Nancy & Michael's Day of Fun....

For eleven month's now, we've been talking about doing something besides going to the beach in our free time.  A three day weekend (and the end of painting) gave us the opportunity and we had no more excuses.  Time to hit the road.

We had always wanted to drive around the WEST side of the island.  No, this is not Hana side (that is East).  This is the other way.

We set out at 9:30 AM with dogs, water, camera, The Book*, a full tank of gas, the beautiful sunny day and our island stretched out before us like a red carpet.

(*The Book is the best guidebook ever:  Maui Revealed by Wizard Press.  Altho halfway through our travels we realized we needn't pay such close attention to whatever directions The Book gave to some exotic, must see, secret place.  We just had to stop wherever there were 20 other cars stopped & hike in, up, around to see what all the fuss was about.  I guess The Book has outed all of Maui's secrets....)

We cruised through Lahaina, Kaanapali & Napili with no stops.  We go there at times enough to make that no adventure.  Our goal was to see what we hadn't seen before and go where we hadn't yet explored.

First stop was up in Kapalua to see the Dragon's Teeth.  This lava rock formation (resulting from combination of wind & sea) is an easy saunter across the ??th hole of the Kapalua Golf Course, just below the very fancy Ritz Carlton (the golfers must hate this hole).

Lovely views of both Molokai across the channel, and the high rent, well manicured Ritz and oceanfront condo's behind us.  I'd give it a 4 on the Ono Scale.  Easy to get to, cool but not spectacular.

Next stop, the famous (?) Honolua Bay.  Known for it's outstanding snorkeling.  Well, holy cow, you can sure see why!

And I will say, even with all the cars we saw at 3 or 4 different parking/access areas, plus 2 snorkel excursion boats, it was not crowded.  It's so big and amazing.  Although we did have friends who made the long trip here all the way from Pukalani (upcountry) one morning... and they said the water was surprisingly cold.  Well, it is winter here after all.  Some summer day we will return with snorkel gear (and no dogs) and have a gander.

Next stop:  the Nakalele Blowhole.  You may recall this geologic phenomenon made the news about a year ago when a tourist got too close, was knocked into the hole, sucked into the ocean and, if I recall, they never did find his body.  Sad and frightening... but so avoidable.  This excursion turned out to be a lot of fun.  Great (kinda long) hike in.  (Altho next time, we will bring tennies or better sandals, not just flippies (or slippahs, as we call them here.)  Rugged lava landscape that's been etched by eons of wind, surf and salt spray.  Incredible views up and down the coastline.  Crashing waves, a lava tube.  Lots of places to explore at every turn.  This one gets like an 8 or 9 on the Ono Scale.  Oh, and that's just the getting there & back.  The blowhole itself is pretty flippin' cool, too!

Interesting rock "sculptures". 

Kahakuloa Head (that's the northern slope of
 Haleakala rising in the distance)

See Kahakuloa in the distance - the 636' high "rock". 

One of the smaller "blows" we saw... and were sprayed by.

Our 2012 Christmas Card?

Further along the road (which, by the way is no longer County maintained road, a little less smooth, but still passable and nothing noteworthy - yet), The Book describes a series of Olivine Pools on lava shelves that you can swim in.  It's a bit of hike down, better without dogs (and with better shoes).  So we are saving that particular excursion for when we have adventuresome friends with whom to do it.  But we think it will look a lot like this... that we happened to see on our way back from the blowhole:

Back in the car and... what's this?  The winding cliffside road is suddenly getting quite a bit narrower.....

Stay tuned for The Rest of the Story!