We recently returned from a week on Maui. Hawaii is always a delightful place to visit, and this was our first trip back in four years. Glorious mountains, sun, and ocean greeted us upon arrival.
On our first evening, we got lucky with our timing and had a chance to join in with lots of locals and tourists for the Kihei 4th Friday gathering a half-mile from our vacation condo at Maui Sunset. There were over 50 food trucks, booths, and restaurants to choose from, and local craftspeople shared their wares in booths all over the parking lot.
Saturday gave us a chance to drive a portion of the Hana Highway (not all the way to Hana, which we’ve done three times before), enjoying this gorgeous coastline on the north side of the island, with sun, surf, and rainforest.
We also had the opportunity to eat lunch at Mama’s Fish House in Paia for the first time! This iconic fixture of Maui is always packed, and Hank had to work hard over a period of several weeks to get us a reservation there. The beautiful setting and wonderful food and service helped us understand why Mama’s Fish House is so popular.
Scuba diving—We were up at 4:30 the next morning and boarded the Maui Diamond dive boat out of Maalaea Harbor at 6:30 for a 2-hour boat ride out to the island of Lana’i.
Our first dive site was one of the famed dive sites off Lana’i, called Cathedrals II. These lava tubes and caves provide some cool swim-throughs, and highlights included sightings of nudibranchs (sea slugs) that are found only in Hawaii, along with some favorite fish like yellow tangs and trumpetfish. (As always, all of our underwater shots are taken from our GoPro video footage.)
Our second Lana’i dive at Shantytown gave us a view of a sleepy sponge crab. This large crab literally grabs pieces of sponges or other lightweight objects and puts them on top of its body, apparently to provide some level of camouflage. Our dive guide said he had even seen a sponge crab with a Cubs baseball cap on its back! Our crab just had a yellow sponge, but that looked goofy enough! Hidden in caves during the day, these crabs move slowly around the reef at night.
Sunday was our dry day—we headed to the Iao Valley State Monument for a short hike to view the Iao Needle (1200’ high). This valley was the location for the Battle of Kepaniwai between King Kamehameha I and the rulers on Maui in 1790, which helped Kamehameha in his work of unifying (conquering) all the islands of Hawaii.
NOTE: This requires a reservation to visit–reservations can be made at https://gostateparks.hawaii.gov. It cost $20 for the two of us and our rental car to enter. We were glad we went early because we beat the tour buses and the heat!
We also wanted to support the local economy by eating out at some favorite restaurants after the Lahaina fire in 2023 caused a significant loss of income to the area (okay, we also really like good food that we don’t have to cook 😊). Lunch at Leilani’s on the Beach gave us a chance to reminisce about our Leilani, our kitty who passed away earlier this year (and her brother Danno).
Driving by Lahaina, we weren’t able to go into town to see the famous Banyan Tree because roads are closed to all but local traffic. But we did see evidence of the fire from the main road. While the debris has all been cleared away, we saw miles and miles of vacant lots, with only a little bit of building and new construction evident. It’s going to take a while for Lahaina to recover (and this reminded us of the long road ahead for our own wildfire-stricken areas in greater Los Angeles).
We were back in the water the next day, driving to Honolua Bay, our favorite snorkel spot on Maui (we use Maui Revealed by Andrew Doughty to help us find snorkel spots, places to eat, and much more!). We got to Honolua Bay above Ka’anapali and Kapalua around 9:00 a.m., so we were able to grab a parking spot off the side of the road and trek ¼ mile down the hill to this protected bay. We donned our wet suits (the water isn’t that warm!), masks, snorkels, and fins, and grabbed our GoPro cameras. There was a great variety of fish and a couple of turtles in the bay, so we got to watch a bunch of favorites.
The highlight of our 90 minutes in the water was following a small octopus for about 20 minutes as it interacted with a few goatfish, who would pick at the octopus, and then the octopus would occasionally zap one of its arms at the fish. Some websites indicate that this is a cooperative hunting tactic, and the octopus will punch fish that aren’t actively participating in the hunt. We can’t verify if that information is accurate, but it was quite a show for us to observe from the surface.
Another delicious lunch in Ka’anapali, this time at Duke’s, wrapped up our time in West Maui.
Back in our neck of the woods in Kihei, we enjoyed a great (and inexpensive) fish dinner at Coconut’s Fish Café, followed by dessert at Peace Love Shave Ice (Hank just happened to be wearing his Peace/Love t-shirt at the time!).
The next day was supposed to be another snorkel day, but after visiting four different beaches in South Maui, we determined that the surf was just too high and the conditions too rough for snorkeling. So we enjoyed a few minutes of relaxation at Big Beach (Makena) before retreating to our air-conditioned condo (yes, we are wimps—we admit it). We also enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Maui Brewing Company up on the hill.
Our second day of diving took us back out to Lana’i, where we dove Cathedrals I and Shark Fin dive sites. Lots of butterflyfish, turtles, and a spotted eagle ray were some of our highlights, plus the cool effect of the “stained glass windows” at Cathedrals I.
We also were treated to several dolphin and humpback whale sightings while on the boat, always a thrill. Humpback whales have mostly left Hawaii to head toward Alaska, but a few were still in the area. Yay!
Hank put together a short video from our wildlife sightings. Click below or go to this YouTube site to view moray eels, a spotted eagle ray, an octopus, a green sea turtle, humpback whales, and assorted sea creatures.
More shave ice and a beautiful sunset capped off our last full day on Maui. While we skipped a few popular tourist activities that we have done in the past (Haleakala sunrise and sunset, Pipiwai Trail through the bamboo forest past Hana, the whole road to Hana, etc.), we felt refreshed by our time in the water and the beautiful scenery of Maui.
spectacular photography. What a lovely trip – so nice to return to where you love to be, reliving but also adventuring out to the unexplored. loved watching this!
Diane
What a beautiful trip. You really document everything so well. Thanks for sharing your love of the island.
Such a beautiful place. Looks like you guys had a great time and enjoyed the scenery, wildlife, weather, sea and food!
another excellent report – congratulations!