Blogs from Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 4

Geo: 20.8775, -156.677This Hawaiian mana (meaning spiritual or divine power) surrounds us - breezes, water, people, landscape and seascape. On Tuesday, we went to a tiny local store to rent snorkel gear. Dave, a slightly weathered Hawaiian hippie, looked after us...for upwards of 2 hours. When we made the mistake of distracting him by asking a question or, well, saying almost anything, off he'd go on another tangent. But somehow we were patient for most of the time enjoying the experience of just hanging with the local, although I'm not sure my travel partners would agree with this assessment of our time spent. We came out of that shop with recommendations of local attractions, a time share presentation appointment (yes, we did it again), and a 6-hour snorkelling cruise booked.We have snorkel equipment for a week ... read more

Geo: 20.8775, -156.677January 28th, 2015 - the day after a big winter storm that blew up from New England delaying or cancelling all flights at the Halifax airport, we wondered anxiously if our first of three flights to Maui would launch our much awaited vacation. Now this is no ordinary vacation. It is the celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary and, like our honeymoon many years ago, we are celebrating it well after the event. In fact, a year and a half afterward. And, somewhat like our honeymoon, we tossed around numerous ideas, made a plan, changed the plan and eventually came up with the perfect plan. You may notice a trend here or recognize from previous blog entries that Jim and I are, are, well...consistent to say the least in our habit of indecision and ... read more

My 9.30am flight to Brisbane was non eventful and arrived on time. My bag was checked through to Honolulu, so said a prayer that it got on the plane as I did. By the time I got to the International terminal and through all the customs and security I had about 50 min before boarding. I sat next to a couple of ladies in their 60's, they were a scream, my neighbour had not flown more that 3 hours before so she was dreading 9.5 hours. Honolulu won't know what hit it when they arrive, they are going to have a ball. Slept on and off over the night. We had to take a detour around tropical storm Ana which made the flight a little longer and bumpier towards the end. As the sun started to ... read more

Geo: 20.8775, -156.677I am a good swimmer....mmmm, let me rephrase that. I am a VERY good swimmer. A strong swimmer, I am also a scuba instructor and have taken diver rescue training. In my dive career I have saved 2 people from drowning - one at the surface and one 40 feet down. So, when Jeff gasped out to me "I'm really in trouble" and he disappeared under the waves, my mind seemed to hit overdrive. But I'm getting ahead of myself... Today we are heading for Malu'aka Beach, one of the best beaches on south Maui and THE beach to see turtles. Our book says: "Green turtles here, green turtles there, at Turtle Beach these graceful giants are everywhere."For some reason we have taken to calling it "Turtle Town" and we're hoping to see several. ... read more

Geo: 20.8775, -156.677We actually got up early as planned and after a quick breakfast of shredded wheat, bananas and coffee, we head for the car and out for adventure.Jeff did some research on the Road to Hana and discovered "there's app for that." Unbelievable! The app is an audio tour, tied to the GPS location of your car along the route. We splurge, spend the $4.99, download the app to my phone and we're off.Let me preface this post by saying it was a great day and I hope never to do the Road to Hana again!! The Road to Hana is famous not only for the incredible scenery, specifically waterfalls, but for the fact that it is a dramatically serpentine road (the book says "600 twists and turns) with 54 one-lane bridges. What you don't ... read more