maui, hawai

5-8 April, 2014

Aloha again! This blog is brought to you by Damo, so please pardon any errors in grammar, sentence structure, or general vocabulary...! 

After an awesome time in North Shore, Oahu, we grabbed a tiny plane to Maui. Despite Hawaii being a surfing mecca, the flight charged a surcharge for having a surfboard of $35, and then the shuttle in Maui slugged us with an extra $15. However, we begrudgingly paid the fee and were on our way to the hotel. 

Maui, for us, was, well, just not as good as North Shore. Don't get me wrong, we still had an awesome time, but it just wasn't as good. For example, the weather was windier with a little more rain, there was no surf at all, beaches weren't as nice, and our hotel was no beach shack at Sunsets. But, this is all just being picky. We still had a bunch of highlights: 

The highlights

• We booked ourselves on to a whale watching cruise, which was just incredible. We saw a baby whale, only a couple of days old, learning how to swim, and enjoyed great weather and people watching (seriously, some people are more interesting to watch than the wildlife!).
• We had a big night out on the booze at a local dive bar called Dollies. Whilst most of the night is somewhat of a blur thanks to the cheap Gin we were gulping down, I do recall mistaking the closet for the bathroom when we eventually stumbled home, in a frustrating attempt to wash my hands. Don't worry, I eventually found my way to the bathroom having spent an incredibly confusing 2-3 minutes wondering where the taps were! Thankfully, Kath witnessed the whole event through a fit of laughter. And was able to remind me in the morning. 
• We checked out local area Lahaina, which took 3 buses to get to, and snuck some sundowners in under the pier on the beach. 
• Captain Jacks = delicious! It's in Lahaina and next time you're here, check em out. 
• Food is quite expensive, so lunches consisted of canned "tuna" (the can said it was tuna but my guess is it was an old shoe, mixed with bark) on pita bread. Mmmmm. 
• On a failed attempt to get on a local bus to go surfing (surfers being further victimized as surf boards are not allowed on buses), we cabbed it to a beach where we were greeted by no surf and doves instead of sea gulls. Boy, were we confused! This whole travelling thing is teaching us lots about wildlife.
• We found some awesome grass with which to do yoga on. Oh man, this was the kind of grass you could fall asleep on! 

The Summary

Weather - Ok. Mostly sunny, but one full day of rain and a fair amount of wind

Surf -  Buh bow. Non existent. 

Food - Lunches were edible, barely. However dinners were delicious! 

Beverages - Oh man, I don't think I could drink gin again. Although... 

People - Nice, but mostly old. 

Accommodation - Meh. We were in a room with no natural light, but overall still pretty good. 

Activities - Whale watching, reading, chilling out.
Budget - A little blown, mostly due to cabs, but overall about in line. 
Overall - Maui was fun, but compared to North Shore, it just isn't as good. I'd still recommend it, but more to people I didn't like. 

That's it for now, tonight is a 15 hour flight with our next stop, PANAMA! 
Damo (and Kath)

Aloha means hello. We're heaps cultured now. 

Jumping for joy with sundowners

Nope, no surf here.

The beach. Not quite North Shore.  

Not only delicious, but also nutritious... canned tuna + canned meat + canned corn! 

Baby whale practicing its moves

World's largest hands

Picturesque mountains

Papa whale saying g'day

Baby whale still practicing

Seriously lush grass where we could practice yoga

Captain Jacks in Lehaina

We still were able to make it into a nice meal! 

The small plane for our 35 minute flight

Our dungeon

Quite delicious coffee

Our local beach in Kahana Falls