Did you know there’s a hurricane headed for the Hawaiian Islands? It’s not as bad as it sounds, just some rain overnight on Tues, not even half an inch. But even kinda far away, a hurricane stirs up the ocean water and makes for bad snorkeling. If we were going to get to the hot snorkel spots at all, it needed to be today; things weren’t going to improve any time soon. Our 5-hour tour: the Molokini crater, with its coral reefs, and the charmingly named Turtle Town, off our own Lahaina coast.
After failing to realize our report time was half an hour earlier than launch time, and going to the wrong place, we barely made it to our boat. Our crew was a friendly bunch of 20-somethings who are clearly living the life of their dreams (except that I’m sure they have zero monies). The boat!
I don’t know what a hurricane looks like passing over a Hawaiian island, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it looks like this.
But that was all the way over there, and we were over here.
Low and small Molokini in the distance.
And then there we were! The Molokini crater. It was pretty rugged and barren on the outside, nothing growing there – but hundreds of seabirds!
We saw many angular frigate birds, the most we’d ever seen by far.
I hadn’t snorkeled in almost 20 years, but down we went, into the drink. So many fish and coral! Beautiful exotic fish. Thanks to Daniel’s mom, we had a digital underwater camera, so Dan was in heaven snorkeling and photographing.
The water was so, so clear and blue. You could really see a long way, maybe a hundred feet or more. It was a great temperature – our beach at Hana yesterday had been an interesting mix, with water near the shore that was like bath water, and water further out that dropped at least 10 degrees. This was some of the cooler water we’d had, but not anywhere near actually cold.
We thought we’d pop out for lunch then head back to the water, but when we came up for lunch, it was clear the operators had no intention of inviting people back into the water. We’d had a good hour in there, so we shrugged and were happy with what we’d had. Also, Turtle Town was off the itinerary, because the coming storm had stirred up the water near the shore and ruined the visibility. We were grateful Molokini had been so clear. We shrugged and were happy with what we’d had.
On the way back, we encountered an abandoned jet ski. It was all very eerie, and reminiscent of something you’d see in a White Lotus episode.
Then we found an abandoned boat! But it wasn’t abandoned; the occupants were under water, and it turned out the jet ski was theirs too. They yelled at us, “We’re fine! What are you still doing here? Go away!” We sailed on, relieved and smiling.
While we didn’t get to go to Turtle Town, they took us to a turtle hot spot on the open ocean, and we saw a good 4 of them, including some very large specimens. They don’t photograph well from the boat, but take our word for it, we saw turtles.
Back on land, we cruised through the shopping center where we’d joined our boat party, and saw this mama chicken with a whole flock of little black chickies!
We also thought these pillars with their artwork were neat.
We headed back to Maui Pie in Kihei, twice in 3 days, because our first pies had been so, so good. We’ll cook up the chicken pot pie one of these rainy evenings we have coming up, and now we had a coconut cream pie to go with our banana cream pie. Look how cute this place is!
Thanks for the rec, Kelsey!
Speaking of great recs, our neighbors Jon and Miriam had also recommended ABC Markets, a local chain. We visited the one in Kihei. I thought we’d find something like our 7-11 yesterday, a convenience store with quirky Asian food. Not so! This was a very appealingly arrayed mini-market (several steps up from a convenience store) with mountains of very fun tourist purchasables. I bought you some stuff.
We went on in search of kahlua pig for dinner. On our way back from Kihei, we thought we’d look at the food carts on this stretch of road we’d found completely enchanting. There are these incredible trees that curve gracefully over the road, and we swoon over them every time we pass by there. There was a cluster of carts under these shady trees – surely one of these had something great for dinner?
Dan for scale.
We actually came up short in the prepared food department, but there was the most incredible farmer’s market there! It was piled high with so much incredible stuff to take home to you. So we bought one of everything.
We headed home to shower and decompress (very successful), then went back to the map to see if Ariel could tell us where we should have dinner. Yep, came through – tonight, Joey’s Kitchen, a Filipino restaurant by way of Hawaii. On his way to pick up food, Dan passed through the Napili Market, which he remembered well from nine years ago. It’s been refreshed, and is looking good:
Then he arrived for the last 5 minutes of sunset with dinner in hand. Kahlua pig? Yes. And pork lumpia, mac salad, and seared ahi tuna. Outstanding.
I asked yesterday, what could be better than ending a day like yesterday? With the sunset and coconut chicken? Ending it like today, with an even better sunset. This is gonna be a lot of sunset picks, but D and I will definitely want to remember this one.
My favorite quote about meditation is from Thích Nhất Hạnh: “Enlightenment is a wave realizing it is the ocean.” Slicing through waves in a blue ocean, swimming with its creatures, seeing the sun set over countless miles of the vast Pacific, I’ve been thinking about the ocean a lot. It’s not just an ocean of humanity, although that is a huge and interesting collection of waves too. It’s all of us, all life sharing Spaceship Earth. To be alive is to join the mighty ocean of life, and we’re all so lucky to be part of it. Even when we don’t get to go to Turtle Town.
And that was our day! Tomorrow, Iao Valley and whatever else we find to get into. See you then!
