Day Twelve & Thirteen: Mahalo Hawai'i!

Well after almost two weeks in the great 50th state, it is time to make the return journey home. Yesterday morning, it was an easy pack up of the luggage in Maui, then it was upstairs for a final espresso with our wonderful hosts Gianna and Matteo. It was sad to say goodbye, but these days with the Internet and social media bringing the world closer together, it really is only goodbye for now, but not forever! 

We took the road back to drop the car off, but gave it a little wipe out and mat shake first. We didn't want to be charged an extra $75 for excess sand or mud in the car. The day before was the huge road trip to Hana and we did bring a fair bit of mud into the car. By yesterday morning, all was dry and easy to shake out....bingo, it was magnificent after only a 5 minute fix up! Did we need to bother? Well we weren't sure what their level of 'excess' was going to be, so given we had the time available to spare, it was in our interest to make a small effort. 

The airport was friendly and calm and it wasn't long before we boarded, landed and were back in Honolulu again. As our international flight was going to be sooooooo early today, we would never had gotten a flight from Maui in time this morning. The best bet was to come back yesterday afternoon and check into the hotel near the airport and chill out! 

The timing of everything was so perfect. We arrived around 1pm to the hotel and the room was ready. This was another bonus, but we were really just going to cruise by the pool with our books anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered so much this time around. Firstly before doing anything else, it was off to a delish Japanese lunch at the nearby set of shops.

For the whole rest of the afternoon, we took back some coffee and a snack and sat out at the pool area. The weather was around 28 degrees and so we had a little bob around the very cold water, but basically read our books for the afternoon and had a couple of chats with people on Facebook. What a nice way to finish off a very relaxing holiday. We're both loving our books and is a past time that we rarely have the time for. 

Last night's restaurant was a massive drop in standard! The food wasn't too bad, but the restaurant was really loud (lots of screaming kids.....something that we have to look forward to), the lights were extremely bright (like when they'd light up at the hall at the end of a blue light disco) and they had a buffet which was very unimpressive. Luckily we could choose from the a la carte menu, which was ok, but not awesome. It was a shame that our 'last supper' let us down! At least our last meal in Maui was outstanding!! 

So kicking back in the room after dinner it was an episode and a half of Hawaii Five-0, before it was time to enter the gates of sleepy land. We needed to wake up about 4:15am to make sure we got the 5am shuttle. Getting ready this morning was actually very easy and we were out the door with plenty of time to spare. The stress levels have been really low - almost non-existent.

We've been thinking about what it would be like travelling with kids, or at least one kid. Well this morning on our shuttle a family with four young kids and an ENORMOUS amount of luggage climbed aboard, headed for the same Jetstar flight. The eldest kid was around 6 with the youngest about 1ish in a sack on the mum's chest. We were friggen impressed! They must be good travelling kids, or the parents are mentally insane!!! The luggage haul alone was out of control. Good on them, they made us think twice about being worried about travel. 

So here we are now, at a little after 6am Hawaii time or 3am Melbourne time, eagerly awaiting our flight (7:30am Hawaiian time). We've tried to best strategise our sleeping time for the plane- maybe some at the start to coincide with with time at home. At least on this flight we arrive at 4pm, rather the usual 5am time from the States. Jet lag shouldn't be an issue this time, but it is always hard to sleep on the plane.

Anyway, that is all for this blog. We look forward to catching you on the other side and possibly even sharing some of our duty free haul with you! Mahalo for reading! 

Look at that holiday physique!! There is definitely a baby belly competition going on! 

Day Eleven: Making the most of our car

Well today it was out of bed early....7:30am!!! And that was after snoozing it three times since 7am! This was seemingly new territory for us, but we managed. Actually, it was a great idea getting up early as we had a big drive ahead of us.

Armed with our Road To Hana CD, we loaded the player and started this majestic drive. Today as the CD said, we took the long and gorgeous winding road to Hana, which ended up taking about 7 hours with several stops, hikes, waterfall visits and many, many, many photo opportunities and of course lunch. We could have gone swimming at the waterfall, but it was almost too fresh to put your feet in. 

If you enjoy driving the snakey bends and tight turns, this is for you. The drive was really fun, with about 50 single lane bridges, so you always had to have your wits about you, so as not to crash or to avoid falling dirt / rocks. After a very limited selection for lunch in Hana, we ventured back to a stop that we'd previously missed close by, because we were starving. From there it was a good 2 hour drive back to civilisation, but we stopped in at Wallmart at the main downtown area of Kahalui (near the airport) to pick up some supplies.

It was nice to be back to literally scrub off the mud and dirt gained from the various hikes in thongs. One of the hikes mentioned on the CD was of a bamboo forest, which the narrator actually warned us about, as it was technically trespassing, but still alluded to going to! It was steep and slippery in parts because of the higher rain fall in this area, but nothing like we'd ever seen before. It was well worth the risk! 

Day Ten: Just chillin'

Today we decided to really take our time and not stress too much about racing to get out of the house. So after a lovely relaxing breakfast, we got ready and left just after midday on our way to Lahaina again. We thought that potentially a dinner cruise was on the agenda, but we really wanted to take the time to go and check out the options first.

We ended up parking near the outlet mall, as it is quite hard to park in the streets and we haven't found a need to parallel park to this point and don't plan on starting if we can avoid it! The car is really wide and with the steering wheel on the other side, it is actually a worrying concept. 

For lunch in Lahaina today, we picked the Hard Rock Cafe. It was the first time that we'd been in there for many many years and so it was well placed to where we wanted to go, so that was our decision. Bon Jovi could be heard from outside, so that actually enticed us in even more! Or meals were really tasty and the place had a really good overall vibe. 

Once lunch had finished up, we took a lovely stroll down the main street to check out the dinner cruise options. We weren't too fussed about doing it and in the end we didn't feel it worth the money to part with $200 USD to take us this opportunity, when it was mass produced food and that was about it. Looking at the cash, we decided that the money could be better spent on two lovely restaurants over the next two nights. A highlight of the dinner cruise would have been some whale watching, but we'd already done that so enough said! 

Before heading back to car, we may have stopped in for a quick shop at the CK outlet, which we didn't have time for the other day. Another 5 things between us....but it's the last trip in a while, so why the hell not. We work hard for the money....thanks Donna Summer. 

We took to the beach in the late afternoon and splashed around for almost two hours, enjoying the peaceful surrounds. There are so many spots to stop and swim, that the beaches aren't overcrowded and can be very quiet in so many areas. People can actually camp at many spots on the beach.

It was a quiet day, so after our fab swim, we slowly meandered in the broom broom to the house. Along the way we saw some whales from the road, which was a dangerous concept to be whale watching and driving at the same time! Once we got back, we rested for a while before showering up and eventually heading out for a late dinner at Matteo and Gianna's restaurant. This was our third night there, but it is a really good way to see them, given that they have been super flat out with this new venture. We have not been disappointed and have not eaten the same thing twice. We do have an early morning ahead of us tomorrow, so ciao for now! 

Day Nine: Sublime sunset

Today we originally had planned to go to the very eastern side of the island to do a drive to a place called Hana. However, as there was some notable lightning last night, it spurred us up to at least look at the predicted weather, which told us that the driving conditions would be best in a couple of days time. 

Instead and after some suggestions from our hosts, we headed in the car about 15 minutes south and stopped firstly at a place called Makena. This area is one where the last lava flow occurred in Maui in 1790, thus making the shoreline incredibly rocky, but devoid of large crowds. 

Unfortunately though, we were boiling! We wanted to go to the volcano crater for sunset and we knew that the temperature was going to drop massively, so we opted for jeans......big mistake! It was much too early in the day for this seemingly extreme level of attire. Luckily we needed to go back north and saw an opportunity to stop via the house to change. What a difference light clothes with ventilation made. 

Both Matteo and Gianna had recommended us to go to a place on the way to the volcano called Pa'ia. Good call, thanks guys!! For only a small place, it was absolutely pumping with people in no rush, just wanting to experience this cool little pocket of the island. Pa'ia had an obvious hippie-type culture, just by looking at the cats cruising and the shops that were on offer. The organic food selection was another clear sign of how this place rolled. We really liked it and it reminded us of places like Warburton or even Daylesford. Matteo had told us about a funky little lunch spot called Café Mes Amis, which served a variety of curries, wraps, crepes and salads. We had no trouble finding something delicious on the menu. 

After our meal and coffee we knew that it was time to keep rolling on towards the volcano. The rain started coming down, which meant that we needed to pull over and put the roof up on the car. The area where we stopped seemed to be a local church even complete with a topless long haired hippy in fisherman pants dancing in a slightly Hare Krishna / rain dance like movement! The things you see! It certainly cemented our opinion of the town having a very distinct hippy vibe.

The drive towards the volcano was simply divine and was a much easier drive than the death zone we experienced yesterday. This morning we noticed on the car rental agreement that it specifically told us not to drive in that area....oops, well we didn't die and the car serviced! A lucky escape! 

The road up the volcano was once again very windy, but very picturesque with the odd stopping point along the way. The guide book gave a great suggestion to stop almost three quarters of the way up and this view did not disappoint. Pretty much every car behind us didn't bother, which was exactly what the guide book said would happen. We therefore had our own time without other annoying tourists jumping in our photo zone!

We made it to the visitor centre just near the summit and it was definitely colder than down at the beach earlier on in the day. Part way up the volcano we stopped at a camp ground to change back to our jeans and warm clothing. If we hadn't have been told to do so by Gianna and Matteo, we would have been bloody freezing. It dropped from 90 (32 degrees Celsius) to 48 (9 degrees Celsius). Although it was cool, we were warm with what we wore and the fresh air was really invigorating. It is the same feeling that you get when you climb the trail to the top of the Thousand Steps, where your lungs are open and you really feel alive. 

There was a lot of low lying clouds, so seeing into the crater of the volcano was pretty much obscured, but you could tell that we were very high up...actually almost 3000 metres above sea level. We had made it to this point with about 20 minutes to take an abundance of sunset photos before it disappeared completely. There were a few people around, with three full tour buses, but even with all of the snap happy gang in the area, there were still plenty of vantage points. 

We took our time to head back and made it to the house by 7:45pm, giving us time to change for dinner and find a place to eat at online. We decided on a local Wailea restaurant called Fabiani's, but as we'd arrived around 9pm, the joint was about to close. We ended back up at Monkeypod Kitchen which was in the same set of shops and given that it was just after 9pm, we knew we were arriving at the beginning of happy hour. Two beers for the price of one....yes please!