Day 9 - Maui - Ka'anapali

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OH WOW!! Now it feels like we are in Hawaii!

But let me back up a step...

Our day started at the Banana Bungalow with pancakes and with Jordan still complaining of stomach pain. The morning seemed to drag as today's tour to Lahaina wasn't due to leave until 12pm.

We weren't the only ones on the shuttle with bags so I am not feeling so guilty now. Issac was our driver today (well of our bus, Henry drove the other one)... and what do you know, we share the same birthday :D

Anyhoo, the trip to Ka'anapali (Kah - nah -parlee) was around 50 mins. On the way Issac gave us a running commentary of what we could see along the way.

There was a sugar cane crop being burnt off. Apparently they are trying to get the burning process banned due to the effect it is having on the air pollution levels, but so far unsucessfully. We saw the island of... hmm which one was it s... hmm will get back to u on that, but until about 20 years ago was used the military as a test ground for bombs!!!. For the past 3 years they have been cleaning it up and removing all the unexploded bombs so that they can look at inhabiting the island. It was scheduled to happen a little while ago but they found some that they had missed... whoops .. so its going to take a little longer.

Issac dropped us off near the Sheraton and while the others made their made to the beach we took a 10min walk along the beach walk to the Royal Lahaina Resort. We walked into the resort grounds and suddenly it felt like we were really in Hawaii. It is totally cliched but the lush gardens, tropical colourful flowers, resort right on the beach and it was just amazing. As an added bonus our room was ready and we were able to check in early. Second surprise was thinking that I was booked into a ground floor cottage room and instead being shown to the 7th floor in the tower :D

We allowed ourselves to indulge in what is absolute luxury to what we have experienced so far, finished our lunch and headed back to the beach with our snorkel gear to meet the others. Besides, the others had been talked out of gettng any snorkel gear as the surf was a little more rough than expected and visibility wasn't supposed tobe any good, so we were prepared to share our gear around.

the others were given some bad advice! As we arrived on th beach there was a real buzz going on. apparently there was a sea turtle.. a big one... right off the beach swimming amongst all the gawkers. So we quickly dumped our gear, grabbed our snorkels and heading for the action ...only to be tossed literally back on the beach by the waves lol.

Then it happened. A really large wave came crashing towards us. Jordan and I managed to dunk under, but Maddy got caught, dumped and had her head caught in the receeding sand :O

She was really shaken up and upset and refused to go back into the water again. On top of that she managed to lose her mask and we couldn't find it anywhere. I actually think a saw a guy with it he was checking us out pretty close while we were searching, but we didnt have names on it so we couldn't prove anything. She calmed down and sat on the beach while Jordan and I went back into the water for a little while longer.

Jordan was already paddling around when he announced excitedly that he had caught a glimpse of the turtle. I headed out and was treading water trying to get my mask ready to go when a large dark shadow appeared heading toward me and passed slowy under me. TOTALLY FREAKED OUT!!

To start with I was thinking 'Oh my gosh its a turtle', then I went to "oh no .. dont put ur feet down! Don't step on it!' and was trying to get my mask on and not step on it and not really getting anywhere, when I started to question things ...'It is a turtle... right?' When I finally got my mask on the site was amazing, but before that, there was a large dark shadow under me... it was a little scary.

When I got the mask on, the view was so clear and there was the turtle! He was huge ... tho there was a girl there who said the turtle was female. Can't recall why now. It was probably close to a metre in diameter and like maybe 6m off the beach swimming amongst 30-40 gawkers adn just couldnt have cared less. It was only 2-3m deep. Then the cry goes up there are actually 2 turtles swimming around down there. I never managed to see both of them. there were too many people and I had read somewhere that u aren't allowed to touch them and you are supposed to stay 15ft away from them or something like that.

We got out of the water and Maddy said she wanted to leave. Not hard to understand. We said our goodbyes and headed to the resort and access to a privte nice hot shower. We must have emptied half the beach out of our clothes from the dumpings we took and I am not sure that I have gotten all of it at this time. Sand can be tricky.

For dinner we headed down to the hotel restaurant as we hadn't had a chance to scout out any other options. We werent overly hungry. Food was pretty good and fairly average prices I guess. With tip, paid about $60 for the 3 of us and another $20 for drinks.

After dinner we walked out the 'back door' and onto the beach. IT was sunset and the water was warm and it finally felt like we were on holiday. Silly I guess to associate being on holiday with a fancy hotel, gorgeous flowers and sunset walk on the beach, but that was how I felt in that moment.

So now I am looking forward to sinking into the pillow top materess with the extra pillow I have needed since this holiday started. Can afford a small sleep in tomorrow morning. Don't need to be at the submarine until 11am. Should take us 30-45mins to get there. But for now, a little TV and then a good night's sleep 😊

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