce. I think we made it all the way to 8:30pm before falling asleep.
Day three dawned bright and clear, and our hike out the Switchbacks trail was gorgeous. We were met part way down by our friend Alexis, who had driven up the mountain to meet us for part of the hike. With our 2.5 hour hike back to 8,000 feet, our time in the crater was over. Below you can browse a slideshow of a couple dozen more photos.
To take your own trip to the Haleakala Wilderness Cabins you need to start planning well in advance. The Park Service starts taking reservations six months out, and the slots fill up quickly. You can request up to three nights in a row on one reservation. Your permit is available for pickup the day of your hike at the Visitors Center just after you enter the park. Getting your camping gear to Maui is a bit of a hassle; we were able to just barely fit two backpacks, two sleeping bags, and associated gear into a golf bag for transport on the airplane. But the hassle paled in comparison to three days of amazing scenery, solitude and tranquility in a part of Maui that almost no tourist ever sees.
Comments rss TrackbackThere’s something remarkably satisfying about a morning swim, although how would I know since I never take one in my “regular” life? But a morning snorkel off the south shore of Maui is even better, even though I have nothing to compare it to.
Heather cruising through a Maui reef
We are back on Maui for a two-week “pre-vacation” to the main event (to be revealed in a few weeks), house-sitting like last year for our friend Robin. Only this year, instead of running around trying to hit all the sights like last year (the road to Hana, Twin Falls, Waianapanapa Park, Lahaina, Kaanapali Beach, Iao Valley, local lunch at Honolua General Store, a drive across the lava field to La Perouse Bay, etc.), we’ve decided to take it easy and focus on few key activities.
My primary activity on Maui was, is, and always will be windsurfing. But the wind doesn’t fill in until after lunchtime, so that leaves mornings free for a relaxing breakfast on Robin’s lanai, followed by a morning snorkel.
This year we researched new places to go, since the usual spots (Ulua Beach, Ahihi Bay, Milepost 14) were more than a bit disappointing last year. We struck gold at all the new spots we tried; Five Graves, in front of the Makena Surf, the point between Kamaole Parks 1 and 2, and also between Kam Parks 2 and 3.
Rather than bore everyone with descriptions, here are two photo galleries.
Fish of South Maui
Other Snorkeling Pics
Comments rss TrackbackAbout 10 years ago my very favorite wife turned to me, probably while we were on the deck of a rented sailboat in the Caribbean, and said, “you never take me to Europe!” This after a string of four tropical sailboat charters in an 11 month period (Guadeloupe in July, BVI over New Years, BVI again in April and the Grenadines in June). After another half decade of tropical vacations in the Caribbean, South Pacific and Hawaii, we gradually changed gears and for the past few years have vacationed almost exclusively in Europe. The moral is to be careful what you wish for; I doubt she had any idea that we’d end up owning a boat in France!
The promised land; arriving in Maui
So in 2012 it was my turn to say, “you never take me to the tropics anymore!” The night before our flight to Maui last week, she made me agree to her only condition for this trip; that we not purchase any real estate in Hawaii (not that we could ever afford even a garden shed in this place of eternally over-priced homes). And now here we are in the land of “Aloha”.
You know you’re in Hawaii when there’s Spam on the menu
“Aloha” is a wonderful, all-purpose Hawaiian word that can mean many things, including “hello,” “goodbye,” “I love you,” and even (depending on context, of course), “I wish to decline the collision damage waiver on my car rental contract.” More importantly, it also describes the way in which Hawaiian’s live their lives. There are actually road signs that remind folks to “drive with Aloha.” As an example, Hawaiian drivers will only drive the speed limit if they’re in a big hurry — otherwise they’re content to cruise along at 5-15 mph under the posted speed. Hawaiians also never use their car horn. Honking your horn may actually be a misdemeanor offense here in the islands. In fact, the joke is that a local only uses his horn once per year, during the state’s required annual automobile inspection.
Old surfboards as fence
Speaking of inspections, when I used to live in Hawaii many years ago I owned a “Maui cruiser” type car. A car officially qualifies as a Maui cruiser if it meets two of the following three criteria; a) the car is more than 10 years old, b) has visible rust on at least half the body panels, or c) one of the body panels is primer gray. I got extra credit (and surfer credibility) because my car met all three. I probably don’t have to point out that this car would never pass a legitimate state inspection. My first two years on the island I had an acquaintance who ran a small fleet of budget car rentals, and he had a good system for obtaining the required inspection sticker; I gave him an envelope containing $20 cash, and a week later he passed me back the envelope containing the new inspection sticker.
Wailua Falls, road to Hana
Unfortunately for me (but probably fortunately for the budget car-renting public), his inspection sticker contact (I never knew who) got shut down, so when it came time to get my third sticker, I figured I might as well try and get a “real” state inspection. “Bruddah, you want me to inspect ‘dat? You joking, right?” This from the kind gentleman at an actual state inspection garage; so much for following the rules. I spent the next few days asking around until I got wind of a run-down service station in the “local” part of town. My source said to tell the mechanic that “local Mike” suggested I drop by.
Kite surfing
Now I’m normally a pretty straight-laced kind of guy, but I was also a bit desperate. I could not afford a car that would actually meet the relatively strict Hawaii State Vehicle Inspection requirements, and anyway my ’85 Tercel Wagon was perfect – it served as the ideal mobile “toy box”, and could hold two windsurf boards, 3 sails, mast, and booms, plus golf clubs, snorkel gear, swimsuit, and a duffel bag full of towels (more on this later), all of this completely inside the car, no roof racks needed! So I drove my ‘cruiser over to the little gas station in the not-so-good part of town, found the mechanic – a tiny, old Filipino man – and asked if he did inspections.
BBQ at Tommy G’s place
“No, no inspections here,” was the response I did not want to hear. Dejected, I turned away and began to leave. “Oh, local Mike said I should drop by,” I remembered, turning back around. On hearing the magic words, he glanced around behind him, then looked slowly up the street and down the street. Satisfied he wasn’t on Candid Camera (or something), he walked over to my car, reached in, honked the horn, and said “Ok, you pass, 10 dallah” disappeared inside, and returned with 12 more months of freedom in the form of a fully legit, up-to-date Hawaii State inspection sticker. Score one for embracing local knowledge.
Haleakala crater hike
The duffel-full-of-towels story is also one I’m not completely proud of (see: “straight-laced,” above), but hopefully readers will give me some understanding. West Maui is home to Kaanapali Beach, a strip of resort hotels in a beautiful setting, all with gorgeous free-form pools, hot tubs, waterfalls, grottoes, etc. – perfect for a brief bit of relaxation after a client meeting (I was doing free-lance web design at the time) or before a round of golf. Because the common areas were so nice, though, the hotel staff was constantly on the lookout for non-guests crashing the area. Not wanting to have to harass real guests with constant requests for proof of real-guest status, the hotels solved the problem by each stocking a unique color towel that would be given in exchange for a room key. In this way, hotel security could quickly scan the pool area for people (locals like me) without the proper color towel, and quietly shoo them away.
The flaw in their system, though, was to not require the return of the towel at the end of the day. As such, by late afternoon the waterfront on Kaanapali Beach always had several abandoned towels, and in all the different colors. I could stroll along the beach, set down my duffel near a towel, take a dip in the water, then come out and casually pick up the towel along with my duffel and saunter off. Over the course of a few visits I acquired towels from the Hyatt (blue), Marriott (pink), Westin (beige), and Sheraton (two-tone). After that it was a simple matter of choosing which facility I wished to visit, grabbing the proper towel, and setting up shop by the pool. And with the right color towel, what a difference. Instead of asking me if I was indeed a guest, staff were asking if I wanted a drink! I never got up the courage to order a drink and charge it to the Underhills, but a better actor might have pulled it off.
Mansion-sitting for Robin
Back to the present, we both arrived on Maui with great anticipation. Almost all of my friends from 15 years ago are still living here, and it was really nice to get back on island time. On the boat in France we always seem to be busy, or going somewhere, or exploring some village or château, but here on Maui, house-sitting (or more descriptively, “mansion-sitting”), we intended to let the days unfold at their own pace. Stop one after collecting our baggage and rental car was to swing by Kanaha Beach Park to look for Johnny Z, who I expected to find windsurfing.
Ready to windsurf with Johnny Z, 25 minutes after landing
Z is my very best friend on Maui, we’ve had some amazing adventures together. We’re quite the odd couple; he’s a very spiritual, ashram-visiting, jungle-shack-living, fun and wacky guy, whereas I’m…the opposite (see “straight-laced” again). Plus I’m tall. But Z taught me to golf, and taught me to surf, and he showed me the spiritual side of living on Maui, and he showed me how to replace the radiator on my Maui cruiser when I had no money, and we had some great windsurfing and snorkeling and surfing and hiking adventures during the three years I lived on the island. So even though I didn’t know what car he was driving or what windsurf rig he was riding, I was able to pick him out within minutes of arriving at the beach.
Maui seen through the eyes of a local is quite different from the Maui in the travel articles and brochures. The tourist Maui has luaus, 17 golf courses, bike trips from the summit of Haleakala, expensive snorkel cruises, beach bars, and chain restaurants. My Maui is home to an endless array of really varied and interesting hikes, micro-climates, remote snorkel spots, cave swimming, surf spots, local restaurants, and the best windsurfing on the planet. And I guess some golf too, although I can only afford to play at about 20% of the courses.
Windsurfing with Z
Since we’re staying in Wailea, many of our daily adventures focus on the area between Maalaea and La Perouse Bays, on Maui’s South Shore. There’s a nice hike at the end of the road past Makena, the old Kings Highway which heads east out of La Perouse Bay. The hike is on, over, and around a lava flow from only a few hundred years ago. Heading back towards Makena, there’s a nice snorkeling spot at the Ahihi Bay reserve. Another mile west brings us to Big Beach, site of a multi-hundred hippie commune back in the 1970’s, but now just a big beach with nice swimming and a sharp shore break. Off the beach of the old Maui Prince Hotel, a few hundred yards out, is “Turtle Town.” One time snorkeling years ago I could see eight big sea turtles at one time. After that the south coast alternates gorgeous resort hotels (Four Seasons, Kea Lani, Grand Wailea, Marriott) with fantastic snorkel spots (Makena Landing, Polo Beach, Ulua Beach, Kamaole Parks II and III).
Sea turtle on Maui’s south shore
There are required adventures beyond the South Shore, though, including the road to Hana, a hike across the Haleakala crater floor, stand up paddling (all the kids are doing it), and searching out shows by Willie K, a truly gifted local guitarist and vocalist (and comedian). Oh, and I guess some windsurfing. I seem to spend much more time on the ski slopes these days, but windsurfing is front-and-center in my personal sports hierarchy – and just by chance, Maui is the windsurfing capital of the world! Columbia River Gorge folks will argue the point, but I say why deal with 45 degree water, drysuits, and wicked current when you can have the warm, blue, tropical waters of Maui and true big-wave riding? Johnny Z was generous enough to loan me some of his gear, and we had a good half-dozen fantastic windsurfing sessions.
Late afternoon SUP session with Tommy G
Our return visit to Maui after a nine year absence was everything we expected it to be, and way more. Connecting with old friends (Tommy G, Gary B, Johnny Z), trying new sports (stand-up paddling), re-learning old ones (surfing), plus our morning snorkel expeditions, plus excursions to Hana and on Haleakala, plus breathing the smells of the island (the sugar plant at Puunene, the jungle scents around Hana), plus wearing only “slippas” (flipflops) for two weeks, it all just took my breath away. Not that I mind our life now, not by any stretch, but I really miss my old island home.
I’ll tell the rest of our Maui story with photos, otherwise this post would run forever, so here they are!
Unloading the stand up paddleboards
Me and HT on our late afternoon downwinder
Post-paddle freshly caught and grilled Ahi from Tommy G
Tommy’s toybox, part 1 (surfboards and pre-rigged windsurf sails)
Tommy’s toybox – windsurfing gear
Tommy’s toybox, part 3 (stand-up paddle gear)
Willie K at the Hard Rock Cafe
Beach BBQ with Gary and Eva B
Black sand beach at Waianapanapa Park
Pacific Urchins
A “Heather-fish” exploring the reef
Underwater vista
Spotted Moray eel
Waimoku Falls
Steep path up the Switchback trail
Sliding Sands trail, Haleakala
Silversword in bloom, Haleakala crater
Hana’s red sand beach
Flowers on the way to Hana
Stream below Waimoku Falls
Pizza dinner with Johnny and Alexis
Me trying to remember how to surf
Johnny, Alexis, me and HT
Comments rss Trackback
