Aloha from Maui

Lahaina Giant Banyan Tree

Greetings from Maui. We spent two days, three nights on the Island of Maui in the town of Lahaina. We stayed at a very nice condominium complex just a block from downtown. Lahaina is an historical town originally settled by New England whalers. The above Banyon tree is huge and covers most of a town block. At night Mynah birds by the hundreds flock to it to roost.

Mountains along road to Lahaina

Taro Fields at Kaena along Hana Road
We drove the 36 mile stretch of winding road to Hana. This has over 600 curves and 57 one-laned bridges. It takes about two hours to drive this road. One of the view points is the Taro fields at Kaena along the road. Much has changed around Hana with many new homes. The Hana Ranch is still active. We continued another 8 miles along a narrower, curvy road to the Kipahulu section of Haleakala National Park. A new visitor center was found at Oheo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools). The stream was low, so the pools were shallow, but swimmers were enjoying some of the deeper pools. We went on to find Charles Lindberg's Grave, but the road has been changed and we missed it.

Hookipa Beach
We stooped along the north shore of Maui at Hookipa Beach to observe the surfers. The tides were running high along the north shore. On the north shore of Oahu they were having waves of 20-30 ft. This beach is known for windsurfing.

Haleakala Mt. in distance
The highlight of Thursday was the trip up Mt. Haleakala (10,023 ft). We drove up the road to the top of the mountain. The road is well maintained by the National Park Service.

Haleakala Caldera
The top of the mounatin was very cold and windy, but the weather was mostly clear with excellent views into the huge, colorful caldera. The cauldera is over 20 miles in length. In the 1960s it was used a a training area for the moon astronauts. We obseved the beautiful, endemic Silversword plants. The endanged Hawaiian goose, the Nene was not seen, since they are nesting at this time of year.

The weather continued to be great with temperatures in the high 70's to around 80 with little or no rain. We are now off to Hawaii, the Big Island for three days and four nights.