A Trip Around Northwest Maui, Part 1

A warning and an apology to everyone who is not on a broadband connection. This post contains a lot of pictures. I've tried to make sure they are a reasonable size, but I they are big enough so that they can be relatively high quality.

On Friday we headed up route 30 around Halemahina the extinct volcano on the northwest of the island. Haleakala is the "House of the Sun" and Halemahina is the "House of the Moon". Just past Ma'alaea we stopped at Papawai Point to look back at the Kihei-Wailea coast. Its actually kind of lovely and mystical to see the mountains and shores enshrouded in clouds.

Kihei Coast seen from Papawai Point

We continued driving up the shore, past some lovely parks and beaches until we reached Lahaina. Lahaina seems mostly like a tourist shopping area. It's got the requisite ice cream parlor, places to buy T-shirts emblazoned with "Maui", too many jewelry stores, a few art galleries, restaurants with names like "Cheeseburger in Paradise" combined with a small shopping mall. After all, what good is a trip to paradise if you can't shop at Banana Republic? Since you've probably all seen a Banana Republic before, I took a picture of the walled shoreline instead. This wall extends all along the length of Lahaina -- or at least all along where there is no retail presence.

The Lahaina Shore

One thing to note about Lahaina, is that the beach around the city is still a sandy beach. As you progress north on route 30, the beach experience begins to change dramatically from sandy to rocky. The landscape also changes from relatively dry to relatively lush and the old volcano top is blanketed in clouds most of the time. After we passed Kaanapali, we stopped at another turn out to take a picture and look back along the shore. Like the Wailea-Makena area, Kaanapali to Kapalua is another shoreline where you'll find a bunch of resorts. Clearly this area has a very different feel than the Wailea-Makena shore.

Looking Back at Kaanapali

Our next stop was at a Honolua Bay -- a stony beach with some excellent snorkeling potential. The trip to the beach takes you through a forest area that makes you think that elves and fairies must be hiding somewhere within. I couldn't resist taking this picture of John as he explored a bit.

Jasiu Tarzanski, Polish Lord of the Jungle

While John scanned the shore for fish (this is known as a good snorkeling spot) I got in a few stitches on my sock as I admired the scenery. This was probably one of the few sunny spots that we found during our trip. It's also definitely some place we will be coming back to so that John can work out his snorkeling gear.

The Sock Gets a View of Honolua Bay

Since we took a little break here to catch our breath, and we're pretty much at the halfway point around our loop, this seems like a good place to take a blogging break. I'll finish up the journey tomorrow.