Monday, January 31, 2011

Postcards from Maui - Day 3

1/31/11.

Woke up to a nice swell, pictured above. Trade winds returned after yesterday’s blow from the opposite direction. A lone stand-up paddler was surfing it. I still didn’t have a board. This was the morning I was going to get one.

So we left the swell and drove to Kihei to meet Tommy and Alisa Castleton of Maui Wave Riders. They run a great surf school in Kehei and Lahaina, and have become friends over the years. I got a board and learned their son had the day off and was lobbying heavily to head to “The Bay.”  Honolua had to have been more solid than where we’re staying. Tommy said he'd call if they were going to surf the spot out in front of our condo. I never got a call , so I assume their son got his way.

I did get in the water late afternoon. Had fun.

Friends of ours arrived … and landed the condo right next door.  This will be good.

Looks like I get to paddle tomorrow. Stoked about that – winds in Kihei look promising.


Every sunset seems to be different from the last. Here's tonight's:

 

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Postcards from Maui - Day 2



The day began with a run. We found a few cool small, local stores, then ran into Kapalua, where we found two interesting things besides gorgeous, sweeping views  of Molokai‘i and the Pailolo channel, as well as impossibly green golf courses surrounding five-star resort hotels.  One was Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ambassadors of the Environment; the other was the Honokahua preservation site, which contains over 900 ancient Hawaiian burial sites dating between 610 and 1800.  That prompted a web search for  Honokahua, turning up interesting history of this beautiful area. Turns out the Honokahua Bay was Maui’s most important port, and King Pi
ilani's favorite playground. Lahaina came much later.

In case you have noticed "hono" shows up a lot in Hawaiian place names, it's a term meaning lowing-lying land fronted by a bay that has a point on either side. Surfed Honolua? It means "two bays." And inside Keiki bowls, is ... low lying land.

After returning to our condo, I spotted a momma whale and her calf. She was playing “Can you do this?” I watched her giant white pectoral fin slowly arc over the water as she rotated her entire body, until, after a few times, the calf’s little white pectoral fin imitated mom’s in perfect synch.  Spectacular, nature’s way of passing on life and knowledge in playful ways.

While the day started sunny and showed promise, Maui, the Trickster, had other things in mind. The Northeast trades turned northwest, a shroud of haze all but completely obscured both Molokai‘i and Lana
i, the cloud cover came in, and I wound up trading my shorts for jeans. So we spent the day reading, stocking our kitchen, I practiced guitar, and made a few calls to friends.

Before the sun set, the weather changed yet again. The trades returned, and the clouds broke just enough to let in some glorious filtered light. Our neighbor islands once again appeared.

Oh, and I posted a note on Facebook: Anyone know any prone paddlers on Molokai I could contact? You know where to find me, if you do.


Notice: No promises I'll do a blog every day ...

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Postcards from Maui - Day 1

Napili Point, Moloka'i on the horizon
Favorite phone greeting, heard while calling a friend the morning after arriving on Maui: “The waves are firing. I’ll call you back when it’s flat.”

Travel to Maui took longer than usual  – by way of Salt Lake City, but already so worth it. We hardly got out of bed this morning when we started seeing honu (Hawaiian green turtles) and dolphins in Honokeana Bay, then humpback whales breaching and spouting only a half mile off shore. 


Discovered terrific breakfast & coffee: Soup Nutz in Ka'anapali.
Also serves lunch and dinner, full bar and live music.  Located in just another strip mall, the not-so-scenic view is the parking lot, Lower Honoapi’ilani Road and a resort across the street. But what a meal. Perfect, fluffy veggie omelet, side of Portuguese sausage spiced just right, and a short stack that may have been “short,” but was also mighty wide. The coffee was fresh and flavorful. As the Mauians say, “Broke da mouth!”

Next, we found “All About Fish” (Truth, Lies, Bait & Tackle), where we geared up for snorkeling. Check out the vid at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR-7EDIqQvo.

Before the day ended, we snorkeled in Napili bay, seeing loads of reef fish and a few interesting corals. Magical and enchanting. We made it back to the shoreline to witness the sunset over Lana‘i and stayed for twilight. That’s when the colors distilled into deeper oranges and magentas.