Siri and I ran out of time to go up Haleakala the last time we visited Maui – just so much to see. Fortunately, we made it to the top this time.
Before driving up in the afternoon, we biked to South Kihei in the morning to the end of the road to Ahihi-Kinau Marine Preserve. Enjoyed biking by very high-end Wailea resorts – like the Four Seasons resort featured in White Lotus. Maybe tomorrow we will go inside and check out the lobby and see how the other half (maybe the 0.5%?) vacation.
When we returned, we all enjoyed a refreshing dip in the ocean and a hearty lunch back on shore. Then we were off to the 10,023 foot summit of Haleakala with every long sleeve shirt, jacket and coat we had packed just for this experience. We even threw in a few long beach towels to use as blankets if it really got as cold as everyone says.
We stopped in to see the endangered green turtles at Ho’okipa Beach past Paia. A very popular spot for these turtles since they get to actually rest and not get bothered by tourists. We then head ‘upcountry’ which is up the slopes of the volcano. We have some refreshing drinks and homemade pastries – including a passion fruit tart – in Makawao then keep going up. We make another stop in Kula which we hope to return later since this is where there is an historic winery and a few local farms. We finally make it to the summit by 4:30 and it is already getting fairly packed with cars. As the sun starts to go down the temperature does as well and we start to bundle up. Fortunately, I did not have to put on the second pair of pants nor the extra extra rain jacket I had brought. I didn’t even need the emergency beach towels we had put in. We did get to see the barren crater where Siri’s father and mother had backpacked across (!) when they were our age many years ago. Quite the journey – especially the 8,000 feet descent after traversing the seemingly desolate crater floor.
With our chairs set and cameras ready, we joined in with 50+ of our newest closest friends to see the spectacular sunset. We stayed even longer to see the deep orange and reds radiate out from the clouds into the deep blue sky. After we decided we had seen enough and were getting a bit cold, we packed it all back up and headed back down the very windy road home.
Tomorrow we have some more biking and snorkeling planned as well as a birthday dinner. Woohoo!
Then on Saturday morning we arrive at 8 a.m. to start our Humpback Whale count. This volunteer program has been going on for over 20 years and is done the last Saturday of January, February and March. Siri got us signed up several months ago and we will be stationed at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Visitor Center less than a mile from our condo. This group is one of the main sponsors. Our friends will be at a beach about 3 miles south of us. We have already received a 7-page handout of our responsibilities via email and then will receive our final training on Saturday morning on how to count whales and observe their behavior. We hope we pass. 🙂 We are excited to participate in this annual event and hope to see a few whales.
Two days ago we did see a few whales way off in the distance along with spinner dolphins much closer to shore. We hope we will have good data to report back to everyone after Saturday.
Siri and David Adventures 