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:: Thursday, March 17, 2005 ::

Maui
Day Twelve
03.17.05

This morning I did a little clean up around the condo, dishes, laundry and blog.

After breakfast and Bruce's surfing we drove south past Wailea to La Perouse Bay, where there was an amazing lava flow. You could see where it exited the crater above, and made its way to the ocean. There were walls built here with the lava with thatch roofs where locals lived for over 600 years. It was interesting to see little pockets of beach areas.

monkey pod | thorn berry | flower

On the way back we stopped at a lunch wagon that had its own mesquite barbecue stove built in. I had a combo of salmon, steak, and chicken shishkabob with a Strawberry Liloquois Juice.

Afterwards we stopped by one of the Wailea beachs to perhaps get a dip, but it was so busy we passed.

We stopped by the condo to rest up a bit, then got gas and essentials for a road trip to Haleakela Crater. We drove through the mountainside town of Makawao where there are horse ranches, cattle, and hillside that's reminiscent of Northern California or Vermont. The road was quite steep, and we were soon in a zig zag pattern. More fir trees appeared. Makawao is at 1500 feet, and we passed Kula at 3500 feet. We drove into the clouds at 5000 feet, and out again by 6000.

west maui mountains with both shores | hawk | view down

When we finally reached the visitor's center at White Hill we were one mile from the peak. We stopped for a view back to the crater and took some amazing pictures of what you'd swear could be the lunar surface. We took a short hike there and were winded very fast.

at the crater | white hill | the peak

The drive to the peak passed 10,000 feet, and at the little glassed-in building on top of Red Hill we topped out at 10,023 feet. We read the info, and walked around a little bit, then waited in the car for the sunset. In that very short time we were tired and somewhat cold...I was wearing long pants and a sweater, and was still cold!

crater 1 | crater 2 | crater 3 | ejecta

We ran out as the sunset started, and set up the video camera out on a ledge so we could stay inside the observation building. The temperature was dropping fast!

We returned to Kihei in the dark, grabbed some food at Star Market (and some Guiness of course! Happy St. Pat's!) and returned to the condo.

I watched the movie Starman, and a little bit of Nurse Betty and to sleep.

DC

:: David 3/17/2005 02:08:00 PM [+] ::
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