Hap-Paia Birthday Daryl!

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Happy Birthday! Happy Aloha Friday! Today is Daryls birthday and as we have limited luggage, I emailed him a picture of his present for when he gets home! That aside, the best present I could think of was for him to see Reuben on his birthday so after arranging it with Gareth and Michelle we skyped just after 7am our time here. Robin was glad to see Batman on his birthday, and even bat baby (Caleb) was having a good chat to us on the camera. It was nice to see everyone on the other side of the world.



Daryl opened his cards before we went for breakfast and shortly returned for our day trip to beaches and Paia town. Our soundtrack for the day is the song 'Aloha Friday, no work 'till Monday....' Google it it's a nice catchy tune. I had an email from my sister wishing Daryl a happy birthday, saying she has her own cockerel at home in the form of out nephew Charlie, so we have renamed this one here in honour of him! Thanks to the others for your birthday messages and blog comments on here, it's nice to hear from home.



Out first stop was Baldwin Beach, named after the family who own a lot of the sugar cane businesses here. It was another gorgeous paradise, and we enjoyed a couple of hours of chilling out before heading into town for lunch. Paia apparently means 'big noise' and it was a nice town with lots of little boutique and gift shops, and a few bars.



Daryl made a bee line for the bike shop to have a look at bike kit (naturally-can't keep him away) the people in here were really friendly and it's a shame we're not staying here longer as you can hire decent road bikes from here. It would be a great way to see the island, as the roads seem quite straightforward. I bought a couple of pairs of shorts (not cycling ones!) and some postcards, and we ate at a place called 'Flatbread' which was recommended but in our option we've had better. It was still a nice place though, and we had a couple of birthday Budweiser's before heading to the surf lookout point.



Isaac was our driver again today, we always try to get in his van, as he's really helpful and tells you snip bits about the place. He's originally from California, and has been on Maui about 7 years. He was telling us he is in the process of buying a hostel with his wife in Paia Town, so if we come back-we know it is a place that we'd probably like to stay, as he seems to know his stuff.

Our next stop was hookipa beach park, the lookout point of one of the best surfing spots in the world. It was the place we'd driven by on the Hana Highway a few days earlier, and a good place to spot turtles who seem to like catching the sun on the shore. http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g60636-d108461-r180980593-Ho_okipa_Beach_Park-Paia_Maui_Hawaii.html



It was quite a rocky beach and you'd have to climb over these to get into the water. It also meant you'd have to be pretty sharp at surfing to avoid crashing into these whilst riding the waves!

Almost immediately we saw 2-3 turtles swimming in the sea, and bobbing up and down in the waves as they came crashing high into shore. We got a few good pictures on the camera, before walking up to see some turtles chilling out at the end of the beach. Sadly, one of them wasn't very well, you could see by the colour of his shell, and the conservation volunteer told us he had tumours and probably only had about a month to live. The other turtle was huge and just resting on the shore with the waves lapping over him, happy as Larry. 3 little kids came bounding by with their surfboards and slight into the sea-a nice way to pass the time after school, and so different to back home.

Our last beach was on the North Shore of Maui and popular with kite surfers so aptly names 'Kite Beach' and we spent an hour or so here watching them and playing about on the beach, not a bad way to spend a birthday hey? http://www.actionsportsmaui.com/kitebeach.html



Back at the hostel it was free beer Friday (or Keg and Cake night) so we chilled out in the hot tub for a while and had a few beers, before heading up to bed ready for our last day trip tomorrow. Isaac had rang the hostel whilst we were out on today's trip to put our names down, as it gets quite booked up and he didn't want us to miss it seeing as it was our last one. As I said, we were really lucky to get chatting to him and he's been really helpful (as have most people) on our trips so far. So tomorrow is the volcano hike and our last full day on Maui before heading to Oahu. It's been a great week here, we just can't believe it's passed so quickly!

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Comments

[Emma]

Happy belated birthday message
Happy belated birthday message Daz, what a way to spend your birthday. Loving Emma's blog it's fab, looks like your having a lovely time, enjoy the rest of your holidays catch up with you both soon xxx