From there, the plan was to go to Turtle Arches, to see some turtles. Apparently the surf was pretty high in that area, so we went to a different spot instead. On the way, we saw two adult whales breaching off in the distance. Very neat!! They breached at least 3 times.
The spot we went to for snorkeling was amazing. It was probably half a mile off the southwest coast of Maui. The geography was great and the visibility was really good also. We saw quite a few turtles and lots of fish.
Once we were done with the snorkeling, we did a little whale watching. We saw a whale calf practicing breaching. Once we were in shore, we decided to check out Paia for surfing/boogie boarding opportunities.
The water ended up being a bit messy, but Joe and Laura went out anyway and had a lot of fun. Afterwards, we had a yummy dinner at a Mexican restaurant there in Paia, then headed home to conk out for the night.
-Miranda
One of the turtles I saw
CLICK FOR VIDEO:TURTLE
One of my favorite fish, the Black Triggerfish. Apparently known as the Hawaiin Parana because when they used to allow the feeding of the fish, it would bite fingers trying to get the food faster. Fortunately (for a number of reasons) they don't allow the feeding of fish anymore.
CLICK FOR VIDEO:BLACK TRIGGERFISH
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This morning we got moving pretty early and headed to Black Rock to go snorkeling. It's supposed to be a popular spot. We saw a ton of neat fish, but there wasn't much coral in this spot. Also, it appears the fish are fed there, because they were getting super close to us. Especially if we stayed put for very long. We could hear the whales really well too, which was very neat.
By the time we got out, the beach was getting pretty busy. We headed for Kihei to have a yummy lunch at Joy's Place (again). From there we headed farther south to the lava flows. Laura and I went for a short hike before we got back in the car and headed back across the lave to another popular snorkeling spot, the Dumps.
The water was pretty clear, but the water was a little choppy. We still saw lots of neat fish. Some we hadn't seen yet. On our way back in, Laura spotted an octopus!!! It was awesome! We didn't have the camera with us, unfortunately. :( But it changed color at least 3 or 4 times. Super neat.
After snorkeling, we headed to an Indian restaurant in Kihei for dinner. It was pretty good.
Our first full day with Laura went really well and was super fun. We're all bushed though and heading to bed early.
-Miranda
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We slept in a little bit, but were still up around 7. We decided since it's possible we won't be in this area much longer, we should get anything done up here that we want to do. We headed down the road towards the Olivine Pools which a local at the house mentioned.
The road was super windy with a lot of blind corners, but there was little traffic. We found the spot, got out and climbed down the rocks. Olivine is apparently a semi-precious mineral. It was all over in the rocks. Pretty neat. Some of the pools were super muddy. I'm assuming it was just because of the massive rain storm a few days ago. The pools farther from the rock wall were really clear though. There were even some fish in there! Very fun to watch them.
Once we left there, we decided to stop by some of the sights along the way back. One was the "Blow Hole", which a hole that water comes shooting out of when a wave comes up. It was pretty neat.
From there we couldn't really decide what to do. We were both super worn out. We've been basically running around since we got here. We decided to go snorkeling in Kaanapali Bay, which is in the area. It wasn't as clear as Makena, but there was coral all over. The currents pushed us around a bit more also, but we finally remembered to bring the underwater camera with to test out. It did pretty well. We saw a lot more fish varieties I think, but it was not a place I would expect to see turtles, and we didn't.
We were both pretty tired, so we headed back to the house after that and have basically just been getting some work done and resting. A nice, relaxing, fun day.
-Miranda
The view from our room.
Joe found a heart hole in the rock and there just happened to be someplace I could set the camera up.
Neat fish in the clear pool.
I liked this fish. I only saw one in this pool and he was hard to get a decent photo of.
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We woke up pretty early today. Joe went out to get cereal (we went to a grocery store the previous evening). He tried to be as quiet as possible and still apparently managed to wake everyone else up... Which, people keep appearing out of nowhere. This place is huge!
Today, we decided to head out snorkeling. There was a place just north of where we are that was supposed to be decent snorkeling. All we had were goggles, but we figured that was a good starter. It was a bit freaky getting in, but once we got comfortable, we realized the water was super clear! As we got a little farther out from the sandy beach, we spotted coral and a lot of different kinds of fish. They were everywhere! At one point we even spotted a Green Sea Turtle! It surprised Joe. :D It was a little tough with just goggles, but it was still tons of fun.
We headed to Kihei after that, which is supposed to have some great snorkeling areas. We had lunch and headed farther south to the end of the road. On the map it showed snorkeling, but it looked like you had to go for a bit of a hike. It was through an old lava flow from 1790. The area was very neat, but all the little alcoves weren't quite protected enough and it was really rocky to actually get into the water. So we just hiked in, looked around some and hiked back out.
Since the sun was still in a great position for snorkeling, we stopped at Makena Landing. Notes on that said it was a great post so long as the waves weren't up. It looked really calm, so off we went. It was great! We saw a ton of fish and about 5 sea turtles. The first one we saw was pretty small. The second one came out a cave heading straight for me! When I swam a bit off to get out of its way. Totally freaked me out. This turtle had to be at least 4 feet long. It was huge!
After that adventure, we found some dinner and headed back to the house. Now we're just getting some work done and heading to bed. One problem with this place is there are windows everywhere. In the bathroom, in the bedroom, etc. No blinds or shades at all. So, we have to shower in the dark and people can see in the bedroom, which is kind of weird. The owner said he's going to get some shades at least for the bedroom in the next couple days, which would be nice if we're still here then. One pretty cool thing is two of the windows/doors are actually disappearing doors. We haven't been around during the day yet to really utilize them though.
-Miranda
The lava flow.
A section of the beach on our walk. I believe the white stuff on the rocks is old coral.
The disappearing door.
The bedroom.
The bathroom. Crazy shower! Nice windows, huh?
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Joe needed to go up north for work and Matt was in town, so the three of us went scuba diving at Ore-Be-Gone. There's a lot of neat stuff down there to look at, plus we saw fish all over.
-Miranda
Miranda got frightened by a railway cart underwater!! Giant man-eating-pit-sharks dont bug her, but an old rusty immobile cart does?! gofigure.
-Joe
We don't look very enthused...
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