We woke up to the sunrise again --- no comparison to yesterday, of course, but far more lovely than the one from the Retreat two days ago.
After breakfast, we drove out to the west coast with our swim gear and masks, aiming to rent some fins and find a good place to snorkel. I'd been toying with the idea of booking a trip out to Molokini Crater, since that's supposed to have to best diving reef near the island, but that would have meant another very early morning and very long day. After yesterday's exertions, a more low-key plan was called for.
We picked up our fins at an awesome dive shop in Kihehi, where the staff recommended that we try entering off "the graveyard" --- a rocky cove behind a pump house just north of Makena Bay. Sorta here-ish:
View Larger Map
We got a little confused trying to find it, but eventually stumbled on the right place. The entry was extremely rocky. I had a lot of trouble getting my fins on in the surf, and Michael got a little battered around while waiting for me. We did make it out, finally, despite a strong current, and found some really awesome coral.
We were only able to stay out about 20 minutes or so, though --- Michael's mask kept fogging up, and I was still coughing a lot, which is not a good thing when breathing through a snorkel. Re-entering the cove wasn't much better, and Michael actually cut his foot open on a rock and sustained a few other scrapes from being washed up onto the shore. Poor baby. Although the guy at the surf shop had predicted we'd see turtles in the water, we didn't, but there was a gigantic one tucked into a little rock cave just to the side of our entry point. It was easily as long as I am tall, but it actually might well have been dead, since it wasn't moving and didn't seem to respond to the water splashing on its back feet. We didn't want to get close enough to check, although we did mention it to the surf shop guy when we returned our gear, just in case.
After that rocky (ha!) start, we drove a few minutes up the road to Makena Bay Beach proper and launched back in, much more smoothly this time, off of the glistening white sand. That was more like it. There was some awesome coral and fish just a little way out and to the right of the beach. Snorkeling off of Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef has kinda spoiled me for other locations, but I must say that this was pretty close.
I didn't know the names of any of the fish we saw, although I'm almost certain that one of them was the state fish of Hawai'i: the humuhumunukunukuāpua'a (got that?), or reef triggerfish:
We stayed out about an hour or so, then took a break on the beach with some sandwiches and the remainder of our coconut candy.
Never ones to be content with what we've already got, we drove to a third beach to try our luck in the water: Malu'aka, where we'd been a few days ago, but down at the other end. First, we rested up a bit in the sunshine...
...then took to the water for the third time, off the left side of the beach, to great success. Both here and at Makena Bay it was quite calm, with a little silt but generally good visibility, and at one point we just hovered in the water, watching and listening to the fish go about their business. There were more humuhumu...whatever fish here, and some catfish-looking ones too, digging in the sand with their whiskers.
We stayed out only a short while this time, then had a lie-out on the beach blanket and congratulated ourselves on a day well-spent.
On our way back to the surf shop to return our fins, we stopped along the road for a drinking coconut and for a quick detour to the southernmost end of the road at La Pérouse Bay. This was the site of the last volcanic eruption on the island and the landing point of the French explorer of the same name. As on Haleakalā, it looked like Mars.
We actually weren't supposed to have driven here. The rental car contract was screaming at us not to take the car past the end of the highway, although honestly I'm not sure why. The roads were super-narrow, but they were well-paved and all of the drivers were very polite about passing. It certainly wasn't any more dangerous than driving up the volcano, and quite possibly safer. Must be some old prejudice.
On our way back north, Michael couldn't resist stopping for a taco at this roadside stand:
They can cater your next party!
Then we continued up the coast to Lahaina, in search of a nice island dress for me, to go along with Michael's new Hawaiian shirt. I didn't have much luck at first --- the stuff was either too kitchy for words or just didn't fit at all --- but then stumbled on Katrina's Boutique, a little jewel of a clothing store run by a very knowledgeable and very pushy Israeli. She took a liking to me immediately and saw it as her duty to dress me up properly, taking care about issues of height and body type, all the while keeping up an endless stream of chatter. I ended up with two absolutely stunning dresses and had the best time I've had shopping in ages.
To celebrate my success, we took a stroll around old Lahaina and visited the famous banyan tree, which was planted in 1873 takes up an entire square:
That's ALL ONE TREE, folks.
Following our stroll, we stopped for drinks at one of the many bars along the waterfront and watched the sun set. How delightfully stereotypical.
The thing of it was that I hadn't yet seen a sunset on Maui, only sunrises, in general defiance of the usual tourist agenda. But that's just the kind of iconclast I am.
We went back to Pa'ia for dinner at the all-vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant Fresh Mint, which was absolutely delicious: summer rolls cut sushi-style, ginger "beef" and a "fish" hot pot. Then it was back to the cabin to watch the moon rise, clean out the cut on Michael's foot, and collapse.
No comments:
Post a Comment