Maui, Hawaii — Hannah & Christopher

Beach Town

After Oahu, we flew to one of the neighbour islands - Maui. We rented a car and went on our way to the hotel. Maui has a completely different vibe than Oahu, its a more chill and relaxed beach town. We immediately saw more nature than city.

PAIA Fishmarket

Our first stop was to get lunch. Our hotel is near a touristy area, Lahaina, so we went to a well-known restaurant, Paia fishmarket. Chris and I both ordered the seared garlic and cajun ahi tuna with rice. It really lived up to its reputation. We sometimes still think about how yummy that meal was when thinking about seafood.

Lahaina Village

After lunch, we walked around Lahaina village. It's a touristy area filled with boutique shops and restaurants alongside the ocean. There's also a small outlet mall just north of the village. We enjoyed a few shaved ices, chocolate fudge and stayed to see the sunset. We went back to the hotel early and prepped for the next big day.

Haleakala Crater Sunrise

We slept early and woke up at 1:30 am to prepare our drive to Haleakala Crater to see the sunrise. The drive took around 2 hours from Lahaina to Haleakala Crater. As the roads got closer to the crater, it got darker (since there were no street lights) with more twists and turns. Just when we thought the drive couldn't get more dangerous, it started raining. I thought, oh no we came all this way, we might not even get to see the sunrise. But the higher we went, the rain started to dissipate; then we realized that we were going through the clouds! When we finally reached the top, it was freezing! I guess people didn't do their research, some people were wearing T-shirts and covered themselves with beach towels. We waited for an hour and finally saw what we came here for! The sun rising with a vibrant bright orange sky on a bed of clouds, we were speechless.

Ka'anapali Beach

After a day of early morning and lack of sleep, we decided to take a beach day. Just north of Lahaina is Ka'anapali beach resort. With three miles of white sand and crystal clear water, its no wonder why Kaanapali Beach was one of the most beautiful beaches we've seen. All the hotels and resorts are just a couple steps away and every tourist was treated like royalty. It was quite windy that day and the waves were quite big. Because of that, we had way too much fun, I didn't even take pictures.

The Turtle Tour!

With another recommendation from our friend, we booked a tour from Sail Trilogy to see turtles. We were supposed to go to Molokini crater but the captain said the weather was unfit for tour groups in the area. We then headed back north to Maui Mother's Reef Olowalu as an alternate spot to see turtles. We were disappointed at first but Olowalu was just as special for many reasons. It has corals that were 1500 years old, and most notable for its Turtle cleaning station. We stopped by a couple of places to snorkel and the water was crystal clear and we started our adventure to seek turtles! There were a couple and I was lucky enough to get close to one because it was coming up for air. The tour has a pretty good deal, we were also served by friendly and funny staff with homemade cinnamon rolls, fresh fruits, barbecue chicken lunch and mixed drinks along the way. Part of our tickets also goes to Blue Aina reef cleanup program. We highly recommend this tour if anyone is headed to Maui!

Old Lahaina Luau

When people think of Hawaii, you instantly think of a Luau. On one of our last days in Maui, we went to Old Lahaina Luau (Just a 7 min walk from our hotel!) Upon arriving at the entrance of the restaurant, we were greeted with a Lei and a mai tai. Just before the luau, they had set up multiple stations like learning Hawaiian dances, woodshop, games, and the roasted pig which was cooked underground.

We got to learn about Hawaii's history and culture through the luau. Everyone's Hawaiian dance game was strong. Although, one thing we didn't experience is the fire dance which was disappointing :(

Road to Hana

We heard Road to Hana is a must do for Maui. We decided to leave that to the last day. However the weather didn't corporate with us. It was pouring rain the whole day which makes the drive especially dangerous since the drive involves of a lot of sharp turns and narrow roads (even single lane for both ways). Since Chris didn't have a good night sleep, I decided to step up my driving game and take charge. Since there were no network connection on the road to Hana, we downloaded an app - Road to Hana GyPSy Guide to help us stay on track. It has an offline map and a great feature which has an audio that plays automatically and tells you about history and stories when you reached certain points. It also suggested places where you want to stop and sightsee since we can't see everything.

Since it was raining, most of our views were foggy. It was disappointing but there is a plus side because we were driving on a cliff most of the time. We missed a lot of sightseeing spots so when the app suggested barbecue, Chris said we have to stop.

One of the most memorable places we stopped by is the Waianapanapa State Park - black sand beach. Not sure the rain or the weather had to do with this, but the waves are ginormous! We just think anyone who attempts to "swim" will be swapped away for sure.

On the other side of the park there is a blowhole. There were people waiting to take pictures beside it but had no luck. We decided it was safe to just take a random picture and we heard a familiar sound...

We know we can't do everything in one day and we were warned that we should head back at the latest 3pm since the drive back takes at least 3 hours and there are no street lights. When we past Hana and arrived at Ohe'o Gulch (the last stop), it was already 4pm. I begged Chris to let me at least see the bamboo forest before we go since we made it this far.

We left at 5:30pm and we knew at some point we are going to drive back in pitch black conditions. However, since most tourists left early, there were no one on the road which made the drive fairly easy. There were locals occasionally who would catch up to us and give us a little honk. But we made it back to the hotel safe and sound.

Food Worth Mentioning

Our Hotel

Just some words about our hotel - Lahaina Ocean's Edge. It is not an overly fancy hotel but it has a stunning view of the ocean and very friendly staff. At the end of the day, we loved to head to the outdoor patio and enjoy the beautiful sunset. Sometimes, we would even see turtles coming up for air near the shore!

Thank you Hawaii, you had been amazing. We will definitely come back! See you soon!