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Published: January 11th 2023
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Family Surfing
Spotted these 2 body boarding at a rugged beach the other day on Maui. Child looked about 3 and presumably Dad had him tucked on the board while they rode the waves. Aloha again for Blog No. 5 and our (sort of) second day on Oahu.
After yesterday’s incredible frustrations, today was a much better and more enjoyable day for a few reasons.
The day dawned warm and sunny (sorry to all those being ravished by Cyclone Hale – we actually saw some photos on Joy’s Facebook taken of the camp where we have our bach at Porangahau Beach and it was extensively under water…..not our buildings, I hope, but the grounds…for those who know where we are, the causeway going out to our place within the grounds was about 30 cms under water.).
We started the day on the computer at 7am on the dot booking tickets to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, a very famous snorkeling and diving area on the east of the Island, so popular that the Department of Parks and Recreation (probably like our DOC) have in the last couple of years limited the numbers allowed there and only allow 1400 people a day, in batches of 40 every 15 minutes from around 7am until 1.30pm. You can only book 48 hours in advance started at 7am so I jumped on the site and managed
View from halfway up Haleakala
A view looking down at Ma'alaea in the distance and Kihei where we were staying in the foreground from above the cloud. to get 2 tickets for 1110am so that is Thursday’s activity sorted.
We had arranged to go out and do a job for son Ryan at a city on the north east side of Oahu, Kailua. Ryan is a massive ‘Disc Golf’ fanatic and is able to buy really good discs (frizbees) in USA but the postage to NZ makes the prices very prohibitive. When he knew we were going to Hawaii he had a decent number of discs sent to his mate Allen, in Kailua, who looked after them for us to pick up. We had arranged to drive out to his place and meet him at his home at 11am to pick the discs up. We headed out about 10am for the 45 minute drive, through some really picturesque scenery on the Pali Highway, through tunnels etc. and ended up in a really lovely suburban area to meet Allen. He was a really neat guy and we sat in his lounge chatting and playing with his gorgeous 5 month old golden lab puppy for about an hour and then headed away with heaps of parcels, for Ryan, in the boot (or trunk as they say over here).
Haleakala Crater
Looking into the massive crater Joy then had me punch the Waikele Premium Outlet Store Centre into Tom as she decided some retail therapy was in order. Back over the incredibly rugged mountain range to the western side of the island, this time on a different highway but it was equally interesting and picturesque.
Eventually arrived at Waikele and straight into the ‘therapy’, mainly for Joy but not exclusively. I’d been ‘saving’ up for a pair of black Sunday shoes as my current ones had split around the toe cap, and a pair of good, waterproof golf shoes as my current pair have been constantly patched up with silicone sealer for a while now. I got those items and a pair of Levi jeans and Joy bought all sorts of ‘stuff’. We spent around 4 hours there before heading back to the hotel, rather foot weary and tired. We weren’t too long into the drive back when we hit the peak traffic on the freeway and, again, very slow crawl back into town.
Parking for the car is a major headache….you can valet park in the hotel….for $50 a day!!!!!! So I tried to find alternative parking. Asked some questions of the
Shadow
Believe it or not, this is showing the shadow of the summit of Haleakala on the clouds to the north as the sun was setting...taken from the summit. The white at the top of photo is cloud. concierge at the hotel and you can park in the Honolulu Zoo carpark overnight and that will cost $1.50 an hour BUT you have to have an American cell phone number so you can be sent a text and extend the original 4 hour ticket for overnight parking. I tried but there was no way the machine would accept my NZ number with the +64. Unfortunately we are both using our NZ numbers on international roaming packages and no matter how hard I tried on the internet and by looking at the signs in the Zoo car park, I couldn’t find any contact to see how this could be overcome. Then found another, supposed, all night park….FREE….a few hundred metres around the corner at the Waikiki Bowl…internet said it was free for 24 hours a day. Drove there and parked but there were a lot of signs that suggested otherwise and I asked a couple of locals who were a bit dubious about parking there all night. Couldn’t really risk having the rental towed away overnight, and believe me they are vicious at enforcing such things here. Ended up walking back and picking the car up and biting the bullet
Sunset Haleakala
The sun just dipping down behind the cloud...taken from the summit. with the valet parking!!!! Ouch.
On our way back to the Hotel from the shopping trip we spotted a Denny’s Restaurant about 100 metres round the corner from our hotel so decided to try that for dinner. Now I know some of you will say that Denny’s is a bit down market but after reading the menu we were more than happy. After a diet on Maui of mainly burger and fried chicken type meals (because that was all that was within walking distance) a T-bone steak with mashed potatoes, fresh vegetables AND GRAVY was pure bliss and Joy had a Salmon steak with the same sides, minus the gravy. It was very reasonably priced and just what we needed. We are going back there for breakfast as they have a ‘seniors’ menu for breakfast for way under $10 each…..and that’s cheap here.
After dinner we went for a wander along the Waikiki beachfront, in the dark, dodging the many homeless people who seemed to be everywhere, and then heading back on the other side of the Beachfront Road window shopping.
That was our day today..We are feeling much more positive after yesterday’s debacle (apart from the parking fees!!!) and looking forward to doing a scenic drive to the northern end of the island tomorrow.
I’ve included a few photos from our Haleakala drive on Maui as promised. Hopefully they will give you some idea of the beautiful sights we saw.
Mahalo until next time.
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