HAWAII
Maui Day 5-6
Aloha! This post covers Wednesday and Thursday of our trip to Hawaii. We did an early morning bus ride to the summit of Haleakala, tried out paddleboarding, snorkeled by our resort and actually spent some time relaxing by the pool!
Wednesday
We woke up around 2 AM for our bus pickup from the resort. The tour company we used was Skyline Hawaii. Our guide was named Trevor and he was a gem. It was pretty smooth sailing getting on the bus and heading out, although the actual driving up the mountain is pretty windy so it can be uncomfortable if you get carsick easily.
We had to pick up other tourists and it took a few hours to get to the summit, bringing us to the top around 5:40 AM. It was still completely dark out and FREEZING cold. The website says to dress warmly but I think that’s a bit of an understatement. They provided us jackets but I would’ve liked to have another layer underneath and warmer socks.
The summit gets pretty crowded so we hung out shivering for an hour, waiting for the sun to rise, so that we didn’t lose our viewing spot. It was uh, very type 2 fun.
I would say it’s worth it though. Watching the clouds roll in and the sky change color over the volcano was something special. And the views of Maui from that high up were outstanding.
Awesome night sky picture my friend got with long exposure:
Sun creeping up finally! You can still see Jupiter in the right hand corner there. It was so bright!
Finally, dawn!
We had one more lookout spot to admire the whole island from before heading to breakfast
Breakfast was at the Kula Lodge. It got so much warmer just coming partially down the mountain! And we were definitely ready for coffee and hot chocolate. There’s also a mini botanical garden and gift shop here.
I got a Loco Moco for breakfast – burger pattie, scrambled eggs and gravy over rice. It kind of wasn’t my thing but Justin loved it. Definitely good comfort food and probably amazing hangover food haha!
And a nice shot my friend got of a flower here. I was trying to use Seek to identify the flowers but my reception was not great up here.
After breakfast we headed back to the hotel. Trevor really got into Hawaiian history facts which was incredibly interesting. It was just really hard to keep my eyes open after being awake for so long.
The rest of the day was spent by the pool and chilling in the resort. I will say we stayed up way longer than I was expecting!
Thursday
Today we split up from the rest of the crew to go try paddleboarding and snorkeling on the beach, about a quarter mile down the boardwalk from our resort. We were told “Ricardo would take care of us” and we were not disappointed.
I have tried inflatable paddleboards but never the real deal. The water this day was calm as glass, but Ricardo warned us the wind could and would pick up, which would make it dangerous for us if we went out too far.
I was shakey at first but I picked up paddle boarding pretty quickly! And the water and outside temperature was perfect. We paddled, we paused and hung out on our boards, we did a bit of swimming, and even tried some light paddleboard yoga!
Just as we were getting hungry and making our way back to shore for lunch, the wind picked up. Oh boy, was this exciting for my noodle arms! We were being pushed parallel to shore, away from the rental shack. I had to get down on my knees and paddle with all I had. Thankfully, Ricardo saw us coming in and was able to meet me down the beach to pick up my paddleboard for me.
Now, extremely hungry, we went to the nearby Castaway Cafe on the beach. Maybe it was the exertion from paddling, or maybe this place was really good! I got the fish and chips and loved it, plus a customary piña colada. And the view is incredibly hard to beat.
After lunch, we were ready to try snorkeling. We went back to Ricardo and picked up snorkel gear. This stuff was much nicer than the goggles and fins we had previously (I noticed much less water getting into my goggles, for instance). We walked a few hundred feet up the beach to where the reef was and hopped right in.
It was like an aquarium in there! We saw so many different fish of all types, different types of coral, and two sea turtles! We heard from other snorkelers that they had seen a squid and an octopus too.
We were pretty exhausted after an hour and a half ish and turned in. Then it was time to make our way back to the resort for some much needed rest.
That night, we headed to Japengo for a sushi dinner to celebrate my friend’s birthday. We managed to almost literally order every roll on the menu, plus some sashimi and nigiri. I thought it was pretty damn good sushi too.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over receiving sushi on a boat.
