We flew directly from Kauai to Maui for the second week of our March trip to Hawaii. This time we had a small Chevrolet rental car. It did well for us, but it was not as comfortable as the Hyundai we had on Kauai.
We went on a whale watching cruise from Lahaina harbor in a 30 passenger boat with a solid bottom but with air pontoons for floatation powered by two Cummins diesel engines. We were lucky enough to be with a group of 4 whales for 30 to 40 minutes. Unfortunately, my digital camera batteries gave up, so no digital pictures of them! The camera, by the way, is a point and shoot Canon AS1100 IS (11 mp) with an eye level viewfinder.
Just a little surfing was going on at Hookipa Beach, but the surf was enough to keep the locals interested.
In Iao Valley, where a decisive battle was fought and won by the forces of Kamehameha. He brought all of the islands under his rule. Signs in the state park claimed that lookouts were posted at the top of the spire in the background. Terraces in the valley defined small irrigated plots where mainly taro was grown.
This scene greeted us at the top of Haleakala. At least it was not all socked in. Elevation here is a little over 10,000 ft. It took about 2 hours to drive up the winding road beginning at sea level!
The silversword plant grows only near the top of the mountain. Under the silver colored leaves the plant is a light green color.
Here we are at the very summit of Haleakala
With my mild COPD I was huffing and puffing a lot at the top, but here is the evidence that I made it!
Under our rental car contract we were to return the car with an empty gas tank. Driving up Haleakala caused the needle of the gas gauge to drop more than I expected, so I was a bit concerned about fuel to get down the mountain. We went down in second gear to save the brakes. A readout on the dashboard often gave real time gas consumption of 99 mpg! My congratulations to the computer governing fuel usage! We made it to the bottom with fuel to spare!
Maui has a nice aquarium showing the colorful reef fish and corals. Large tanks had a few sharks, but no seals or whales.
This was the most spectacular rainbow we encountered during our visit.
We had a fine meal in this restaurant named for “The Duke” who popularized surf boarding
No comments:
Post a Comment