Sunday evening, just as the marathon award ceremony (complete with free beer and pizza) was ending, the sunset over Ka’anapali beach was perhaps the best we saw while in Hawaii. Of course, there was a mad dash to get photos of it, but I managed to sneak out the back way and walk through the Westin‘s pool area to get this shot from a relatively uncrowded area.
Sunday morning, marathon morning, we were up early. The bus from the finish to the full marathon start left at 3:30am. Since I was only doing the half marathon, and that started at the finish line, that left me a couple of hours at Whalers Village with nothing much to do. Starbucks turned up just before the start with large containers of hot coffee though, which was very welcome; Starbucks and Jamba Juice were sponsors of the event, and both were handing out free drinks to finishers.
The photo is the sunrise over Lahaina harbour. I stopped to grab a few photos of it using my girlfriend’s Canon S500 (she banned me from carrying the larger camera in case I spent too much time taking photos!). It was full moon the weekend of the marathon, and that is the moon you can see in the photo, not the sun.
Taken in the water on the black sand beach, this is a close-up shot of a wave just starting to break. Moments after this it was rushing around my legs. I have a number of shots, all taken crouching down in the water at the edge of the beach as the waves come racing in. This is the only one where I managed to catch the wave cresting, but not actually breaking already.
… at the same park as the Waianapanapa caves there is also a black sand beach. The sand is not as soft as the regular sand on Maui, and there are a lot of pebbles higher up the beach, but it is black sand for sure.
On the outskirts of Hana, almost at the end of the famous road to Hana (where else is the journey the attraction and not the destination?), is a small park with a trail down to a cave with a story:
Once upon a time a Hawaiian princess named Popoalaea fled from her cruel husband, the chief Kakae. She hid on a ledge just inside the underwater entrance to this cave. A faithful serving maid sat across from her fanning the princess with a feather kahili symbol of royalty. Noticing the reflection of the kahili in the water the chief discovered Popoalaea’s hiding place and killed her. At certain times of the year tiny red shrimp appear in the pool, turning the water red some say it is a reminder of the blood of the slain princess.
But that’s not all there is to see at this park…
Beautiful Wailea beach (this section outside the Four Seasons resort). We took things a little easier on day 3, heading down to Wailea after a slightly later start. We had intended to go to Hana, but decided that we would wait a day on that, and instead check out the Wailea resort, Kihei and then in the afternoon drop by the marathon expo to pick up our registration packs (including the number bibs).
While my girlfriend took advantage of the beach walk to get in her final training run for Sunday’s marathon (around 3 miles), I strolled along the beach walk, starting at the Four Seasons resort which was next to the beach parking lot we had chosen, taking photos.
After her run, we spent a little time on the beach and had our first swim in the ocean; although the red flags were still up, plenty of people were in the water at Wailea and for the most part it was calm. Every now and again though a big wave would come roaring in just to remind you that the sea is in charge on the beach.
Lunch was at Cheese Burger Mai Tais & Rock N Roll in the Shops at Wailea shopping mall. Then we drove back through Kihei to the marathon expo at Whalers Village.
After Iao Valley, we headed back towards the hotel, but rather than taking the main highway (Hwy 380 to Hwy 30), we went up the north-east coast road towards Kahakuloa.
Not far into the journey the road becomes a single lane with passing places. It is also switchbacks around the edge of the cliffs, and frequently small bridges making it slow going.
About two thirds of the way there we came across the Kaukini Gallery. Stopping there we bought a t-shirt (“I survived the drive to Kahakuloa, Maui”) and looked around the local art and crafts available.
In the garden area at Iao Valley State Park was a beautiful white hibiscus plant. It took a while for the wind to die down enough to get this shot; in fact, the wind was perhaps the biggest problem I had getting photos of flowers in Maui. Everytime I got the camera out to take a flower shot, the wind seemed to pick up 🙁
The Hawaiian flowers we see on our trips are always spectacular, and this trip was no exception. On Oahu when we were there last year we saw a lot of red and yellow hibiscus plants, but on Maui there seemed to be many more variations in colour. Of course, the reds and yellows were there, but there were also white, pink and more complex red/yellow combinations.
I am a big fan of photos where the water has been made to seem soft and fluffy but the shoreline features remain sharp focussed. This was one of my first experiments with the technique in Maui (previously I have only done some test shots using a waterfall feature in the lagoons around my apartment complex).
Overall, I am quite pleased with this one, especially since I did it without the tripod (I had left it in the car not expecting to need it).
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).