ISTHMUS BE MY LUCKY DAY

THE VALLEY ISLE
Maui was one of those places I had never expected to visit in my life. Hawaii is an exotic location, but I never considered going to Maui. EVERYONE seemingly goes to the Valley Isle. and I always thought of it as a large version of Waikiki. Expensive resorts, tourist towns like Lahaina were not on my personal radar and when the Ka'anapali Beach Club time share gift fell into our laps I was disappointed. I really wanted something on Oahu or the Big Island. But, we just spent a week on West Maui where there are lots of resorts and tourists and I have to say I would love to return.

Maui was once two islands; an isthmus now connects the collapsed mountain of West Maui and the younger, much more massive Mount Haleakala. The area between the two is arid considered desert, which makes it a great place to grow sugar cane. Through irrigation sugar cane fields flourish and from this seven mile wide valley Maui gets its nickname, the Valley Isle. When mature water is cut off from the cane. The leaves wither and the sugar is concentrated in the stalks. Farmers then burn off the leaves leaving just the stalks for harvesting. The ash from the burning falls on the neighboring areas and is called "Maui Snow". 

White snow sometimes falls on Mt. Haleakala, which forms the eastern island. At 10,000+ feet above sea level it is cold at the summit even during the summer. The eastern side of Maui is a lush rainforest and the Iao Valley gets more rain than anywhere else in the United States, and this is where Maui gets its drinking water. Beaches circle the island and the sand is either tan, black or in one place near Hana, the number one day trip on Maui, red because of a collapsed cinder cone.

The more I read about Maui, the more excited I was to visit this island. There was so much to do and I was afraid we would not fit everything in, that we would be running crazily around from one event to the next. Thankfully we had the very comfortable Ka'anapali Beach Club as a home base and despite our busy week were not stressed. Our home for the week was a large airy one bedroom with a huge bathroom and a kitchenette that opened onto a living room as large as our bedroom. We had a little balcony and a wall of sliding glass doors that gave us a "scenic" view (not ocean) of the West Maui mountains (and a super market). We could see how the collapsed mountain had formed gullies in the face of the mountain. Afternoon clouds would gather and the moisture would grace us with rainbows.

When we wanted to hang out a while between planned excursions we would go down to the pool or the ocean. There was an exercise room, and a running path along the resort strip in Ka’anapali when we were inclined to work off the Mai-Tai’s and beer from the on campus Tiki-Bar. The pool is vast, the open air lobby has exotic birds. It’s all very islandy, so when we are stressed from too many activities we can simply drifted awhile to catch our breath.  

When we arrived last Saturday the concierge at the Ka’anapali BC helped arrange our week of activities. She wrote out a little calendar for us and made phone calls and set up tours  when necessary; all at a discount I might add. She was very helpful and the week filled us very quickly.

Here is a listing of our planned madness for the week:

Sunday was the World Cup Final…sadly over coffee and papaya and not beers and wings… They started playing at 9 a.m. Then it was that damned timeshare hard sell presentation. We are still not sure it was worth $200! Later that afternoon we strolled along the resort walk in Ka'anapali and took a swim in the ocean near Black Rock, a landmark halfway along the resort beach walk. 

Monday was the "Drive to Hana." This is the number one “thing to do” in Maui. The road twists and turns and there are countless places for around 40 miles passing through lush rainforest and past waterfalls before depositing those brave enough to take the day long trip in the little town of Hana. There is a black sand beach and a red sand beach there.

Tuesday was the Old Lahaina Luau. This event is usually sold out months in advance, but somehow Janet got us two tickets. 

Wednesday was a Willie K concert. He's a very talented local Hawaiian musician. I first heard his song "North Shore Reggae Blues" nearly 20 years ago and  I have been a fan since. We saw him at a dinner show at the only Irish bar on Maui, Mulligans on the Blue 

Thursday we went snorkeling at Molokini, a collapsed volcanic cone three miles off shore and said to be the best place to snorkel on Maui.

On Thursday night/Friday morning we got up around 2 am to drive up to the House of the Sun, Mt. Haleakala. At 9,740 feet it was cold, but the sunrise was worth the shrinkage. Then, we rode bicycles DOWN the mountain. 

Sounds like we did a lot! The casualty of so such an active week has been keeping up with telling you details about our days. These will follow in time. 

Maui Brewing Co

After all that planning last Saturday we had to relax. But, instead of just lingering by the pool; it was already dark; we decided to take a short drive up Route 30 to the Maui Brewing Company for a couple of beers and a light snack. Janet had a Coconut Porter and I had a Big Swell IPA, my favorite beer so far on this trip. Too bad I’ll not be able to get Maui Brewing back home. 

MAUI BREWING


Mahalo for reading, our next stop on our never ending excursion through the Hawaiian Islands will be the Big Island and the Turtle House in Kea'au.