Like all good tourists we decided to drive the road to Hana. A coastal road round Maui to the remote village of Hana. The road is; a, narrow; b, twisty and c, full of tourists stopping to take photos of the magnificent scenery. It drove me mad, what it must do the the locals I can't imagine. It's 52 miles long has 620 curves and 59 narrow single lane bridges and it takes between 2 to 4 hours to complete.
Did I mention the scenery?
And the waterfalls?
The plants?
Did you spot Jakki in this pic - giving a sense of the size of these Painted Gum Trees.
The road cut into the rock (you can just make out the cars and tour buses on the far side;
Of course we stopped on the way for the obligatory 'Plate Lunch'.
Once you get passed Hana the scenery changes from dense rain forest to grass land to barren rocks within a couple of miles;
We made it back just in time to capture the sun setting behind the clouds;
On the 'Road to Hana' are the Maui Lava Tubes an underground tunnel where lava once flowed.
- "Tubes form when fluid lava flows down the sides of volcanoes, the upper
layer begins to cool, and the lava beneath continues to flow in tubular
conduits beneath the surface. Due to the insulating effects of the hardened
lava above, molten lava is able to travel a considerable distance underground
with very little cooling. In Hawaii, lava tubes have carried fluid lavas
50 or more miles from their source." Source - The Virtual Cave.
In our case we were able to explore about half a mile of tube.
Descending into the dark;
It's completely dark in the tube so how does this bracken plant grow here?
And another question I have for you geologists out there. In one small section (about 20m long) of the tube the floor was covered in these round boulders, which I would normally expect in a river or glacial valley, all other parts of the tube floor were rough lava or cinder. So why are they there and where did they come form? And why did they all stop in one place?
In another part of the tube the ceiling was covered in 'Hershey Kisses' chocolate stalactites;
Close-up on the chocolate stalactites;
Is there any niece, nephew or godchild who can tell us how these are formed?
At one point of the tunnel a boulder had blocked the lava flow for a while which created a blow hole through the roof of the tunnel until the lava could find another route round.
Jakki under the blow hole.
Another amazing Hawaiian experience.
As tourists we see it as our duty to do 'the touristy things' from time to time (actually quite often). One of these was to take an early morning snorkel boat (Four Winds II) to the island of Molokini. To say it's an island is a bit of an exaggeration really it's just part of the top of a volcano crater sticking out of the ocean a few miles off the coast of Maui. The fish seem to love it. So every morning a dozen or so boats leave the harbour full of tourists out to swim with and photograph the fishes.
The intrepid explorers;
Images of Molokini;
Just cause you're snorkeling doesn't mean you can't smile for the camera;
Seeing the scarey 'Blue finned (plastic) reef shark'
Other locals on the reef;
We also saw the state fish of Hawai'i, a Humuhumunukunukuapua'a but couldn't get a photo. Without looking can anyone tell us what other name these fish go by?
On the way back we spotted a group of Turtles (unfortunately only one of our pictures came out).
It's a shame the turtles are so endangered - they look really tasty...
Saturday took us to the top of Haleakala a dormant volcano on Maui some 10,000 feet high.
View on the way up from under the clouds looking back across Maui;
Breaking through the cloud layer, the vegetation has totally changed (You pass through as many ecological zones on a two hour drive to the
summit Mt. Haleakalā as you would on a journey from Mexico to Canada).
The view from the top looking into the caldera;
The far rim of the crater is 7 miles away.
Close-up on one of the volcanic cones in the crater;
The white stuff is just clouds drifting passed.
Taking a break.; The clouds form a wall at the side of the crater.
Just walking around is hard work at 10k ft (although some would say I walk slowly anywhere...). Notice the rocks, at the top it looks like something from NASA's photos from Mars.
Silversword plant, only found at the top of Haleakala;
On the way back down and back under the clouds;
Haleakala seen from the boat the next morning;
Having left Harry behind we took a hopper flight to Maui.
The leeward side of the island is very barren, almost desert, whilst the windward side is lush tropical rainforest. The island is dominated by two mountain volcanoes which visibly affect the weather on an hour by hour basis.
View from our balcony at the Whalers;
Following recommendations we visited Mama's Fish House in Paia - where the fish is so fresh they not only know where it was caught but the name of the person who caught it, so you can thank them personally at the end of your meal.
Greeting from the locals;
View from our table;
We'd planned not to take/post lots of food photo's, but, we had to make an exception for Mama's.
The Black Pearl desert was amazing;
A couple of pics of the beach that Mama's is on;
A great place for lunch and a must if you're planning to visit Maui.