My parents go to Maui evey Feb to play golf. They brought me back a Concert Uke this last time. Still Learning to play...
You got to see the Venus? From where, the Hawaii? Anyway, we've only been to Oahu, Waikiki and around windward, so that's the only one. I want to see the BIG ISLAND. The Hawaii.
Kauai. When i was there in my youth, we hiked to Wailua Falls, slid down the canyon walls to the top of the falls, then slid from tree trunk to tree trunk down to the bottom and went swimming in the pools. We then hiked out downstream. Great experience but in retrospect, probably quite stupid and risky.
No invite?! Damn man... Lol anyway I got to go to Maui last summer and I LOVED it. It was all so beautiful. I've never seen bluer water in my life. I did zip-line through the forests, snorkeling, and just chilling at the beach. It was amazing. Definitely would go back.
Yes, smart a**. We went to the summit of Haleakala crater which is 11k feet high or something. Did you guys get to hit the Diamond Head? Pretty cool but the hike nearly killed me. I thought I was in a good shape!
yeah this place gets overlooked a bit and after waikiki/diamond head I would say it's probably number #2 best spot in oahu. Highly recommended.
Very similar to a trip I had to Maui a number of years back, though didn't do Haleakala. Did the road to Hana, snorkeled at Moloniki (and got stuck on the way back for about an hour and a half cause we had a whale chilling right next to the boat, you could reach out and touch it if you wanted), did a fishing trip (actually caught a bull Mahi Mahi, pretty neat), and visited the Iao rainforest, or however you spell it. Went boogie boarding one day. Waves were kind of big. Wife told me not smart. So I went down the beach where the waves were "smaller". I was at the top of this wave coming back in, and it just pounded me down. I wasn't as far out as I though, planted my face into the sand, could feel my neck stretching, had sand grit pushed all along the side of the face. Wave ended, I stood up, thought to myself in Keanu fashion: Woah. Walked up to the beach and everyone was just staring at my face. Didn't hurt too bad, and healed. Went to a luau later that night and the guy checking us in deadpanned: "Went boogie boarding, eh?" Cool story, bro. That's the only trip I've ever done to Hawaii, but agree with your overall assessment - awesome place. love to go back.
I've always liked the Big Island. There's such contrasting environments on all sides of the island. The few times my wife and I have been, we would always take our rental car (against the rules) across Saddle Road. Extremely serene and peaceful. We've often wanted to travel up to the Mauna Kea summit and check out the observatories...but chickened out at the one-lane road warnings. On the southside of the Big Island is Ka Lae (Southpoint). If you drive as far as you can go and then hike for about 45 minutes, you'll come to a green sand beach. Really a unique place. You feel as though you are a million miles from anyone and anything. Very beautiful. My wife is from Kauai...which I really like. It's small and slow, similar to growing up in East Texas (Huntsville). The people are very friendly. Oahu is like any other large metropolitan areas. Huge, overcrowded city and roads with outskirt suburbia and rural-type settings beyond the suburbia...except all of it lies in paradise. If we ever move there (Hawaii), it'll probably be Oahu due to the available jobs market. Maui is probably my favorite, though. We've only been there once...for our honeymoon. Maui seemed like a mix between Oahu and Kauai. There's much more stuff to do there than Kauai, but it still felt small and un-developed (compared to Oahu). I would love to move to Kula (about 1000 feet above sea level, situated on your way to Haleakala).
Stayed at the Ritz Carlton Kapalua in Maui last year for a week. Really nice resort, although Kapalua tends to be a little windy. We liked it since it's a bit away from the riff raff at Lahaina and less crowded than Kaanapaali. Liked the drive up to Haleakala, and hiking around at the top. Even stopped at the Kula Lodge for lunch on the deck overlooking the rest of the island. Snorkeling Molokini Crater was really cool, as was the Sea Turtles area. Wailea Beach was cool, as was the hike up to Waihee. I didn't do the Road to Hana since white knuckling it for 4 hours sounds miserable. Next time we'll stay on Big Island for the reasons boomboom mentioned. Want to check out the black sand, volcanos and all the other stuff that makes it different from the other islands.
My favorite spot on Maui. You walk through a forrest, giant mangos or papayas...can't remember. And then the sea turtles come into that bay. Swimming with them was amazing. <iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=maui&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Maui&gl=us&t=h&ll=21.014019,-156.63855&spn=0.003505,0.00456&z=17&iwloc=A&output=embed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=maui&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Maui&gl=us&t=h&ll=21.014019,-156.63855&spn=0.003505,0.00456&z=17&iwloc=A&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>
LOL! I did a bit of boogie boarding and I ended up getting a sand burn on my knee. Waves were too rough. After that incident, I was done. I don't know how surfers/boogie boarders can deal with the waves. They are crazy! Yeah, Iao. It was a pretty cool place to visit. The scenery is breathtaking especially seeing the lush landscape against the clear blue ocean.
I read that Maui is the windiest island out of the islands. It was windy the whole time we were there. The Kaanapaali area is really nice. We also stopped by the Lodge for a late lunch after the crater visit. A neat place!! I loved the upcountry. We visited the Ulupalakua Ranch. Pretty cool place. They had a winery so we bought two bottles. http://www.ulupalakuaranch.com/ The highway to Hana wasn't that scary but the drive back was. I guess because of the dark, narrow roads, one lane bridges, 600 curves and I was facing the ocean the whole time. Word of warning, please don't do anything brash while on this drive. When we were there, I read a story about a 12 yr old San Diego boy falling off a cliff at one of the stops on the highway to Hana and died. Apparently, he got out of the car and ran to the cliff then slipped. We were just there in that exact spot two days before. Horrible tragedy. We also got a chance to see the black sand beach on the drive to Hana. Pretty cool.
In regards to snorkeling, we did that at Waikiki beaches, by the artificial rock peers. I probably have some pictures of that. Oh, yeah, I "submerged" my Motorla Razor while snorkeling. FYI, Hanauma Bay doesn't have restrooms nearby... so you want to snorkel there "early" so you don't swim in PP. Yes. We went to the Diamond Head. We hiked it and went down to the shore side, and saw plenty of wildflowers and cotton growing. Also, we loved the "STRONG SURF, do not swim here" signs. Of course, we swam.
