DAY6: After our most satisfying day at Big Beach, Cindy offered to watch the kids while Jeff and I braved the Road to Hana - him on a road bike with Sven and I with my sisters in a car, while Krista's friend, Todd, rented a motorbike for it. We enjoyed some delicious banana bread together at the little food stand early on the road, before heading out at our own pace.
We stopped at Waianapanapa (Black Sand Beach) State Park for a little exploring.
I wanted to make it
all the way to the southern part of the Haleakala park to do the Pipiwai
trail, so we headed there quickly with only a few stops. Surprisingly, none of us got
car sick on the way there.
The trail starts at the coast, to view the Seven Sacred pools of Oheo. Very cool. A satisfying little hike with a pretty decent waterfall at the end, though no pool to swim in at the base.
DAY 7: Cindy's Mom and husband Paul happened to be in Maui at the same time, so we drove north to visit her in Napili Bay for snorkeling and playing in their pool. It was the day I had my close encounter with a turtle while snorkeling - very awesome.
DAY 8: Cindy and I took the kids with Kim and Adam to do a hike along Twin Falls trail, but first stopped at Hookipa Beach to check out surfers. We were treated to some fresh coconut drink by some locals.
The Twin Falls hike was perfect for the kids, if not just a little muddy from all the rain.
(There was a small group of Japanese hikers that took a liking to Simon on the trail):
DAY 9: Monday, I had booked surfing lessons for pretty much everyone except Krista, Todd, Megan and Cindy, who watched on the beach with Simon. They guaranteed everyone would get up and we all did! It was soooo much easier than when we were in San Diego in 2008. Callum, Teddy and Max each got up on their first try! So cool. Jeff worked his butt off to get up, and Kim struggled a bit, but everyone worked hard and got seriously tired out by the end of day.
DAY 10: I really wanted to check out the Iao Valley. The kids were feeling kind of lazy that day but we got them out the check out the "needle" and the valley really was lovely. That night, Jeff and I were able to escape for an amazing meal at Mama's Fish House.
DAY 10: Our last day, we got in some beach time at Baby Beach and Kamaole III in Kihei. The whole trip, Adam and Simon shared a funny relationship, but I think they generally enjoyed eachother.
Although the trip started out a little unpleasant, with the disappointing weather, it turned out pretty awesome. I may choose an all-inclusive resort in Mexico next time, to avoid what seemed like constant food-preparation for the kids, but we'll be back to Hawaii, I'm sure. Just not in January.
I'm going to try get down as much as I can remember, so I can retain as memories of our fantastic Maui trip as I can.
DAY 1: We flew out on Sunday, January 26th, from the Bellingham Airport with my sister Kim, her son Adam and my niece Karlyn. I admit to feeling rather stressed out about the potential nightmare of a flight if Callum got puke-y and Simon got scream-y, so I gave Callum and Simon both Gravol and even some Tylenol (since they were a bit congested).
Callum was already getting drowsy before we boarded, Simon managed to fall asleep even before we took off, and nobody threw up the whole time, so I think it was a success! We were in the air for 7 hours, though, so it seemed like forever and I still remember the feeling of immense relief when we landed in Kahului.
We met up with the rest of our group at our rental house in Paia (called Paia Surf) during the rest of the day: Cindy and Teddy had flown in a few days earlier, Sven was already in Maui, then Todd (Krista's boyfriend), Krista and Megan flew in from Calgary. Unfortunately, most of us were incredibly disappointed for the first 3 days we were there - it was (relatively) cold and very rainy! Once we were settled, some of us braved the rain to get tacos down the street for dinner.
DAY2: Monday morning, I was up at 5:00am since I seemed to have horrible allergies and couldn't sleep, so I walked down to Paia Bay in the pitch dark and pouring rain. I thought it was supposed to be sunrise at 6:00am, but it was taking too long, so I headed back to the house where everyone was still asleep and the sun, apparently, doesn't come up until 7:00am. I was feeling rather unpleasant. A few of us Mom's went to Costco for our food trip (and to buy me some medication) while everyone else checked out Paia Bay a bit. Not a very exciting day (I think I even had a nap after my drugs kicked in).
DAY 3: Krista, Todd and I were trying to pick up our spirits on Tuesday and everyone headed to Kihei for some time on the beach in between spurts of rain. Luckily, we had some entertaining kids with us that really didn't care about the rain and showed us that you can have fun and be happy despite the weather. We were at Kamaole Beach 3, where Callum and Teddy got their first lessons on Boogie Boarding, the big boys (Sven, Todd and Jeff) began body-surfing and Krista's girls got some swimming time along with Cindy. Kim, Krista and I still felt uninterested in getting wet and shivering on the beach. When it got too cold, getting buried on the sand seemed to be a decent way to warm up, or just sticking your head in the sand, as Simon seemed to enjoy a lot!
DAY 4: Krista had booked all of us on a chartered snorkel and Snuba boat trip to Molokini crater for Wednesday. We wondered if they would cancel it, due to the rain and wind, but the guides seemed rather unsympathetic to our weather concerns, ("it's winter here", she said, "this is what Maui is like in winter"), though we never did get to Molokini because of the rough water. Although it wasn't exactly how I imagined the boat trip, it was still a great experience - I got to try Snuba with a few others while Jeff took Callum and Max snorkeling. Max got a little freaked out when Jeff pointed out that they were swimming in the middle of a school of fish, so he spent most of the time on the boat. Callum, however, was all over it - he was snorkeling on his own or with one of the guides, who grabbed a puffer fish for him to touch. Even Simon seemed to like being out on the boat and he was jumping off the boat to me, not minding the significant chill. We managed to see quite a lot of Humpback whales pretty close to the boat too, so we were satisfied with the breaching and tail show they put on for us.
Near the end, Karlyn was throwing up
off the front of the boat while I was starting to feel a little
uncomfortable. I had given Callum some Gravol before getting on the
boat, but since he was in the water most of the time, he never got
seasick, thank goodness.
Most people just wanted to hang out the rest of the day, but a few of us wanted to hunt down some sun. We enjoyed about 5 minutes of sun at Baldwin beach sun before rain showers hit.
We headed further south to Makena, where Sven showed us Little Beach for 1/2 an hour of decent boogie boarding.
DAY 5: That's when Krista and I saw Big Beach and decided that, since the weather forcast for Thursday looked promising, we would come back for a good, long beach day. So, finally, on Thursday, we had an awesome sunny day!
To be continued: Days 6-11...
