Hawaii Maui
HAWAII MAUI
Aloha to LuvUrPassion’s trip to Hawaii! This was an impromptu trip (tickets booked literally on the last minute) to the islands of Maui and Honolulu, Oahu during the Christmas break. This was our second visit to Maui but first time for our 9 year old. Technically, he was with us in the first trip but waiting to see light in another five months.
DAY 1 DEC 21: KAANAPALI BEACH, MAUI
We reached Maui Sunday evening and retired early. Monday started with a leisurely stroll along the world famous Kaanapali beach. It was a beautiful sunny morning with an art and craft fair on the beach. Our son had a blast with water slides in the resort pool. The hotel courtyard had a chess board on tiles with 2 ft chess pieces and kids did not mind waiting for a game of chess. The nearby Whalers Village was a beach side mall with boutiques, restaurants, activity lessons etc. We dined at a local café.
DAY 2 DEC 22: HANA HIGHWAY, BALDWIN BEACH
Checked out of Marriott Kaanapali vacation club in the morning and drove through the residential area near Front Street. Front Street is full of local shops lining the seaside, it’s a happening place for shoppers. Our next destination was Kihei along 30 E highway, this road is dotted with beaches – some are designated as beach parks while others are accessible by just a roadside parking.
Needless to say, every beach is picturesque with white sand, coconut trees and clear blue water. Lunch was at a local café Da Kitchen where we savored Hawaiian delicacies Katsu chicken and Kalua pork. A scenic drive thereafter on Hana Highway took us through the rainforest vegetation to Twin Falls. It started raining cats and dogs as we parked and had to wait 20 mins in the car listening to the local radio channel, the music was so melodious that we kept the channel on rest of the drive. We did not have time to cover the complete stretch of Hana Highway as we had a flight to catch to go to Ohau. On our way to airport, made a brief stop at Baldwin beach and saw beautiful rainbows.
It was evening when we landed at Honolulu airport in Ohau. We knew Honolulu was a big bustling city but had no idea how enormous it was. The 6 lane highways and the abundant high-risers everywhere made San Francisco look a smaller city. Wikipedia confirmed that Honolulu has 470 high risers ranking 4th among US cities (after NYC, Chicago, LA and just before SF).
DAY 3 DEC 23: MANOA FALLS, HONULULU
Day at Hawaii starts early and follows the sun. We went for a morning hike to fascinating Manoa Falls. Cascading 150 feet down the mountainside, this Ohau waterfall delivers an impressive show and yet is easily accessible. Ohau is a small island and most places can be reached within 30-40 minutes. Manoa Falls is a moderate 1.6 mi round trip hike along slippery terrain in the rainforest. It was a complete different landscape within 5 miles from the crowded Waikiki beach. The views were breathtaking along the trail with vegetation glittering after fresh rain.
We spent rest of the day at Kuhio beach; this beach has an area of semi protected water where waves are blocked by an artificial stone wall. It was more like a pool with ocean water and was ideal for non swimmers like myself. Hawaiian dinner at the hotel restaurant was a lovely one with live band performing local music.
DAY 4 DEC 24: POLYNESIAN CENTER
As this trip was completely unplanned, we scanned through the various brochures and tour sites and thought of exploring the Hukilau Marketplace opened last year at Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC). Hawaii along with islands of Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga and New Zealand form the Polynesian triangle in Pacific Ocean. Their heritage and culture is common as it was shared amongst them by the ancient voyagers. A theme park to promote and preserve this culture was opened last year. The park has an entry fee of $60 and can easily take up the whole day. If you have a day to spare, it is highly advisable to visit this park and have dinner and Luao show. We only had half a day and were able to cover the shows of Samoa, Tahiti, Tongo, Hawaii and the Canoe Pageant where each island put on a beautiful representation of their dance and music on large platform canoes. The Tongo show was quite memorable as hubby went to the stage along with 2 other tourists and performed on the drums at the instructions of the presenter. The Samoa show was the best and very funny with the commentator presenting coconut usage in a humorous way.
We had spent some time in the morning at Dole Pineapple plantation on our way to PCC. The garden tour was not an impressive one; there was not a single pineapple as they were all harvested. There was a good collection of the Hawaiian national flower Hibiscus. The road along the north east shore leading to PCC was dotted with beaches. People parking street side and crossing the road to get to beaches made traffic really slow.
DAY 5 CHRISTMAS: OAHU EAST SHORE
Christmas day was a relaxing beach day. We explored the Oahu east shore white sand beaches; it was a 30 minute drive from our Waikiki hotel. There were nice bungalows and vacation rentals along Lanakai beach; this would be our destination if we ever come back to Oahu. Each house had a garden full of our familiar Indian tropical trees of banana, coconut, hibiscus etc. Parking was street side along the houses and narrow alley between two houses led to the beach. Our next destination was Kailua beach park where getting a parking spot was a challenge. It was pretty crowded but the mild breeze and sun made it an enjoyable 3 hour. We had bought chicken curry Manapua (Cantonese bun with a filing) from a 7 eleven store on the way and became a big fan of that dish. Sunset was on a clear sky at the Waikiki beach. We enjoyed fresh pineapples and papaya from a street side vendor while watching the day end. This was the most crowded beach I have ever seen.
DAY 6 DEC 26: HANUMUA BAY, NORTH SHORE
Hanumua bay is a natural lagoon at the west end and is famous for snorkeling. It has a bed of coral reef and fishes are seen at shallow depths when the water is calm. You have to go early to this spot otherwise parking area gets full by 8 am. We got a good parking but weather was not a promising one. It poured while we were waiting at the ticket counter; the floating device we had bought served a better purpose as an umbrella. The water was calm with not too many people and we were able to see a bunch of fishes at waist level water.
We had not visited the northern west shore so far, so our lunch venue was at oceanfront LongBoards restaurant on Marriott timeshare in Kapolei. It had a million dollar view and a breeze to match. We still had few hours to spend before our flight and went to nearby Barbers Point Beach Park. It turned out to be a disaster as the beach was in a harbor area. Actually this west shore is rough and good for surfing but does not have good beaches other than the four lagoons surrounded by resort areas. Luckily we spotted a public parking tucked in a side street that had access to KoOlina lagoon 3 beach. This was a natural lagoon that the resorts could not close access to but every attempt was made to hide the parking area. It was still raining occasionally and we headed out for airport without waiting for sunset. The highway H1 near Honolulu airport was double storied for quite a stretch with another street going underneath the highway. This might be a future for some of bay area freeways, typically 880 and 680, to be made double storied to fight the traffic situation! When we returned our car at National, the staff was surprised to see we had driven 300 miles in 4 days; we actually had hit almost every highway in this 44 miles long and 30 miles wide volcanic island.
Mahalo for being with us and hope you enjoyed so far… Aloha!