Above the Clouds and Under the Sea in Maui

First Days in Hawaii: Maui 

I spent two days in Maui last summer while on a cruise.  Maui, much like Oahu offers a a lot of diversity in activities and culture.  No matter our mood, there was something to suit it on Maui.  Maui was the first of the four islands we visited on this trip, and of course the first thing we did was rent a jeep wrangler.  I mean its Hawaii right?  Also jeeps and compact cars were the same price at the rental agency.  I think everyone who stood in line in front of or behind me rented a jeep.  

The entrance to Haleakala National Park on Maui.

After renting our jeep and with our new found freedom, we drove straight to Haleakala National Park, or as straight as we could.  The main visitor center to Haleakala lies at the summit of an inactive volcano over 10,000 feet above sea level.  To reach this entrance to the park and the summit beyond, motor vehicles must traverse switch back after switchback, sometimes in very low visibility caused by clouds running into the mountain.  I tried to count the number of switchbacks as we descended the mountain later in the day, but I lost track after 20.

The summit of Haleakala.

The visitor center at the summit overlooks a massive crater created by erosion and filled with smaller cinder cone volcanoes (much like those in Lassen Volcanic National Park).  The crater is an expanse of red and black rocks, gravel, and ash.  The more adventurous venture on multi-day backpacking trips into the crater.  Having a limited amount of time, we opted for a 6 mile round trip hike to the first cinder cone volcano.  Even though we saw a few other hikers venture into the crater at the beginning of our trek, we did not see anyone after the first half mile.  Many are deterred from this hike because as my boyfriend noted "the view does not change much" and as the park ranger told us "it take twice as long to hike out as to hike in".  Sunburn due to lack of shade (most of the trail is above the clouds and there are no trees) and issues breathing due to the high elevation can also trouble hikers.  I thought the solitude and constant vistas were worth the difficulty.

Looking down into the crater from the beginning of the trail. The summit is so high it's above the clouds. 

The deserted trail into the crater.

The crater is not completely devoid of life.  We were lucky our trip coincided with the blooming of a cactus that only occurs once every 10 years.  Although we were at the end of the bloom season and the flowers were a bit dilapidated by the time we got to see them.  Our hike left us pretty tired and except for a snack of poke on the way back to our ship, we did not venture outside or cabin again until the next day.

Flowers on the tall cactuses which only bloom every 10 years.

Our second day in Maui was a stark contrast to the first.  I planned our trip to Haleakala, and decided to let my boyfriend decide how we spent our second day in Maui.  He slated two different activities to fill our second day on the island, both in Lahina on the western side of the island.  The activity of the morning was walking around the many art galleries of Lahina to view the abundance of artwork.  I did not realize before visiting Lahina, but it is apparently one of the premiere cities for art in the Pacific.  The galleries included famous artists like Peter Lik, probably most well known for his photograph of a pier extending out into crystal clear water, Robert Whyland, known for his depictions of under water life often including whales or dolphins, and local art collections.  Over 40 art galleries grace the shores of Lahina.  We stopped looking after 10.  I was not enthused to spend the mooring looking at art, as I expected high pressure sales tactics or snobbish attitudes from employees who knew we were not going to make a purchase.  Thankfully, I was wrong, and more than once we engaged in a pleasant conversation with the employees of the galleries who were content to share their love of art with us.  This little excursion also had the benefit of being free.

Dive, dive, dive!  Us on the atlantis submarine off the coast of Maui.

The second activity of the day was a trip on the Atlantic Submarine.  This submarine franchise can be found all over the Hawaiian Islands and the Caribbean Sea.  Having seen them many times in ports of call before, this was my first trip on one.  I was hesitant at the price tag, which was over $100 for about an hour dive.  My first thought on seeing the price was that for the same amount of money I could go SCUBA diving without being crammed into a tube with a bunch of other people.  The advantage of taking the sub is that passengers can stay at 100 ft water depth for an hour.  If I were to dive to 100 ft, due to increases in oxygen consumption, my entire dive would last 15 minutes.  Also I have to get my hair wet.  So the submarine won out and we scheduled to go on the last dive of the day.

A shark we spotted from the submarine.

Being the last dive of the day, our submarine trip was also the least crowded, as told to me by the employees.  Usually passengers must sit on one of two benches running the length of the sub, looking out.  We had no one sitting behind us though, allowing us to switch sides of the sub as much as we wanted.  This essentially allowed us to see everything twice as the sub circled each section of reef twice, once with each side of the sub facing the reef.  The sub ride started out as usual with lots of fish apparent in the outside sea.  These fish although abundant were stripped of their colors, due to the depth of the water.  I was told by the employee sitting next to us, that seeing so many fish was pretty usual on a sub ride.  Usually on one ride a day, there are about ten rides each day, they would also see a shark, and once a month they would see dolphins.  Sometimes when traveling, I feel as if I have insanely good luck.  This was one of those times, because we were able to see both a shark and a pod of Spinner Dolphins on our one hour sub ride.

No lack of fish viewing from the sub.

Being from Florida and living in California for four years, I have seen my share of wild sharks and dolphins, but the experience was entirely different under water.  The dolphins were so much more graceful and fast than I had imagined.  Also, these were a different species (spinner) than I and ever seen before in the wild (bottle nosed).  Unfortunately, I was unable to get a photograph of the dolphins while in the sub.  They just moved too quickly across the port holes.  Thankfully, the dolphins remained after the sub surfaced and we transferred to the boat that would take us to shore.  In all I was extremely happy we chose the sub over SCUBA diving.  It was an experience I will not soon forget.

Spinner dolphins from the water's surface, not as good of a view as underwater.  

Our experience there was more than I can sum up in one blog post.  We went shopping at high end boutiques and sampled traditional (poke) and non traditional (Mai Tai) fare.  We also just walked or drove along the coast checking out the views and beaches.  Given the variety of activities available on Maui, it is one of my favorite islands.