Maui: February, 1998

Travel Maui was the second stop on our Hawaiian vacation in February, 1998. We had started our vacation on Kauai. We arrived in the airport on Maui around 1pm. After picking up our rental car, we decided that we would take the scenic route to Kaanapali. The scenic route means traveling the north route from the airport around West Maui. Maui's northeastern coastline is absolutely beautiful. The road is extremely narrow and there are many places where if you meet an oncoming vehicle, one of you will have to back up. We arrived in Kaanapali around 4:30pm, a bit tired and hot after a long day, wanting nothing more than to check into our hotel and get a nice shower.

Accomodations We were staying at the Hyatt Resort in Kaanapali. We had made our reservations about 5 months in advance so we expected no problems. When we arrived we were informed that they were still preparing our room so it would be about a 30-60 minute wait. They did sit us at the bar and pay for our drinks and appetizers while we waited. Unfortunately when they did move us into a room, it was not what we had reserved and paid for. We had reserved a garden view room. They put us in in room that faced the dumpster in the parking lot. Before the bellman could unpack our bags, Tracy was on the phone with the front desk. Within 10 minutes we were being moved into an oceanfront room on the 23rd floor (the Regency Club). We were only allowed to stay there one night, until a garden view room opened up. Nonetheless, it was a great room! We were both terribly disappointed with Hyatt that they would try to put us in a less expensive room when they didn't have what we had paid for. It's unfortunate because we were pleased with all of the Hyatt's other services but that initial experience just left us with bad feelings toward the Hyatt.

Activities Maui offeres so many different things to do that you could stay busy for a lifetime! Our favorite trip (outside of diving) was coasting down Mount Haleakala on mountain bikes with Mountain Riders. We were picked up at our Hotel at 2AM (yes AM) in a big van. We drove in the van to the bike shop to hitch up a trailer loaded with mountain bikes. From there we took the long ride up 10,000 feet to the top of Haleakala. We arrived at the top around 4:30am, about 1 hour before sunrise with the outside temperature of about 35 degrees F. At that point it seemed foolish to be so early, but within an hour we were surrounded by hundreds of other people planning on riding down the mountain. We watched the sunrise above the clouds below us. It was quite beautiful. Then we geared up for our ride down the mountain. Mountain riders provided windpants, jackets, and gloves, along with a full face helmet for the ride down. We coasted down the road, lead by our guide on a mountainbike and followed by the van and trailer. There is no passing on the way down (except in specified areas) so we didn't have to worry about traffic. We would pull over at designated passing areas where we could take pictures and relax. While it is called a "ride", you are actually coasting the entire way, 10,000 feet, all downhill. At one point we stopped for breakfast and when we finally made it to the beach, we loaded up the bikes in the trailer, and drove back to the Hotel. We got back to our hotel about 11 am. We were on Maui at the right time to see the Humpback whales so we took in a whale watching excursion. We really enjoyed the trip and learned quite a bit about Humpback whales. However, if you are planning on diving, you will probably see your fill of whales on the dive boat. If you're not diving, I wouldn't miss a whale watching trip. We drove the road to Hana, stopping for a long hike in Haleakala National Park. We hiked up through a bamboo forest to the base of a beautiful waterfall. We snorkled many places along the road to Makena. There were numerous sites along the road that one could just pull over and get in the water.

Diving We also took some time to dive. We arranged our diving through Lahina Divers. We were both very pleased with them as a dive operator and we'd use them again. We started with a three tank dive. Our first dive was Pinnacle Reef (off Mokuhooniki rock -- Molokai). The water was cooler than Tracy and I had expected as our previous diving was in the Carribbean. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't worth the long boat trip for that dive. The waves were a bit rough and we both felt a bit seasick after a blue water safety stop for 3 minutes. Our second dive was called Fish Rain (also off Molokai). There was great visibility and numerous fish. The most interesting part was listening to the humpback whales. Our divemaster insisted that they were at least 5 miles off but I could swear that they were right behind us the whole dive. Our last dive for the day was at Honolua Bay off W. Maui. We saw a number of Green Sea Turtles. A few were swimming but most were sitting in holes at the bottom. The next day we decided to do a two tank dive. Both of the dives were off Molokini Island. The first dive was mostly inside the crater were we saw two spotted eels. The second dive was outside the crater where we saw two beautiful manta rays. They were the most majestic creatures I have ever witnessed. On our way back to the boat, we saw a whitetip reef shark cruising the sand channels.

Copyright © 2001 Kris Warmann. All Rights Reserved.