On July 4, Independence Day, Dave and I decided to go to one of Muai's famous beaches, Oneloa (a.k.a. the Big Beach). Unfortunately for us, their was an overcast that day and the waves were calm; so Dave basically got upset that he couldn't get a tan nor boogie on his boogie board. While I was chillin', Dave desperately was making due by trying to boogie board on very small waves with little success. Luckily for us, we watched the tourist channel the night before and learned that on the other side of this big rock is another beach called Little Beach, a nude beach.

So Dave and I decided to climb over the big rock to check-out the sights. On the other side, we saw some stuff, not what we were hoping either. Their were several old people, some gay guys playing frisbee a bunch of hippies, and a couple of displaced newlyweds (doing stuff that shouldn't be done in public); most of which I did not want to see. Well, their was a couple of good looking girls there too, or was that the fact they were just naked that made them good look, nonetheless they were nude. Your probably asking if I took part in this nudism, no I did not and neither did Dave, we chickened out. I also didn't take any photos of this little trip, so sorry to disappoint you.

After our little stay at the Little Beach, we walked along the coast for a little ways; however the coast line isn't just soft sand beaches but mostly rock. So we finally turned around and went back to the Big Beach, and after staying a little while basking in the Pacific Ocean, we packed-up and headed back to the hotel to plan for the next destination that day (and to get all the sand out of my trunks).

Haleakala National Park Yep, right after our little trip to the beach, it was time to climb the mountain. From our hotel, we drove back towards the main town of Kahului, going through fields and fields of sugar cane. From Kahului (actually from McDonalds in Kahului) we drove east on Hwy. 37 towards Pukalani. From Pukalani, we went then onto Hwy. 377 and up the mountain, going 1000 ft. then 2000 ft., before long we were seeing cows grazing alongside the road (I thought it was interesting because you normally don't think of cows when you think of Hawaii). Finally, around 3000 ft., we made it to the main road that goes up the mountain, Hwy. 378. This lovely drive is exactly 22 miles long and goes all the way to the top, making many turns along the way. As we drove up Hwy. 378, we soon went into the clouds; however, this did not bother me since I have lived in the North Carolina mountains with weather similar to this, so I had little difficulty (if any) driving. Around 4500 ft., we started getting flashes from cars going down; one car finally signaled us to stop to tell us of an accident a few more turns up. True to their word, after a few more turns up, we drove to the accident where a car hit another car; this didn't surprised me one bit as the fog like cloud was more like pea soup by that point. Don't worry though about the people involved in the accident their were park rangers at the scene which directed traffic and dealt with the problem, so we moved on. It was around 5500 ft. when we started to clear up, by the time we got to 6000 ft., it was sunny and clear. Still surrounded by cows grazing on the mountain with only grass and pine trees at this point, it looked like we were not in Hawaii anymore but more like Wyoming. Eventually, we made it to the main gate of the Haleakala National Park (as seen in the first picture). Before leaving, we were told that you have to pay to go up, but I'm guessing it being a holiday and all, that we were in luck and did not pay for lack of any rangers present at the gate, we moved on. As we drove up, we were surrounded by literally a sea of clouds. The trees soon stopped not far from the gate entrance of the park, though vegetation continued with small bushes that were becoming smaller and smaller the further we went up. By around 9000 ft., vegetation was almost gone, it was now mostly just red dirt and rocks that surrounded our drive. We did not stop till we reached the top, and when we did, we found no-one else around. Totally alone, we walked (didn't run because of warning signs of thin air) around the top of Haleakala (House of the Sun) at Red Hill. At 10,023 ft. (or 28,000 ft. from ocean floor), it was the highest point on Maui This was a very cool experience being on top of the mountain in Hawaii, and it was cold too (around 38F/3C). Near where we were was a place called "Science City", a USAF Satellite Tracking Station. We couldn't go there though because it was still classified, thus get in real trouble with the Military. In the far distance, we could see Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two volcanoes on Hawaii (the Big Island) about 80 miles or more away. Facing towards another direction, I saw a plane fly by us (wasn't nearby, about five miles away I'm guessing) what's weird is that it seemed lower than we were. Truly I felt that I was top of the world, even if it was for a brief period of time.

Before we left, we spotted a little garden in the middle of the parking lot. In this little garden were these plants called "Silverswords," they are these short silver looking plants which grow about less than one inch per year. Because it never rains at this high altitude, these were the only plants that could thrive in these harsh conditions, and they could be only found on Haleakala (very rare and very endangered). I'm guessing the reason they are silver is so it can reflect the suns light as it is the only thing that touches this part of the mountain (you could probably get sunburn and freeze to death at the same time here, if so lucky). So, like I did with everything else on this trip, I took several pictures of these neat plants.

As we hoped into the car and drove back down (on the lowest gear possible on the neon), to make a long story short, we stopped a few times along the way to took pictures of interesting wildlife, sights, and pics of me just chillin'. Along the way down, Dave started talking about religion and stuff (for what reason I can't remember), and then bitched that he haven't driven once yet (and never did either on this trip). We soon went into the clouds again, then back out into the valley.

That night, we celebrated our conquest of Haleakala by dinning at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Lahaina. A very interesting dinning experience too, while we waited for our food, we were quizzed on the movie "Forrest Gump" and was briefed of all the fine things you can do with shrimp. David though was a bit upset for the fact that it was the Fourth of July and he wanted to see fireworks; so right after we ate, we decided to drive up to the Kaanapali where (we were told) there was going to be some big firework show at one of the big hotels there.

Well, lets just say that we missed it, but we sure didn't miss the traffic which we got sucked in. It took us forever to get through that dang traffic from hell; and when we finally did, we drove as fast as we can back to the hotel to end a long day of fun.

The Last Day

In the morning of our last day in Maui, May 5, Dave and I got into a little argument about going to the beach again. I said we could not go because we wouldn't be able to wash off (checkout is at noon) and be ready for our flight back to Honolulu around 6:00pm. He got mad, but since I was the driver, he just had to get over it. So we drove for one last time around the island, headed first for the Lahaina Cannery Mall (the only air-condition mall on the island) where I decided to get some film developed.

With a quick stop at the mall, we continued our drive up Hwy. 30, going through small tourist towns like Kahana, Napili, and Kapalua. After passing the last tourist town, the road began to get a little curvy, and started going along side the coastline. In the distance from where we were, somewhere on Hwy. 30 near Lipoa Pt. on the west side of Maui, you can see clearly both Lanai island and Molokai island. We also saw some yachts that were sailing along side the coast and several pineapple farms scattered about the land. Eventually the road continued to get worse, and being unsure, we turned back around towards the mall and get my photos.

After getting my photos we decided to go to the Maui Ocean Center, which was along the way back towards the airport. But upon arriving there, we were shock to find that it cost $23 a person to enter, we both felt it wasn't worth it since we had only a couple of hours left. So we drove around Wailuku and took some more pictures of the area. Finally, it was time to go, and we went back the the Kahului Airport where we bid farewell to the valley isle known as Maui.