Pictures of the Past and On to Maui

basking sea turtle... we also swam with some that day!


one of the telescopes on Mauna Kea... VERY cold!

This was a road going through here...

kiluea... the now active volcano

lava pouring into the ocean

It's been a while! But we've enjoyed three fabulous days on Maui! Another fantastic island... with a few more tourists and higher prices than some of the other islands... but absolutely beautiful! As we drove up the mountain on one side, looking out you can see the ocean on both sides of the island!! it's soo cool, and it's great how you can get just about anywhere relatively quickly (30 min drive is considered far!)

The first day was getting acquainted with the upcountry... we visited the UH Maui Agricultural Centre where they grow Protea flowers and have an amazing rose garden. We also stopped by a lavender farm high up on the mountain where it's so much cooler and they just had beautiful gardens to walk around. We finished at the Tedeschi winery where there was free sampling and tour... they make pineapple wine! It's really yummy!

A highlight on this island has definitely been staying with and hanging out with friends... karsten, whom i met on an eye mission in nicaragua, and his roommates carlys and mike. The first night Mike even cooked us up fresh fish he had caught while spear fishing on the reef in molokai! It was our first time eating from a whole fish... head and eyes still there and everything... I even ate some of the fin deep fried. He did three different fish three different ways and it was all delicious!

the next day karsten toured us aorund to some small little towns to look in shops, stopped by a couple beaches, one where we happened to stumble across a monk seal sunbathing! (another animal to check off our list) we ate delicious fish sandwiches at the Paia Fishmarket and ended up in the Iao Valley which is so lush and green with little waterfalls and streams flowing.

Another first that night... sushi! And I liked it... though i definitely need to work on my chopsticks technique!

So yesterday was one of the highlights of our trip! That morning we decided to see if we could book a sailing boat cruise to Lanai, one of the smaller islands. It was expensive, but rated as the best so we had to try it... and it was worth every penny! We departed on the catamaran/sailboat at 10am, they fed us cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, wraps, fresh pineapple juice. Of course I sat on the catamaran part and lucky thing... as we were cruising jay spotted a pod of dolphins!!! so they turned the boat that way and a few minutes later we were surrounded by them... at least 50 and they said that was only a 3rd of the pod, the rest were under water... they swam with us for so long and were literally 3 feet from our dangling toes! it was AMAZING!!!


on the island we had a van tour of the town, snorkelled some more, played in the waves and ate bbq chicken. We also made these great new friends Branda and Luke, we hung out with them for a lot of the day having a blast! They were flying out today so invited us back to their hotel... the four seasons... which was AMAZING! and we went swimming in the pool and drank champagne in their room... and they sent us home with a bottle since they couldn't take it back with them! it was a great day!