Wednesday Oct 4
We left Sydney on Hawaiian Airways to Honolulu with a connecting flight to Maui. Our flight was in paid business class - what is the world coming to - but we got a good deal. The flight left on time at 9:25pm arriving the same day at 10am (a bit early). HA’s recently introduced flat beds were pretty good - food and service were OK but certainly HA is no SQ. On arrival in HNL the queues for immigration were enormous - we finally got cleared after one hour - of course the luggage was already waiting,. We headed to the HA lounge for the 2+ hour wait for our flight to Maui - it left on time and arrived about 2:30pm.
We collected our hire car and headed for our destination - Kapalua Bay Villas - about an hour drive away. Navigation was pretty easy in spite of Google Maps being a bit temperamental. We finally found the Safeway grocery store just outside Lahina (about 20 minutes from Kapalua) - we bought the essentials for some sambos for dinner and fruit and yoghurt for brekkie. We finally got to our condo around 5:00pm - drop dead tired.
We unpacked the basics and sat on our wonderful ocean front terrace for a well earned happy hour. Then we had a few sambos and hit the sack very early.
Thursday Oct 5
After a pretty good sleep (for me at least) we got up to a wonderful sunny and warm day - however it was blowing a gale. In spite of this we had brekkie on our terrace. It was oh so relaxing watching the surf hit the beach while sipping Kona coffee.
We had already decided today would be a “reco” and relaxing day. After brekkie we went for an ocean front walk to get the lay of the land. Our villa overlooks Oneloa Bay - we walked about 20 minutes to Kapalua Bay which is supposed to have very good snorkelling. We checked out a few of the restaurants and other villa-style resorts. Our property is very up-market encompassing 2 golf courses, the Ritz-Carlton and various private homes and villa developments.
At Kapalua Bay beach we noticed quite a few people snorkelling. The parking lot there was totally full. The famous Merriman restaurant is right on the point here - we decided we would book a table for one evening in spite of the ultra high prices (think $50 USD main courses) - we had booked a cheaper one right beside it but decided to try it out for lunch.
After our walk we headed out to do some shopping at the 2 “local” grocery stores - a few miles away but a lot closer than the Safeway in Lahina. After shopping we walked back to the SeaHouse restaurant for lunch - it was fine but we decided to cancel our dinner reservation for that evening and stay at home for dinner.
We came home and relaxed watching the afternoon surfers at our beach then had steak for dinner.
Friday Oct 7
We set off early to drive up the famous Haleakala National Park - where there is a dormant volcano at 3000m - the drive up is quite amazing - it makes the highest ascent in the shortest distance in the world. It is also the highest mountain in the world measured from sea level. This is also famous for the biking tours which decend from the top - the road is very good but it looks very challenging - a 50 KM trip down a winding mountain road - surprisingly not as steep as you would imagine.
On our return we stopped at the Sheraton (Kaanapali) for Happy Hour as we had not had any lunch and it was already 3 pm. The discount on our drinks helped pay the $8 parking fee - we also shared some nachos which were about a 3 out of 10 (maybe less). The bar at the Sheraton is called the Black Rock bar - famous as it overlooks the high cliff where people (daredevils) jump or dive off.
We went out to one of our resort restaurants, Plantation House, for dinner. We used the resort shuttle for the first time - after telling us it would arrive in 10 minutes we waited 40 minutes. Anyway dinner was excellent - we both had local fish.
Saturday Oct 8
Today we went on our “delayed” snorkelling trip - we should have gone Friday but the company we had booked cancelled the evening before as they did not have enough people. This one was a larger boat - hence more people - there we 32 out of a maximum of 40+. 32 already seemed to be a squeeze. We had to leave our villa at 6:30am for the 30 minute drive to Lahaina to be there for 7AM for a 7:30 start - of course you really only needed to be there at 7:29am - but it was good to be early as finding a parking spot was a challenge even at this early hour.
The snorkelling trip was good - we stopped at 2 spots where there were lots of fish but very little coral. We did spot a large pod of spinner dolphins - the Hawaiian species is unique to Hawaii and the smallest of all species. We got to talking to a Kiwi family on the boat which was interesting - they had made a last minute decision to holiday in Hawaii after cancelling a planned trip to Bali where a volcano was threatening to cause travel chaos.
After the trip we had lunch at the famous Pioneer Inn right on the water front in Lahina - we stayed here 40 years ago for about $10 per night. The lunch was pretty good. We returned to our condo after doing some shopping and stayed home for dinner after Happy Hour at the Pineapple Grill.
Sunday Oct 9
Ah another great day in paradise - we enjoyed brekkie on our terrace all the more as yesterday we skipped breakfast due to the early start of the snorkelling trip. We had a bit of a driving / island touring trip today - down south to Wailea - the other area on Maui with many resorts and golf courses. It is very upmarket - we checked out a few beaches then had a great lunch at Gannon’s - a golf-course restaurant. It’s owned by Bev Gannon, a famous chef. We did a bit of up-market shopping (window only) before returning to our condo. We had dinner at home again.
Monday Oct 9
It was a BIG day - our Hana tour - 11+ hours departing at 6:15am - yikes no breakfast again !!!
When we finally got back to our condo at 5:30pm we decided to stay home for dinner of sambos.
Tuesday Oct 10
It was an easier day - a leisurely breakfast on our terrace then a drive to the rain forest valley (near the airport). On the way back we stopped at the Mill House restaurant for lunch - it part of a large tourist oriented plantation. We had a light lunch which was very pleasant.
We drove part away around the north-end of Maui - the road is a a winding narrow cliff side adventure - we turned around when we reached the really hairy part.
We returned to the Plantation House for our final dinner in Maui.