Destination number four has finally been reached J We are on the sunny island of Maui which is everything the tourists and guide books say it is – beautiful! Plumeria plants, palm trees, coconut trees, golden (almost white) sandy beaches and HEAT!! Quite a contrast to Canada!!
Sunset in Kihei, Maui, Hawai'i
Plumeria Flowers
On Tuesday we went on board a sailing boat to the neighbouring island of Lana'i for a snorkelling expedition. Unfortunately, it was the least windy day we've had since we arrived here which meant that we couldn't actually sail, so we used the engine instead! This, however, turned out to be quite good for me (Kate) as it meant I didn't get too sea-sick during the 3 hours we spent on the boat. I've lost my sea legs, it appears L Adam was fine and very chivalrous – he held a towel over me so that I could sleep in the open air (so my stomach wouldn't churn) and yet not burn in the Hawaiian sun. He, however, now has a burnt tummy with a white patch where my head was resting!
Kate onboard the Paragon – our vessel for the day. The water really is that colour blue – something to do with algae.
The snorkelling was wonderful. I really enjoyed it, it was only my second time – we knew Adam would love it because of all the snorkelling he used to do in Oz. An added bonus for me was that I therefore felt really safe swimming around with him next to me. Our new underwater camera has provided Adam with hours (and I mean hours) of entertainment, and the fish and coral photos and videos he's managed to capture are fantastic. Such wonderful colours and designs – it's so awesome seeing so many new parts of God's creation! The treatment on the boat was great, too – breakfast and lunch were provided with chocolate brownies and champagne for the return trip J
What we have nicknamed the 'flame fish' swimming
We spotted a large school of these fish swimming perhaps 2000 fish in total!
We've seen some beautiful sunsets (as seen above) and swum in some wonderful seas. I'm not used to the size of the waves here so I usually fall over when they come in as I'm still learning when to duck so as not to get pushed towards the shore, or when to dive in for an attempt at body surfing...!
We saw a lava flow here from their last volcanic activity 200 hundred years ago. (We're going to watch the sunrise from the top of this volcano on Sunday.) At first we thought it was big chunks of rich, fertile soil; it was only as we were driving along and saw HUGE chunks of it that we realised it wasn't soil but the lava flow we'd been told about. We wandered around for a long while and found remnants of people's homes that are still being studied by the archaeologists. It's great that we're both into history J
A part of the 200 year old lava flow. This is rock, not dirt, and some of the rocks here are as large as us.
One of THE things to do in Maui is drive 'the road to Hana'. It's a difficult road to drive because it winds its way along the mountainside. Put it this way, the recommended speed limit around some of the bends is 10-15mph! BUT, as Mauians say, it's not the destination but the journey that counts, and this is truly a journey to remember. This side of Maui is so green and lush – it really is rainforest. There are areas to pull over for photo opportunities all along the highway and we're surrounded by trees, waterfalls, deep valleys, mountaintops (no snow this time!) and it's really amazing. One of the stops we made on that drive was at Waikamoi nature trail which was a mini hike through some rainforest. It was perfect for us – not too strenuous but with a variety of things to see. One of the strangest things, however, was that there were loads of Australian gum trees! We saw paper bark trees and other varieties (whose names I don't know) next to pandana trees and other native Hawaiian plants but the smell was of the Australian outback!! Very strange but kinda cool, too! During that trip I acquired 15 mosquito bites on my right leg and 36 on my left! (We counted last night.) Slightly itchy but could be worse – they could be on my face and arms too...
Adam saying "G'day" to an Australian friend – a paperbark tree
Kate being "Hawaiian" with a Bamboo flower we found in the rainforest
Adam showing the heights to which he climbed to get the flower for Kate to be "Hawaiian"
We found ourselves a church meeting to go along to last night and that was pretty cool. We went to book our day trips last week and ended up praying with the lady who was looking after us!! So we asked her if there was a meeting we could go along to and she told us about her weekly prayer meeting. It was lovely to meet some new people and pray and worship with them as if we'd known them for much longer than we did!
We've been here for over a week now and we're here until next Thursday. What's great is that we've actually met and spoken with quite a few people who've either grown up here, or been here for over 20 years, so we feel that we understand a little of the prevailing culture. For example, when we arrived we were really surprised to see huge malls on practically every block – this (obviously) doesn't please all the locals as their previous lifestyle has been taken away and replaced with a very expensive one. Most local people will have 2 or 3 jobs to support themselves. The things you find out when you talk to random people...! Adam also now knows how to tell a good watermelon from a not ripe one depending on the sound it makes upon flicking it with his thumb, and we both know that a yellower pineapple is riper than a green one. We bought one, left it a couple of days to reach perfection and it passed our taste test with sweet golden colours J
Anyway, we'll sign off now and write more soon ... when we've done the many things we have planned for the weekend.
Love, Kate and Adam
PS. We have been trying to get this posted since last Friday but have had many, many 'technical issues'. These are finally solved, but this post is now 5 days out of date – another coming soon.
