The good news is that we have had no time to watch the news… which, from the little we’ve heard is just not good…..
Our first stop in Maui was at the Iao valley state monument, in one of the many valleys that are carved by wind and rain at the bottom of the mountain.
It’s very green and lush, and the reason for this park is the “needle”, which is an erosion remnant, and has played an important role in the battles that eventually unified Hawaii (warriors used to climb to the top - which seems hard!- to see the enemy coming, and an important battle was fought here.
We then went to the Maui aquarium: this particular tour used to stop at Lahaina, but there is nothing left to see there…. Which is very sad. The aquarium was very cool - focusing exclusively on local marine life:
it has a big tank with many sharks and other cool fish, sea turtles (which I love!), and we got to to feed coral!!!
Put small shrimp around it and see them eat it - which was oddly cool.
They have a very impressive collection of live coral (most aquarium have artificial reefs).
My favorite fish is this unicorn fish (that’s actually it’s name…(Some pictures of fish at the end of the blog).
On our way to the hotel, we noticed how dry and brown the valley looks. This is due mostly to the fact that, since 2018, sugar cane is no longer grown - leaving the grown unused and un-irrigated. they are in the process of developing alternative crops (mangoes, watermelons…), and some areas are starting to green up again. BTW: Sugar producing is very polluting because you have to burn the canes, so this is basically good, but with some pain in the transition. The aquarium is located on the windiest part of the island (and indeed, it was very windy)- so there are also a lot of wind turbines on the empty land. We then followed the coast, where all the very rich people have they very big houses (Larry Ellison, Oprah, etc…), but obviously, you cant see them behind the gates, so no pictures…..(on the other hand, you can’t own the beach in Hawaii, so you can walk on all of their beaches….)
We made it to our very nice hotel (see picture from our room at top of blog) with enough time to have a walk on the beach and admire the grounds.
This black capped night heron was studying the large koy fish, trying to decide of he should eat them…
.There are little lizards everywhere that scatter around when you walk by.
Another very nice dinner with our group, and an early night,
interrupted briefly by the traditional sunset incantation.
I’m going for a hike in the rain forest tomorrow, and hopefully will have some time for a swim too.
