Great adventures and great sleep don’t usually go hand in hand. The AM wake up meant that a heck of an adventure was about to happen.
Arriving in Hawaii, I immediately started to get the feel of the slowed down life that I’ve been hearing about.
Maui Vista. Home for the next week.
Not a bad way to end the day.
As a photographer, I get excited at new sights and these landscapes certainly did the trick.
First beach of many.
No time to catch up on sleep. Our third day had us up again at 4AM to catch the sunrise at Haleaka Volcano. In hindsight, the crowd that greeted us there showed us that we probably should have been up earlier. I managed to find a nice lady who would let me squat between her and the railing. The view made it totally worth it.
The morning crowd quickly disbanded, but we took the opportunity to explore this martian land. Besides, it was finally starting to get warmer.
I’ve never seen observatories like this in person before and would have really loved to go inside, but they were operated by the Air Force so it was off limits.
Haleakala has an elevation of 10,023ft. For reference, that is right about twice the height of Crown Mountain, which is the tallest peak of the Grouse area of mountains.
Coconuts were definitely on the checklist of the trip. Despite the fact that they grow on trees there and you see them scattered everywhere, they are roughly triple the price of what they are in Vancouver! The price of buying local perhaps.
Wild chickens. They’re everywhere in Maui.
So this landscape here may not be as breathtaking as the previous images from above, but what I thought was really cool about this is that all the rocks in front of me are from Maui’s most recent volcanic activity 900,000 years ago.
The areas surrounding La Perouse bay is great for snorkelling, though not this particular spot.
The beautiful Makena Beach.
Day 4 was all about the Waihee Ridge Trail hike. Gorgeous hike, with stunning views. Also very muddy, but seeing a small stampede of cows made it worth it.
We also took a quick stroll through Ioa Valley State Park. Kinda felt like Asia there.
On day 5 we tackled the Road to Hana. One of the highlights for me was seeing all the little shops on the side of the road selling fruits, juice and banana bread.
Along the road there are many stops, so you kinda pick and choose what you want to see. We stopped by the Garden of Eden, who’s claim to fame is that Jurrasic Park was filmed there. It was one shot, and the exact location can be seen at the rainbow overlook. Recognize it?
We stopped in Keanae to watch some pretty strong waves crash up against the rocks. This place is definitely not as popular as the other spots, but it was a good place to watch mother nature put on a show.
My inner wedding photographer got the best of me and I creeped this shot below.
This couple is from Salem, Oregon.
Lava tube was pretty cool to check out. It was just on some guys land, and he told us the previous owner of the land never even went into the tubes.
Black Sand Beach
Little cave for swimming in the same area as the beach.
We finished at the 7 sacred pools. It was super windy there, but beautiful none the less.
On day 6 we chased the sun. Never quite caught it.
When the rain finally stopped we spent a bit of time at Black Rock Beach. I couldn’t stand another second of laying around so I took the opportunity to photograph some skim boarders.
This view right here. We’d drive by it pretty much every day and I’d always stare at it in amazement. Was really glad I managed to get a shot of it, even though it was from in the car.
We started day 7 at Charlie Young Beach. Should have made more use of this place as its less than a 10min walk from our apartment.
This beach was between La Peruse Bay and Makena. A great spot for snorkelling, though the snorkelling itself made me rather dizzy so I didn’t do too much of it. The current was a bit strong and the rocking of it just made me too nauseous to swim further out. Even so, I did manage to see lots of colourful fishes! Heck, I walked out to waist deep water, dunked my head in and saw a white fish swimming around the sand.
This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. We headed back up to Haleakala at night to stargaze and boy did the stars come out. I love photographing stars. Theres something about exposing the unseen and just seeing the wonders of the universe. We were the last ones to leave the mountain that night. In just a few short hours, the first person would be heading up to watch the sun rise.
Day 8 started with more beaches. Well for me anyways. The others went surfing. I stayed behind cause I can hardly swim. I feel like this was where I turbo-charged my tan to supersede the others because I didn’t do any of the morning tanning, but I managed to get the darkest. It was really freaking hot here. I have never felt heat like this before. I like the sun, but this was just uncomfortable. I tried to read, but I couldn’t. If I stayed still in one spot for too long I would start to cook.
So we found this spot the same way I find spots to shoot when I’m shooting in an unfamiliar place. Look at google earth. Find an interesting landscape. Find and follow the road that brings you there. Not a bad find.
Heres another spot that we drove by daily. The Kehei Coastal Boardwalk. Nice way to end the day.
Last day. Road to Kahakuloa Bay. Okay, so that isn’t an official tourist outing, in fact, we only ended up there because we got lost. On a whim, we decided to check out the Nakalele Blowhole, but we somehow missed it, because the sign for it is MASSIVE. Instead, we ended up driving down a true one lane road with no barriers, and a drop on the side, but when things opened up, we were greeted with this view. Getting lost? Not so bad.
We pulled over at every pull out to check out the views. Olivine Pools was one of the best finds.
The entire drive was just full of scenic views like this. Definitely gives the road to Hana a run for its money. Hana is all about the little spots that you pull out into; for this road, the reward is the drive. I don’t think we could have ended this trip in a better way!
