Haleakalā Volcano • 8 comments • The centerpiece of Maui is the (conveniently accessible) Haleakalā volcano. A well paved, winding road takes you from the warm beaches up to the cold, barren summit of the island. The conventional wisdom is to wake up at 4am, race the other tourists and tour vans to the top, and sit in the cold darkness, until you’re treated to the sun breaking over the clouds. The thought of waking up that early, while on vacation, didn’t appeal to us. So, we opted for the, less busy, sunset option. If we ever return to Maui, we’d make the same decision again. While we knew it would be colder than the rest of Hawaii, we thought: "We're Canadian; we can handle it!" Our arrogance got the better of us, and the light autumn clothing we begrudgingly packed with our flip flops wasn't adequate. We ran around in an attempt to stay warm. The setting sun illuminates the cloud cover, making it bright white as it billows across the rust colored rock. When the sun fell below the cloud line the sky exploded with fiery shades of pink, red, orange, and yellow. Within minutes, the sky turns into a dark ink blue (due to the low light pollution), and the moon is in full ascent over the island:
Kalama Beach • 3 comments • Kalama Beach Park sits centrally in Kihei, across the street from a variety of low key eateries and shave-ice stands. Unlike the more pristine beaches to the South, the main attraction here is seeing ranks of tourists and locals trying their best at board sports. After all the snorkeling and swimming we did on this trip, we didn't try our hand at surfing, but I think we had more fun watching people from the shore. I wasted my time taking a picture of a paddle boarder and didn't even notice the guy showboating in the background. Have you ever seen someone look so bored while surfing?
