Hawaii: West Maui Adventure

One afternoon (after the all-important morning of snorkeling, and the almost as important lunch) we got in the convertible and drove north.

Our destination: Nakalele Blowhole on the northern edge of West Maui. But we were willing to be entertained by anything along the way.

The traffic was heavy and slow as we drove towards Lahaina. So we watched the crashing waves and watched for whales as we sat in traffic. It was a real misery. ;)


Lahaina is home to what must be the biggest banyan tree in the world. The thing is the size of an entire city block. It resides in what is appropraitely called "Banyan Tree Park."

This is all 1 tree behind Russ!

The tree was imported from India in 1873 and planted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Christain missionary work in Lahaina. It is over 60 feet tall and has a huge core (which I wasn't patient enough to wait to take pictures in) and 12 other major trunks. It shades 2/3 of an acre! Here's Sue's picture of the underneath.

When we got up to Honolua Bay we pulled off to watch the surfers. Usually when you're watching surfers you're down on the beach on their level. It was fun to watch from such a different vantage point.

The surfers all parked at the top of this bay, and then had to hike down the steep path carrying their boards. That's dedication!

Here's a good video of a surfer.

What a beautiful place.

Driving around the north west corner of Maui was an adventure. The road was curvy and narrow, and the views were incredible. (Not that Russ would stop so that I could take pictures of most of them!)

When we finally reached our destination Susan and I were intrigued by all of the stacked rocks in the area.

My google search reveals that the stacked rocks are either have religious significance for the natives, are a way for local fishermen to mark the path, or a fun activity for tourists. Whatever the reason, they were cool to see.

Russ was impatient with our fascination with the stacked rocks. He wanted to get on to the main event, the blowhole.

The timing of our arrival at the blowhole was excellent. I don't know if it's always this way, but when we arrived the sun was shining just right so that we could see the colors of the rainbow in the water. It was really beautiful.

It's hard to get a perspective on how high the water was shooting up, and Russ didn't want to go down closer because the path was really slippery and it was tremendously windy and he didn't want to get wet. But look at this picture with people in it--how small they are compared to that spray of water!


It was a fun outing and we watched the sun set as we drove back to our condo. What a nice day and fun adventure.

Jupiter over Maui. Thanks to friend Keith who let me know it was Jupiter and not Venus that I was admiring!