Hmm

Did I really not put any pictures of the scuba diving up?


Making sure my guages don't gouge the coral


In the second cathedral...sooo pretty!


Morgan at second cathedral.

Another video

Here's a second video of listening to whales. The video is actually supposed to be of a huge-ass moray eel, but the camera just couldn't pick it up under that coral overhang. You can almost see it near the end, but mostly it's just lost in the darkness. Listen for the whales instead!

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=319302

Whales - Mantas = Video

Well, we finally had to give up on our manta ray dive. The weather conditions here muddied the coastal waters very badly between Lahaina and Ma'alaea, which is where the dive is. So, we did a different dive, not as fancy, but it was still great. We used underwater "Personal Propulsion Vehicles" (aka scooters) to get to the site, since it was in 80' of water and it was a shore dive (means it's fairly far out).

Anyway, saw some neat stuff and amazingly the camera we borrowed from Blake captured the sounds of the whales singing throughout the dive. You have to turn it up a bit, and try to ignore the sounds of Morgan breathing and the scooter action going on, but you can definitely hear the humpbacks!

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=319255

One more adventure left tomorrow (a retry of our Molokini snorkel), and then we fly out late at night. Be back on Saturday!

Baby Whales!

Whew - well yesterday was quite the adventure. We had a Molokini/Dolphin snorkel cruise planned for yesterday with the Pacific Whale Foundation. We drove down to Maalea and the crew let everyone know that the ocean was really rocky (up to 20 foot swells on the north coast) and people who were easily sick should reschedule.

We stuck with it along with about 70 other people. We headed out and the weather seemed ok except for all the big black clouds everywhere. The first thing (ok, the only thing) we saw was a calf spouting at the surface maybe 20 metres away from the boat and then we could see this huge shape looming under the surface - the mama too! Morgan got a great video of it, which we'll share when we can. I got a few pictures I'll post at the end.

After that, the trip was more adventure than anything. We headed out toward Molokini but when we started to see lightening we turned around. There were so many seasick people on the bottom deck, hugging the rails and clutching rubber gloves filled with water (why? i don't know).

Meanwhile Morgan and I were hanging out upstairs - I was drinking a Blue Hawaiian & eating a bagel. Until the torrential rain started and we had to move to the covered area. Fortunately we didn't have to stay down there with the sickies very long.

The good news is we rescheduled the trip for tomorrow (our flight doesn't leave here until 10:30 at night so we have a whole day to kill) when it should be sunny.

Today we were supposed to go on the manta ray dive but the conditions at the site were awful so we've scheduled a scooter dive at another beach for this afternoon. We're supposed to be seeing turtles & possibly whales and stingrays.

Despite the bad weather lately it's been an amazing trip & not getting to do certain things means we'll have to come back to do them next year :)

This will probably be our last post until we're home again - when we've got all the pics & videos up, we'll post here again.

Aloha!



A picture as we flee Molokini for the shore. About 5 seconds later everyone was below.



Here you can see the mama & baby - the mom is in the front on the left and the baby is just above her.



Here she is spouting...it was an amazing experience & I can't wait to see more tomorrow.

Last Few Days...

...and we have a lot to squish in! There's a wind blowing from the south (and all sorts of bad weather) which has churned up the ocean and created poor diving conditions so we've postponed our ray dive until Thursday morning. This is our last day to do it as we fly out Friday night so hopefully things clear up by then.

We went snorkeling yesterday at Black Rock and the visibility was horrible. Morgan took some video - if it doesn't take a million hours to upload, I'll post a link to it here. We did see a herd of goatfish, though, and the requisite pufferfish following us around. They seem to be really friendly (these aren't the spiny pufferfish, these guys are cute).

Tomorrow we're supposed to be going on a 'snorkel cruise' to Molokini & out to swim with dolphins with the Pacific Whale Foundation - but we're going to check today and make sure they're still going.

Fortunately the whales are still putting on daily & nightly shows so even though we can't do any snorkeling and can't really work on our tans, we can still marvel at the whales! They come so close to shore, it's crazy!

Pictures are always interesting, though, so here are some newish ones:



The jungle we drove through on the Road to Hana. Can you spot the road?



There are lots of waterfalls on the side of the road...like this one!



One of the many 'one lane bridges' on the road...this one has a weir. This side of the island gets something like 370 inches of rain annually so they catch the rainwater in these weirs and transport it to the rest of Maui for irrigation.



See the black sand beach on the left?



I wanted to take some with us but it's in a state park and it's illegal.



The blow-hole! Despite the angry ocean waves, it wasn't blowing while we were there.



In the Arboretum there were tons of amazing trees - like these Rainbow Eucalytpus trees.



It looks like someone painted them.



For all our nerdier blog readers...the Geometry Tree!



And lastly, the sunrise from this morning...the nicest part of the day is always the sunrise. We went for a run this morning and almost died from heat exhaustion.

Road to Hana

Well, we did the Road to Hana today, but somehow our plan backfired. Everything we read about it said the road was so wild and crazy and tough to navigate, so best to do it early to avoid the traffic ... that sounded smart to us. So we got up early (4:30 AM), headed out there, and looked forward to a great day with a picnic lunch and a cute dog tagging along for the ride.

Alas.

We got to the Maui Grown Market in the town of Haiku at 7:15, well after their advertised and posted "daily opening time" of 6:30 AM. This is the place that has the famous picnic lunches to take with you to Hana, and lets you borrow one of their dogs for the day (free with lunch). The place was deserted, including boarded up windows. We could see the dogs, and they sort of looked back at us forlornly, but we thought the place must have closed down. So... no picnic lunch, and no dog. We drove to Hana anyway, their vaunted road being no match for our Ireland-honed driving skills. But everything along the way was closed, including all the roadside banana bread places we'd heard so much about. When we got to Hana, it was raining, and we were hungry, so we just turned around.

On the way back, everything was just opening as we passed it. Including the Maui Grown Market as we passed it at 12:30 PM. Bunch of jerkbags over there! Annnnd, when we got out of the jungle, it was a beautiful day back in central Maui, and we had just spent 5 hours in grey, rainy weather. Needless to say, it was pretty disappointing. I'm sure you guys feel sorry for us. :p

We did see some caves and a black sand beach, and a wild Arboretum with some cool trees in it, but honestly for the time investment with no lunch and no dog, we'd rather have gone surfing.

To make up for our sad post, here is a picture. Of a pig. Wearing a lei.

Sweet Fiery Sunburns

Wow, Morgan and I are sunburned for the second time...us Canadians can't handle it down here.

This morning we took surf lessons with the Royal Hawaiian Surf Academy. Our instructor was Jean from Brazil. They guarentee you'll get up and we both did indeed stand on the surf board. It was pretty sweet except when you fell and landed on stabbity rocks in about 1 foot of water. Seriously, the place they teach you is a disaster waiting to happen.

It has lead to my theory that the ocean is all about stabbing. Urchins, rocks, barnacles, coral, porcupine fish, sting rays, sharks...*stabbity stabbity*

Anyway we had fun and it was cool to actually understand how to surf. If we can find a beach that doesn't have sharp pointy rocks then we might just rent a board later in the trip.

I just realised at surf school this morning that I've actually been "rocking out" instead of "hanging loose" with my hand signals so there's a picture of me correcting this in front of the surf school. You can also see the sweet Maui Gear rashguard I bought in Kihei (I'm sure I'll get tons of use out of it..ha) - I'm also wearing new board shorts by Maui Lai but you can't see those.

There are also pictures of the humpbacks which were putting on quite the show for us last night in front of the resort. We think the whale closest to us was actually a mom and baby - the baby kept leaping out of the water, it looked like a dolphin. Maybe it was actually an interspecies friendship between a whale and a dolphin? Either way, it was pretty amazing...


Whale fin action!


Another whale!


Morgan testing out his rashguard.


Hanging loose outside of the surf school.


A picture from a couple of hours ago. Of course it was cloudy when we did our surf lesson but immediately cleared up when we got back to the resort.


A picture of a cleaner wrasse cleaning up some fishies in Kapalua Bay (2 days ago).


Urchin in Kapalua.


Snowflake Moray (Eel) - from Kapalua


A Moorish Idol in Kapalua Bay.


A rare shot of the "faster-than-a-speeding-bullet" gecko that likes to hang out at the light outside our door. He only comes out at night.


The back part of one of those amazing flowers that are everywhere.

Oopsie!

Ack! We fixed the comments so anonymous people can comment now - sorry, it must have been the default that only 'registered users' could comment. Anyone should be able to comment now...

So we had a day out of the water today due to our fiery sunburns - they should have faded into a nice tan by the time we leave here. Hopefully tomorrow we can get out and do some snorkeling at some of the other beaches near here.

So what's there to do on Maui when you can't get in the water? Shop, of course! We went down to Kihei to check out the shopping. It was pretty much the same as Lahaina. But there were some cool whale sightings on the drive down and back.

Lahaina was a gong show today with a couple of cruise ships stopping by. They were actually shuttling people from the ship to the town by small boats. They must have made a million trips.

We checked out Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner but were seated next (literally next, like with just a line between our tables) to another couple - it was really busy. So we left and ate at the Aloha Mixed Plate. Not really what we were expecting but we did get to hear the drums from the luau next door.

Here are some more pictures to make up for our rather low-profile day:


Here's a picture from our balcony of the palm trees.


There are so many gorgeous flowers everywhere! It's amazing!


Here I am enjoying the sunset from the lawn.


And here's the sunset...spectacular!


We are one of these boxes but I'm not sure which one...one of the ones on the top.


These flowers are everywhere but I'm not sure what they are...some kind of magnolia?


A picture from the dive boat yesterday. It runs on biodiesel!


This is a picture from this morning - I got Morgan up at 6:30 am and we went and got a coffee from the gazebo and hung out at the beach while the sun came up.


This is a picture from our second day here, hanging ten while we snorkeled.

Let's see...turtles, dolphins, whales oh my...

So, we gather from the lack of comments that everyone already hates us, but this post probably won't help things out too much. So it's March 5th now, and we've been here for 4 days, and lots has happened so far! I'll detail it as best I can.

After our room mixup on checking in, we went out to Lahaina the next day and checked out front street and had breakfast at a great little bakery (where we made the first post, since there was internet there). After that we went to get some groceries and checked out some shopping places. Immediately after putting our groceries in the car we found that the car would not start! I had to phone Alamo (more like...suck-a-mo) and they charged me $50 to send someone out to jump the car, who took an hour to get there. Good times on our first day in Maui!

After getting back to the condo, we went and checked out the beach, and got Michelle in the water for some Maui snorkelling. She wasn't too keen on the abundant sea life and rocky reef at first, but once the green sea turtle ("hano") came out to play, she warmed up to it. He was pretty cool.... some nasty tourists eventually chased him away by grabbing onto him (we found out later that that's illegal in Hawaii...)

Later that day I tried starting the car again and it wouldn't, so I phoned Alamo (Suckamo) back and had them tow me a new car, and refund my fifty bones. Our new car came complete with 4-doors, no sunroof, and someone's nasty apple rolling around under the seat. What a bunch of noobs.

Next day: we went to Maui Ocean center, which was in Maalea. Very cool (but touristy) but it got us all up on our fish knowledge. There was a hammerhead shark tank and you can go diving in it if you want. Meanwhile, our rooms were switched and we arrived back and could get into the owner's locker and get another set of snorkel gear, which prompted more snorkelling. No turtle this time, but some puffer fish and trumpet fish.

Sunday: Michelle did her first three open water dives! We spent all morning shore diving and getting her skills done... listening to whales sing the entire time!! They were less than a mile out in the channel, and it was unbelievable. I don't know anyone else who's ever certified with that kind of music playing. That night, we watched countless whales breach and spout in front of the bay.

... so...is it still snowing there?

HAH HA HA. Ah ha..*koff*. Ok, so today, we got up at 5:00AM to go out on the boat with Extended Horizons, a trusted diving operation here in Lahaina. They took us on two dives off the island of Lana'i, the first one of the day turned Michelle into a certified open water diver! Oh and we saw an octopus, that squirted ink at us after changing colors twice to throw us off. Oh, and a moray eel. Oh, also, we were escorted out to the dive site by bottlenose dolphins playing in the bow wake of the boat, and whales jumping a couple hundred yards off. DOLPHINS. SRSLY. Oh P.S., for some reason Michelle loves diving now. Too bad we can never take her diving again, since it'll be like chasing the dragon.

The second dive today was at a famous site called the Cathedrals, specifically we were at the Second Cathedral. Beautiful.. 100 foot visibility, arches, fishes, black corals (rare), etc. etc. Then the dolphins and whales escorted us home again.

Next up on our list: the Road to Hana. Which involves borrowing a random dog for the trip with the purchase of a picnic lunch. I think we'll name him "Baron von Woofstaus."

Soooo, here's some pictures! Leave some comments! We miss you all and wish you could be here!


Puffer while snorkelling


Cauliflower coral


Michelle on her fourth open water dive!


Michelle in the Cathedral on her fifth open water dive.


Morgan: "It was THIS big!" - The barracuda we saw the dive before was actually twice that big!

We're fixing some of the other photos and will upload more when we can!

Aloha

We've arrived in Maui! It's warm and sunny (not to rub it in to all you people with snow - yes, that includes you Victoria and Vancouver!) and we're going to set ourselves up with some groceries and hang out at the beach all day.

There was a mix-up with rooms and we're in #256 until tomorrow when we'll be moving into Bunty's condo. Just in case any of you are trying to get a hold of us before then.

I forgot my usb for the camera so pictures will be coming in a couple of days!

We wish you all were here...

Greetings Blog Readers

So we actually don't leave until Thursday but this is my last day off before we leave so I'm making use of it by preparing for our trip, which of course means having a way of keeping in touch with a large number of people at once.

Our next post will be much more exciting!