Maui, Hawaii

April 8-15, 2006

Click on each picture for larger versions.

After a particularly grueling few months of work, I felt like I needed to get away and take a relaxing vacation. I take a lot of trips and time off work, but it's very rarely relaxing. My friend Vik was up for it too so we joined forces and brought the trip about. Despite having 30 days straight of rain prior to our arrival, we got very lucky with the weather. It was only overcast one day and we were underwater doing some diving so it didn't matter anyway.

We stayed in a fantastic condo in Maalaea. It was right on the beach and had all the comforts of home. It was so nice to be able to cook some of our meals and blend our own mai tai's. It was also great to have so much space to move around in, as opposed to a hotel room.

Beach

We were very committed to our relaxation and spent most of the trip on the beach just laying around, reading our books and drinking mai tais. The water was absolutely perfect - crystal clear, warm, wavey. We went to Wailea first, but found the sweet spot in Ka'anapali.

Haleakala

Haleakala is a dormant volcano that stretches up to 10,000 feet. We drove up the painfully winding road to the summit and did a great hike into the crater (Haleakala hikes). We stopped on the way back down for drinks and pupus at the Kula Lodge which offered fantastic views and unusually friendly staff.

Scuba Diving

On Wednesday, we hooked up with Maui Dive Shop for some diving excitement. Vik isn't a certified diver so he did some snorkeling while I went down under to discover what lies beneath. We went to the Molokini Crater and then to Turtle Town. Both were excellent but the most amazing thing on this trip was at Molokini when about 100 garden eel came up from out of the sand like snakes for a snake charmer. It felt like I was on another planet. Of course, the camera wouldn't work for me at that point so it'll have to remain in my head.

Road to Hana

We tried to get to Hana on Tuesday but it was rainy and overcast and, knowing there was sun to be found on other parts of the island, we decided we could do without driving to Hana. However, we did stop at one lookout and had fun walking around on the rocks and watching the surfers.

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