The Traveling Man

It’s been a couple of days since I did a proper update so I thought I’d fill in the last two days on Maui, including the trip up 10,000 ft Haleakala.

It was another gorgeous morning when we set out on the road up the mighty Haleakala volcano. Mom wasn’t too enthusiastic about the trip but she was a good sport. The road actually wasn’t as twisty as you might imagine and the views over Maui were spectacular of course. At the top, the terrain is other-worldly – looks a bit like mars! The crater is a beautiful red color and you could see for miles – all the way to the big island! Mom even admitted it was worth the trip!!

Afterwards, we visited a lavender farm (which wasn’t in bloom), but it did smell really nice! Upcountry Maui was really different. We finished the afternoon by stopping by the old cowboy town of Makawao. Maui is full of all kinds if neat little towns like this one. We had the most unbelievable mahi-mahi at a hole-in-the-wall bar there!!

We finished the day at the most amazing beach in Wailea. The sand was next to perfect and the temperature was just right. We decided to hang out for the sunset – Hawaii sure knows how to do sunsets!!!

We finished our time in Maui with a (mostly) leisurely beach day. Our first beach was right in the middle of Kihei. This was a more public beach, and we ended up at the… more “mature” part of it… But it was certainly relaxing, and the water was gorgeous! The other beach we visited was Baldwin beach on the north shore – this was another perfect beach. It had bigger waves and more beautiful sand. A great place to hang out.

We also visited the lush Io Valley, near Wailuku. This was a sacred place to the Hawaiians where a massacre took place. The valley contains the 2250′ Io Needle which is completely covered in green. I’ve never seen so many shades of green! There were some trails which delivered awesome views of the valley.

Maui was an unbelievable place that is hard to put into words – and hard to leave! But the big island was calling so we hopped on a short flight to Kona.

Tags:   hawaii · maui · Travel2 Comments