Notes from Our Vacation - Lahaina, Maui

On the morning of Thursday, March 3rd, the Star Princess anchored off the port of Lahaina on the island of Maui, said port not being large and deep enough to accommodate big cruise ships. This meant we had to get to the shore via the ship's tenders - small vessels able to carry 50 or 60 people wedged in cheek-by-jowl. Ordinarily, this is not a big deal; however, the seas were quite rough that morning, and getting from the ship onto the pitching tender* was ... well ... exciting. I fully expected at least one person to end up either in the drink or mashed between tender and ship, but we all somehow made it safely aboard.

Our tour was scheduled to visit two locations: the Haleakala National Park, and the Maui Ocean Center, and our tour guide - a huge, genial Hawaiian who told us to just call him Henry (his actual Hawaiian name being very long and difficult for non-natives like us to remember) - kept up a very entertaining and informative patter as we went along.

The summit of the Haleakala volcano sits at about 10,700 feet (3,200 meters) above sea level, and is reached by a steep and endlessly-switchbacking road that works its way through just about every sort of vegetation zone on Earth, from tropical to desert to alpine. There aren't many guardrails along the route, especially at the higher elevations, and the giant bus's navigation around some of the tighter switchbacks tended to be exciting, particularly on the way down. The route to the summit rises from sea level to 10,700 feet in about 37 miles, making it one of the steepest and fastest-rising climbs in the world.

Here's a shot Agnes took from the bus as we approached the lower visitor's center, at about the 7,000 foot (2,100 meter) level, with the deep blue sea in the background.

There are two visitors centers in the park: the lower one is larger, and has the usual gift shop and staff of helpful park rangers to answer questions. 

It also had a helpful "you are here" map to help us place ourselves on the mountain. In case the picture doesn't blow up enough to see it, the lower visitors center is at the lower right of the map, and you can see how the road switchbacks up to the upper visitors center, which sits about 600 feet below the actual summit.

The upper visitors center (at about 9,700 feet or 3,000 meters) was significantly less inviting when we got there. A front had moved in and the summit was completely socked in with cold, wet clouds. It was raining steadily, with a very stiff wind blowing**. As you can imagine, we did not get the beautiful volcanic landscape photos we were hoping for ...

After a stay of about 20 minutes at the upper visitors center (which was manned by only one park ranger, probably the one who drew the short straw that day), we picked up our date-stamped "I made it all the way up Haleakala" certificates and boarded the bus for the white-knuckled ride down the mountain to warmer climes and the Maui Ocean Center. 

The center is a focal point for marine study and conservation, and has beautiful and informative displays about marine life. Tropical fish are gorgeous, and it's very peaceful and calming to watch them swim by ...

One hopes we will be able to save the beautiful and ecologically-important coral reefs ...

This was a fascinating example of natural camouflage ...

And this is about as close as I ever need to get to a shark ...

We finished the day by wandering around the harbor area of Lahaina, where Agnes - ever the lover of wildlife of all kinds - couldn't pass up the opportunity to pose with a few of her new friends. Yes, they're all real ...

The last - and one of the most fascinating things - we saw was this enormous banyan tree. The picture actually shows only a small part of it; the entire tree covers about half an acre of a local park, and is the largest banyan in Hawaii. The original seedling planted in 1873 was about 8 feet (2.4 meters) high; by 2005 it had grown to a height of about 49 feet (15 m), had 16 trunks, and a circumference of nearly a quarter of a mile ...

By the time we boarded the tender to return to the Star Princess, the seas had calmed quite a bit from the morning's excitement, and we had a much more pleasant ride across the harbor to end our too-short stay on Maui.

This was our last stop in Hawaii. The final port of call before we returned to Los Angeles was Ensenada, Mexico, and we'll talk about that next week, after the usual Friday, Saturday, and Sunday posts.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow to greet our Left-Cheek Ass Clown for March. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* I now know why they call them tenders ... it's because of how every part of your body feels after it's been slammed around for a while against the sides of the boat and the other passengers.

** The people who ignored the tour guidance to dress in warm layers didn't get off the bus for more than about 10 seconds ... there's a reason the Park Service recommends against tank tops and shorts for visiting the summit. I also recommend against using the rest rooms there ... as they are unheated and will absolutely wake you up.