Maui

Monday, March 21

Kahului, Maui - 8:00 am to 6:00 pm

I had set an alarm, but was awake long before it went off. As I stepped out on the balcony, I could see the sky turning pink...and also LAND! 

Seeing land for the first time in over 4 days!

Kahului, where we docked, is an industrial port...no gift shops or tropical bars here. 

We were one of the first ones off the ship at 8 am but as we were exiting  the terminal building, we watched the Dollar rental car shuttle pull out of the parking lot. There were uniformed security personnel working and instructing people to get into separate lines based on what they were doing...tours, rental cars, etc. I appreciated the orderliness.

We watched as a few other shuttles came and went and it appeared that the group waiting for the Dollar shuttle was by far the largest. When it did arrive, we were the first to board with others behind us pushing and shoving to try and get on. The driver finally had to stand in the doorway telling people they had to wait for the next bus. Although the shuttle was quite large, much of the space was allocated for luggage (since most of the time it is probably used for airport transfers). The driver insisted that everyone HAD to be in a seat...it was a new law...and there were only 17 seats. This struck me as odd after being in San Francisco and watching people hang off the sides of the cable cars as they went up and down the steep hills and through busy traffic. 

I had reserved our rental car through the website "Discount Hawaii Car Rental" online. They show a listing of all of the car agencies' prices which made it easy to pick the best deal. HDCR also included additional special offers. For us, I not only looked for the cheapest price, but also an agency that allowed more than one driver without extra charges since Bob and Kent would share the driving.

One of the best things I did on the trip was to download the Gypsy Guide App for Maui onto my iPhone for $9.99. The app was basically a GPS guided narrated tour. Once we got started on the route, anytime we came to one of the designated GPS locations, the app would automatically start telling us about what we were seeing or giving us a brief history lesson. Here is a map that shows the locations the guide covers in Maui...

I took along an audio cable that connected my phone to the car speakers so that we all could easily hear. Although the app does not require data usage, it does drain the battery quickly so I also took a car charger. Having this app was like having our own personal tour guide for the day.

Driving the Road to Hana is one of the more popular things to do on Maui, but since we had to be back on board the ship by 5:30, we didn't want to take a chance driving the narrow, twisty road. Instead we drove around the western side of the island, enjoying the beautiful views and stopping often for photos.

We began our journey at Iao Valley State Park, just a few minutes drive from the port. This area gets an average of 386 inches of rain a year resulting in lush vegetation in the park. We walked the short hiking trail to view the Iao Needle.

Entrance to the park is $5 per car. 

Our first experience with the wild chickens in Hawaii.

The Iao Needle

From Iao Valley, we drove south and then followed the coastal highway up the west side of the island passing through Lahaina, Kaanapali and Kapalua.

One of our first stops was at Honolua Bay.

The protected bay is a popular snorkeling spot, but further out the waves were being enjoyed by many surfers.

It was quite a hike for the surfers.

Can you see the guy carrying the surfboard from the previous photo?

The Nakalele Blowhole was our planned turn-around point on the north side of the island. Distance-wise, completing the loop and returning to Kahului wouldn't have been far, but the road condition deteriorates greatly past the blowhole and we didn't want to chance having any trouble in our rental car.

Watching the blowhole erupt was an awesome sight. (Not sure if these still photos convey the power and height of the geyser of water!) The guys walked down the steep path to get a closer look. In my opinion there were some other people who were taking chances by being too close.

Our intentions were to find a place to do some snorkeling and had even brought all of our own snorkel gear...but it wasn't meant to be. Parking was impossible to find near Black Rocks where we had hoped to stop so we drove further and found another beach with parking next to the road. Unfortunately the bathrooms were closed due to sewer issues and we had no place to change. We weren't going to have much time anyway so we abandoned the idea.

While we were at the beach, we noticed people were looking at something in the water. We went to check it out and saw that a bunch of turtles were near the shore in the breaking waves. We watched as they would come almost to shore and then be washed back out with the surf. Some were pretty big!

A head poking up out of the water.

It was hard to distinguish the turtles from the rocks.

We had just driven through Lahaina earlier but on the return trip we found a parking spot and stopped. It was a warm day and sampling some shave ice seemed like a good idea! There were so many different flavors and we all got different kinds. The large shave ice were $5 and you could choose three different kinds of syrup. If you wanted ice cream in the bottom it was an extra charge. I was concerned more about getting "pretty" colors than what the flavors tasted like! We sat under the giant banyon tree across the street as we ate. Eating too fast caused a brain freeze...eating too slow meant you ended up with a bowl of syrupy soup.

While we were eating, Bob was in a little shop across the street that sold wood carvings. He didn't say anything, but when we got home there was a package waiting for us. He had bought a woodcarving and had it shipped home!

It was interesting to see how the climate and landscaped changed in the short distance from one side of the island to the other. Lush and green on one side...dry and brown on the other.

The trees formed a canopy over the highway.

I saw a whale spout as we drove by!

The last scheduled shuttle to leave the Dollar rental car office to go back to the port was at 5:00 pm and we pulled in about 4:58! I was starting to get a little nervous, but we made it!! Seeing the island from a cruise ship definitely limits your time, but we enjoyed every minute possible!

Waiting for us when we returned to our cabin was this cute towel doggie wearing a flower lei and a shell lei. How fun to wear the lei to dinner and see all of the other ladies wearing theirs! Even a few of the men were sporting the shell leis!

We watched from the balcony as the Pride of America sailed away from Maui.

My memory is a bit sketchy on what we did in the evening we were in ports, so I won't try and speculate. I do know we opted for the buffet some of the nights to avoid the slow service in the dining room.

This night the main show in the theater was a combination of magic & comedy and I'm pretty sure we skipped going (although we had seen both the magician and the comedian earlier.) We did make it to the Kanikapila Hawaiian Hula Show in the Mardis Gras lounge that featured the cruise director, Malu, and Kaulana, the Hawaiian ambassador dancing to the music of the live Hawaiian band. Earlier (at 4 pm) a group came on board the ship to perform Polynesian music and dance but we were still ashore as I'm sure many others were also.

Next port...Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.