CRATER SNORKELING

MOLOKINI
Every day Team VFH stayed on Maui was planned, even our idle times. All the sightseeing excursions and even the well-earned time at sand gravity were all charted and coursed and with good reason. There is so much to do on Maui and with only a week available to us at the Ka’anapali Beach Club we were determined to see as much of Maui as possible. After all it’s expensive to get to Hawaii and Maui is a very pricey place so no time was wasted, but, even with all of our planning we had to make executive decisions about where our allotted time would lead us and we had to sigh with resignation at not having enough time to do everything. 

Now, you may think this would be debilitating to a vacation, to have every moment planned? It is very feasible to just kick back at the resort and let the days saunter into happy hours and sunsets, but Hawaii, and particularly Maui, has so much beauty to offer that it would be a shame to just sit on a chaise lounge every day!

A room with a view

So far on Maui we have done a lot. We’ve ambled past resort after resort along the Ka’anapali Beackwalk, stopping for Mai Tai’s (of course) at Duke’s. We have taken the lovely and treacherous Road to Hana. We have gone “full tourist” to attend the “authentic” Old Lahaina Luau. We have dodged Honu the sea turtle while frolicking in the surf at the clothing optional Little Beach at Makena State Park and attended an incredible Uncle Willie dinner show concert at Mulligan’s on the Blue. Of course, we have also sat at the pool, were graced by rainbows each afternoon and sighed at the sunsets over Molokai as we stood on the beach hand-in-hand. We’ve had dinner at a restaurant along busy Front Street in Lahaina and had drinks at the Maui Brewing Company Brewpub, whose bar features a strip of ice to keep the beer cold. It’s been a very busy half week with all these “must-do” Maui destinations.

Next on the agenda for Team VFH was another must-do Maui excursion; snorkeling at Molokini. It is a partially sunken volcanic cone that has formed a curved islet. Approximately 3 miles off shore, in the channel between Makena State Park and the Target Isle, Kahoolawe, Molokini is the number one spot to snorkel on an island that has plenty of exceptional sites for the sport.  When I first saw pictures of the crescent shaped island I was shocked by the exotic beauty and my immediate thought was this had to be very inaccessible and a destination only for locals or the privileged. Thankfully Molokini was neither. With morning sails out of Maalaea Bay from several companies Molokini proved to be very accessible and a top tourist destination with good reason.
Because of the curved shape of Molokini the water inside the crater is sheltered from the ocean currents and this calm safe haven is home to several hundred species of fish and other marine-life. Molokini is in the middle of the channel and deep water and there are no sand deposits. The water is exceptionally clear and visibility is up to 150 feet. This combination of calm waters and pristine clarity make Molokini the number one destination for snorkeling on Maui. 

MAUI SNORKELING DESTINATIONS

Molokini is a State Marine Life and Seabird Conservation District and access is limited and going ashore is prohibited. Obviously disrupting the coral is too. Of course the fish are used to humans invading their home and are tame. Still to get to Molokini you need to take a tour. Each of the licensed tour companies have mooring spots so as not to disturb the coral. We went with Quicksilver and purchased our tickets through the resort at a discount. Still it was not cheap at $123 for the two of us. It was well worth the expense for this unique experience though. The price included a continental breakfast and a lunch. Alcoholic drinks were available after snorkeling for a very reasonable price. Underwater cameras were available for rental and by the time the Quicksilver docked again at Maalaea Bay the crew would have burned dvds of your pictures. We rented wetsuits because the water was cooler and they helped keep us afloat but the snorkeling gear was all included. 
QUICKSILVER MAUI

I have to say that the crater was somewhat crowded There were a lot of tour companies represented and there were a lot of bodies in the water, but Janet and I were able to glide along with comfort. The captain announced that the visibility at Turtle Town was poor. This was the second destination for our planned snorkeling adventure and because of the conditions there the Captain opted to stay longer than usual at Molokini, that it was not worth the effort to travel there. After awhile a lot of people returned to the boat anyway and for awhile we had free run of the crater largely to ourselves, unpressed for time. 

THE MAYOR OF TURTLE TOWN

We were disappointed though in not venturing over to "Turtle Town". It is an area near Maluaka Beach in South Maui and the protected Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle is in abundance here. The waters of this beach are calm and inviting to the turtles because Mount Haleakala blocks the prevailing trade winds. It is possible to drive to the area and snorkel from shore. Had we more time on Maui we might have visited these gentle creatures.
TURTLE TOWN INFO

Mahalo for reading. Sorry for the delay between entries. Please come back to read more about Team VFH 's extended trip through the Hawaiian Islands!

Janet and greg

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.