After breakfast at Ruby’s Diner in the Queen Ka’ahumanu Center, we drove over to the Iao Valley. As you pull into the State Park parking lot at the end of the road, you can see Iao’s Needle. A short walk up the path gets you much better views though. Once you’ve seen the needle, you can walk the looped path down to the stream and back up. Finally, visit the garden area where you can see taro plants, guava and hawaiian flowers (including a white hibiscus that will appear on the blog later this week).

Up very early on our first full day in Maui, we were at the top of Haleakala for sunrise (just). The drive up is fun; the road is switchbacks all the way to the top.

The photo of the inside of the crater was actually taken on our way back down from the peak (which is 10,023 feet above sea level). In it you can see a cinder cone from a more recent eruption (the volcano is officially dormant, not extinct).

You can check out a live webcam at the top of Haleakala as well. Sunrise at the time of writing is around 6am Hawaiian time (9am US pacific time or noon US eastern time).

After an early morning flight from San Francisco direct to Maui’s Kahului airport, we picked up the rental car and headed straight for our hotel, the Renaissance Kapalua Bay Hotel. The photo is from the hotel lobby area (where we had to wait while they finished getting our room ready). The whole area is just open; on either side of the lobby are seating areas, one being the hotel’s bar area, the other just a lounge for relaxing in with views out over the gardens and ocean.

Once settled, we drove back down the road to Whalers Village in Ka’anapali to check out the stores, find somewhere for a light dinner (we had eaten a late lunch at the hotel’s poolside bar) and also work out where everything was for the Maui Marathon that we would be taking part in on Sunday.