Maui - Wow-i!

I just noticed that it's been 6 months since my last post.  All has been well here.   The winter was busy with skiing every Sunday. It was also very, very cold; so not that comfortable for skiing.  We were so looking forward to our trip to Hawaii.  And it did not disappoint!  We rented a lovely condo in the south Kihei area of Maui.  We enjoyed the beautiful beach, a luau, snorkeling the Molokini crater (an underwater volcano), visiting the aquarium, whale watching, visiting the magnificent Haleakala volcano and the drive to Hana through the rainforest (one of my favourites).  Here are some photos from our trip.....

The view from the lanai of our condo

 The pool, which Maya enjoyed

One of many gorgeous sunsets

Aidan turned 12 on our first full day there. Mike made him swordfish for dinner.

Feeding of the stingrays at the aquarium

Getting ready to go whale watching

A whale breaching.  We could also see whales and sea turtles from our condo balcony.

 

Aidan sitting on volcanic rock on the beach

 

My favourite shot of Maya

Aidan enjoyed the boogie board

 

 Here we are at the top of Haleakala, the inactive volcano

 A family shot.  The drive to the top was somewhat scary - lots of switchbacks and no guardrails.

 

We stayed for sunset and then did the scary drive down in the dark without streetlights!

 

We also drove the Road to Hana, which was much less scary and very lush.  On this side of the island there is more rain and there is rainforest.

The family in front of Twin Falls

 Here you get a sense of the lush vegetation.

We did a brief hike in the bamboo forest

A typical view of the ocean from the roadway

We also toured a lava tube - a hollow cave formed by lava

Here we are inside the lave tube

 Our last stop was the black sand beach

Maya, Mike, and Aidan wading in

 

 

We also did some snorkeling near a reef off the beach where we were staying

And Aidan and I did a boat trip to the sunken volcano of Molokini to snorkel the crater.  We also went snorkeling with some very large green sea turtles. 

Another neat trip we did was to go canoeing in a traditional Hawaiian outrigger canoe

We learned some Hawaiian paddling chants but Maya was not impressed!

The family in front of the outrigger canoe.

 

One of the fun things we did was attend a luau

Here is Maya with her lei

Unearthing of a pig for dinner

The lively dancers

 They even got the kids on stage to do the hula.  Aidan really worked it!