Maui

Luis and I went to Maui for a long weekend in February. There are some hazards to traveling to Neighbor Islands as we've discovered. I had originally booked us on the Super Ferry which had recently begun service to Maui. The Super Ferry is a very controversial topic in the islands because they apparently failed to obtain the proper impact statements before beginning service. There were claims that it would adversely affect the environment, that it would bring more unwelcome visitors to places like Kauai, that it would spread invasive species from one island to another.

The Ferry began service anyway but encountered one obstacle after another including a run of bad weather and mechanical problems. I ignored all of this because I selfishly wanted to take a fun boat ride to another island and take our car with us. I got my comeuppance when I received an e-mail less than one week before our trip advising us that the Super Ferry was going into dry dock for an extended period and did we want our money back or a trip at a later time? Since we had to scramble to get plane tickets and rent a car, I chose to get a refund.

We are planning on a weekend trip to Molokai starting tomorrow and the hotel I had intended to book closed the day I was going to call for reservations. The hotel was owned, like half the businesses on the island, by a vindictive out of state corporation that closed everything in a fit of pique over the island's resistance to the corporation's plan to build luxury vacation homes in a culturally and environmentally sensitive area. My inconvenience in having to find another hotel is less than nothing compared to the difficulties on Molokai as a result of the biggest employer on the island shutting down.

We are also planning a trip to the Big Island over Memorial weekend but the place we plan to stay is within a park where a volcano is spewing ever increasing amounts of sulfur that has caused repeated evacuations. At least we didn't book any airline tickets with Aloha or ATA which just went under. Oh, the people in Myanmar would long for the troubles I face.

Let's talk about Maui. It's a beautiful island and the highlights of our trip were the nonstop whale sightings and a visit to the volcano, Haleakala. More on the volcano in the next post. I also plan to post some photos from our snorkeling but the disposable underwater camera that we used requires actually getting the photos developed, so old school.














Maui is shaped like a big blob with a small head attached to its upper left side. We stayed on the west side of the head part in an area called Napili Bay. We stayed at the Napili Surf which was clearly built in the style I'll call Sixties Motor Hotel. Despite the unfashionably retro outside appearance, the accommodations were lovely. We were in an ocean front unit and we did some serious whale watching from the balcony.















Also in the head of the island is a town called Lahaina which was once a whaling village known for its sinful excesses. It's now completely touristy with no sailors or prostitutes in sight. There was an art fair in the center of town under this ginormous tree.














I can't say enough about the whales. We saw whales on Oahu, including from our own balcony there, but nothing like on Maui. There are just so many of them. The channel between the islands of Maui, Lanai, and Molokai is filled with whales during the entire winter season. I had the binoculars in hand during the whole trip. The whales look as happy as any tourist to be in Hawaii and they spend their time breaching and flapping their tails and just cruising along the coasts.














It's not easy to get a good photo of a whale since most of the body is usually under water. You never know when they are going to breach and they always seem to do it just when you put the camera down. Assholes. This photo was along a highway as you go from the main blob to the head part of Maui. This whale was doing slow lazy rolls and the part that is showing is one of the massive flippers.














On our last night in Maui, we took a bottle of wine to the beach in front of the hotel and watched the sun set over Molokai.