June 2019 - Maui and a move
Maui
At the end of May we flew via LA to Kahului in Maui.Maui is the second largest island of the 8 main islands that are part of the Hawaiian archipelago in the Central Pacific.
We rented a condo in Kihei and stayed there for 12 days. That was something we hadn't done in along time ... staying @ 1 place throughout our vacation. Normally we wander about and stay no longer than 3 days at 1 spot, in order to see as much as possible.
But Maui isn't all that big and our kids really wanted a more relaxed vacation this time, so voila, this was the view from the 'lanai' (hawaiian word for patio) of our condo for the next 12 days ... not too bad, right. 😏
For our first dive we headed out to the middle reef of Molokini, a crescent-shaped & partially submerged volcanic crater, 15 minutes from the Maui coast.
Our second dive that day, was closer to the coast of Maui around Wailea, where we did a 'drift dive'. This means that you let yourself be transported by the current and the boat will come and pick you up there where you surface.
Both dives were gorgeous and so much fun!!
We got to witness how this fellow ate the sea urchin
Flying gurnard who will expand its wings when threatened ... we were clearly not threatening to him.😏
But apparently we were threatening to this little octopus!
Yellow frogfish
Cowfish & Spotted Moray Eel
3 White tip reef sharks, resting under a rock ... who are rarely aggressive towards humans by the way 😅
This time, 'The First Cathedral' and another dive site were on the program. The Cathedrals (there are 2) is the main reason why we chose Maui out of the 8 Hawaiian islands to go diving.
The First Cathedral features a huge, two-story tall underwater cavern – or lava tube – consisting of tunnels, ridges and passageways. A portion of the roof collapsed, leaving a large hole in the top. The fallen lava rock is appropriately called the Altar. Rays of light enter through this large hole and other smaller holes in the back of the cavern, creating a stained glass effect like the windows in a cathedral.
When we entered, the cave was full of fish ánd a white tip reef shark was circling around!! What a view! We were not able to capture this clearly on camera as there wasn't enough light to capture his movement, but it's stored in our memory for ever!
exiting the Cathedral
We were really happy that we made it to the Cathedrals, because for a moment it looked like it wasn't going to happen. We departed from the dock with grey skies and by the time we got to the dive site, it was raining with thunder & lightning!! But the worst was the roughness of the sea! They were having a hard time to find a safe spot to anchor the boat and once they did, it was really a scary experience for me (Geert & the kids did just fine 🙄) to jump into a wild sea, and trying to get to the anchor line at the front of the boat to start the descent while the boat was slamming into the waves right next to me. So 1 minute after jumping in, I just completely panicked and only thought about getting back into that boat as soon as possible. Geert tried to convince me to stay, but there was just no stopping me ... until our guide stepped in & was able to calm me down. And really, the fact that he looked a lot like aqua man had nothing to do with that! 😆
Anyway, luckily he did, because once we were under water, I was just fine and it would have been terrible to miss out on this gorgeous dive because of fear!
Once back on the boat, which was also quite a challenge by the way, we had breakfast while aqua man was trying to fix the engine which apparently broke down while we were diving. For about 2 hours we were stuck on a small boat, slamming into the waves ... but the company was good and so were the bagels with peanut butter. Luckily nobody got sea sick!
Breakfast on the boat
They were not able to fix that engine, so with only 1 engine fully working and thus the speed of a paddleboat, we headed to our second dive site that day, 'Malan Pier'. It's an old concrete pier that partially collapsed in 1992 when Hurricane Iniki passed. Now it supports an abundant corral growth and is home to many Green Sea Turtles, white tip reef sharks, and plenty of fishes.
On our way there, we saw a huge pod of spinner dolphins. As the name suggests, these dolphins are able to perform up to 7 rotations while jumping completely out of the water ... and that's what they do all the time. It was quite the sight!
Luckily by the time we got there, the weather had turned, and I sure was happy to jump into a calm blue sea this time!
Can you spot the frog fish?
During our 3d and last dive trip of this vacation on the 8th of June, we went back to Molokini, but this time we dove at Molokini Enenu'i, the eastern point of the crater.
Waiting on the dock at 6AM. That's our boat behind them
Our diving gear, neatly stocked on the boat
On our first dive that day we went as deep as 95ft (29m)! When we mentioned to our guide that we're only PADI certified to go as deep as 60ft (18m), his answer was 'PADI might say you can only go to 60, but 'FATTY' (he had quite the belly) says 90! Just follow me and do what I say, and you'll be fine.' Luckily Geert insisted on informing us of he planned the dive, because our guide went out of air when we were down there due to a leak in his tank and had to perform an alternate air source ascent (using the alternate air source of your buddy) to the surface, leaving us behind.😱
When you do deep dives like this, the increasing pressure will make you consume much more air, so you have to keep a constant eye on your pressure gauge (which tells you how much air you have left). It's unbelievable how fast it goes! I also experienced the increasing pressure on my mask. I had it attached too firmly on my face, and due to the pressure, it was compressing so tight to my face that water was entering into it from the side. I can tell you that it was kind a stress experience at a depth of 90ft. I've learned how to clear my mask under water, but after each clearing, it would just fill up again. And it's not that you can surface quickly to fix it! Luckily our guide was still with us at that moment, and knew immediately what was going on.
During this deep dive, we saw a grey shark, a spotted eagle ray, a trumpet fish, a spotted eel and an octopus ... a great dive once again!
Our second dive site that day was 'Red Rock' where we saw a manta ray making loops to catch food in front of us. Just 'WOW'!!
But we also saw a porcupine fish (who inflate themselves when threatened and become a funny, but venomous bristly ball .. which he didn't), a scorpion fish, raccoon butterfly fishes and so much more.
A relaxed porcupine fish
A stressed, blown up porcupine fish (picture from the web)
Scorpionfish
2 Raccoon butterfly fishes
Happy faces, on our way back to the dock
30 Minutes after we got home, this is how we found our boys. Yep, diving is tiring 😏
But of course we did more than just diving in Maui.
We took the beautiful 'Road to Hana', which is a 45 miles long drive with 54 one-lane bridges and 600 hairpin turns, gorgeous views and some worthwhile stops! When getting to Hana, instead of turning back and doing the same trip into the other direction, we decided to close the loop. Only afterwards we realised that the road south of Hana is not covered by the rental car insurance, and let's just say that we understand why! 😳
The red part is not really advised to do with a normal rental car ... which we did however 😬
On the road.
There are many worthwhile stops, but these are the ones we did:
-Keanae Arboretum to see the rainbow eucalyptus trees.
-A little hole in the rocks (if it has a name, I don't know it!) along the road which we checked out.
-'Waianapanapa State Park'. Nestled between black lava cliffs and framed by tropical flora, the black beach of Waianapanapa provides dramatic contrasts and colorful surroundings. From the beach, a short hike leads you to a blowhole where the waves crash into the cliffs, spouting water high into the air. Definitely worth the short hike!
The blowhole
The sprouting water, with Hendrik watching stoical in the back
-Right after the previous stop, we stopped at a local supermarket to get some drinks and munchies for in the car. And even that was worth the stop, because it was quite a charming one.
-'Wailua Falls'. You don't even need to do a hike for this one, it's like right next to the road!
-'Pipiwai Trail'. This is a 5,5km moderate trail in the Haleakala national park (so you'll have to pay a fee or use your annual national park pass to enter) which leads to the spectacular 400ft (122m) Waimoku Falls. The trail passes another beautiful waterfall, the 185ft (56m) Makahiku Falls, an impressive banyan tree, and cuts through a dense bamboo forest. Our main goal was seeing the Waimoku Falls, so we only saw the Makahiku Falls from the trail overlook, but you can explore it up close via a side trail. Be aware however that, because of the sheer drops and potential flash flooding risks (it was raining when we were there, so it wasn't even an option to do this!), people have lost their lives on this part of the trail!
Views on the Waimoku Falls
The banyan tree
Another, smaller, cascading waterfall that we crossed
From the other side of the cascading waterfall, with our boys on the bridge from where we took the previous picture
Entering the bamboo forest
The end destination
From there we went straight home via the south loop. As I said, there are parts of that road that are not covered by the car rental insurance, and it's also very remote ... so if something would happen, you might be stuck for a while. The views however were gorgeous!
Another day, we also did the 'Sliding sand trail' @ 'Haleakala', Maui’s most famous volcano. It's the largest dormant volcano in the world. The crater is 21miles (33,8km) across and 4,000feet (1200m) deep, located 10,023 feet (3055m) above sea level.
The views were surreal at times.
And of course we did hit the beach a few times! 😎
And had some nice lunches or dinners out, of which I'm never allowed to take any pictures because considered to be 'too embarrassing' by our boys. 🙄
These are the only ones I was able to capture because they were too occupied to notice. The 1st one because they were making jokes, and the second one because they were watching an NBA game.
During this last lunch, we had a very cute and colourful table companion.
From there we headed straight to the airport. Time to head back to Utah and get ready for our move. 😓
The Move
As I mentioned in my previous post, we had to move out of our house by the end of June. It was all very short notice and with all the military people changing to their new assignments in June, that month is a very busy moving month here in the States. Needless to say, we weren't able to find a moving company available at the right time. Luckily our new house was already free to move into and our new landlord allowed us to put our stuff before our official moving date. So the 2 weeks after we got back from Maui, were filled with packing, trips with cars loaded to the roof with boxes back and forth between the 2 houses and cleaning.
Only on the day of our actual move, we rented a truck to transport the bigger pieces of furniture, and from then on the settling in could begin (again).
Although it is an older house and it is very yellow :-), there is definitely one thing we like a lot about it: the different decks and their views! On the inside it is also very charming and very roomy and cozy. So in our case it was 'you lose some, you win a lot more' rather than the typical 'you win some, you lose some' 😏
Views from the deck at our bedroom
Views from the deck at our kitchen
And so we were ready for our last year here in Utah in our yellow house!
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