Lahaina (Maui), Hawaii

Saturday 20th September    

Cruise Day 9 – Kailani, Maui, Hawaii.

Once again there was a very pretty sail into another lovely island, this time Kailani.  It is a tender port, so much the same as yesterday. A rest day for Dad and me collecting a car and heading off. 

Capt. Wendy was overseeing the tender today and the rescue boats were out training. I didn’t see any drops into the water but I did see the rescue boat approaching the ship, and in less than 30 seconds was on its way up into the air! Impressive.

The port area was right in the heart of the tourist shops with lots of tour people touting for business. But it did appear that most of the tours were either booked out by the ship or strangely left at 7am, were sunset tours etc.  Not really useful to day trippers.  I suppose they got enough money from regular tourists and didn’t need to cater to the ships.

I collected my car from Dollar, after waiting more than 30 minutes and calling twice for the shuttle bus. By the time it arrived they had a large group of not so happy people. Check in out the cars was not so great either.  The hire cars were all a long way from the dock as well. But I finally got my car – well over an hour from the time I went to the designated spot. Wasn’t a huge issue today – but if I had a big day planned it would have been – especially if I had to return to the dock to collect people as well. My plan today was to drive and look at things.  I basically drove north keeping as close to the water as possible. 

This was something I never want to see in action. The Tsunami evacuation system.

There was a lot of amazingly stunning coast line. It made for many stops. 

I stopped at a patch of Banyan trees that were stunning.

I drove through a fancy estate with golf course, incredibly manicured streets etc.

A ‘jungle’ path to the beach.

Great Blowhole.

The road was a twisty, narrow-ish road. 

Not nearly as bad as the descriptions in all the tour books etc. If you plodded along (maybe 25 mph) it was fine.  It is NOT a loop road.  You cannot drive around the island. At first it was annoying that all the stops were on the other side of the road.  In hind site I would have driven straight then done my stops on the way back.

I saw a Mongoose scuttle across the road. This is not my photo. BUT I did see an Indian Grey Mongoose. About the size of a Blue Tongue Lizard but incredible smooth low action as it ran. And almost a green colour as it ran out of the jungle. Looked very like a lizard at first.

I was taking photos at one point and thought “it must be hot, the lens of my underwater camera (which takes great landscapes) had fogged up. Sadly I realized the fogging up was on the inside!  Not from the parts that can let water in ie the battery/card flap, but fogging in the SEALED part of the camera – or should I say ‘not so sealed part’.  Sad!

I stopped at a large supermarket. I love doing that and getting a feel for the place. The pineapples were amazing looking!  And the prices of grog (alcohol) were cheap enough to make any Australian weep. SO cheap. Easily half of what we pay.

All in all a great day.  I did forgive the car rental place (I was thinking that maybe a car was not a good idea – but what I saw was stunning).
There was the ruin of an old fort in town.  Very pretty.

There were also the biggest banyan trees in town. AMAZING!

I went back to Chops again this night to try a few more things. LOL.