Maui, Day 5

Maui Day 5 (Friday) dawned a beautiful "Bellingham Grey" - only about 30 degrees warmer...(although you'll see Julie's blue fleece make a few more appearances today). Given the weather still wasn't great for a beach day, we jumped into the car and headed North.  Click here to see all the pictures from day 5.

Our first stop was to Honolua Bay. This bay is arguably the best snorkel spot on the island; namely, because it's part of the Mokuleia Marine Life Conservation District. In other words, it's protected from man (no spear fishing, or fishing of any kind). The only problem with the Bay is depending on the weather, the surf, and a fresh-water river that feeds into the Bay, it can either be the best snorkeling on the island or a murky mess that you don't even want to enter. We had experienced both and were hopeful of the best...and we were not disappointed. Even though it was mostly cloudy, the water was fairly clear and we enjoyed some great snorkeling, including a huge school of fish that we swam with for a bit. In addition, we saw a couple of sea turtles from the shore who were apparently in some kind of mating ritual we believe. They were at the surface but we were told to "stay away from them" (and we complied). The snorkeling was great - you'll have to wait until the Day 6 post to see a few pictures though.



Following the snorkel and "warming up," (yes, we got in the car and cranked the heat), we decided to check out a couple of new things - namely, the Nakalele blowhole. Amazingly, we hadn't really ventured to this part of the island before (we will, at this point, credit the big blue "Maui revealed" book - an excellent book for some tips on the island). It described an "alien landscape" along with a powerful blowhole. I did my homework to make sure we saw it at high-tide on a day when the surf was up a little and we were not disappointed. The only thing that would have made it better would have been some sun and blue sky. You can hike all the way down to the blowhole (as some others we saw did) but you'd risk getting very wet. The landscape around the area was "alien," just as described. The holes in the rock are caused by the spray of the salt water eating things away.

After the blowhole we headed into town to one of my favorite "mixed plate" places called "Aloha Mixed Plate" where we dined on some wonderful pulled pork and coconut shrimp (so good!). The rest of the day we hung out by our pool, read books, relaxed, and went into town for our traditional "Bubba Gump" dinner.  Click here to see all the pictures from day 5.