Maui is a small island with a big volcano. Haleakala may only be 10,023 feet (3055m) high, but it would be a lot taller than Mt Everest if measured from the ocean floor. The road up also allows the biggest change in elevation in the shortest distance in the world - 10,000 feet in 38 miles...allegedly.
I had even less time on this island - Maui is a very popular island and it's also a very expensive one. If i hadn't have had such a bad night before, i should have slept in the car again. Without a lot of luck, or some pre-booking, this is not a backpacker place at this time of year. What it is though is an amazing but busy island - with moon like Haleakala crater, quaint towns with a bit of history, gorgeous beaches, clear blue seas with great diving, lush green forests, and amazing scenic drives.
Again I'm here for volcanoes and diving. Molokini crater is a largely submerged, volcanic, crescent shaped crater. It was a pre-dawn start, but i didn't mind - sunrise occurred as we are pulling out of the bay, a bay crammed full of humped back whales! They were everywhere we looked, they even took us by surprise a couple of times by swimming just under the boat. This was going to be an interesting dive.
Interesting it was - and warm too. I got to wear 2 wetsuits, the sea was extremely calm, the water was clear with visibility around 80 feet and the whales were singing, and singing, and singing. 2 long dives, a couple of turtles, a small shark, an octopus, a lot of eels and I was pretty happy - wow, can those whales sing. With the long dives and the amount of time we spent watching the whales a lot of the day had gone. I'd just enough daylight to explore some of the west coast and the town of Lahaina. This is where it's 'all at'; bars, cafes, restaurants, old buildings, museums, art galleries, tourists, cars, traffic accidents...
I got sucked into every gallery to drool over some of the paintings. I like to buy originals from countries i visit, but at $54,000 for the one i love - i had to pass this time. I really like this town, even with the tourists - what a shame I'm not a millionaire.
I've just got time the next day to make the winding drive up to Haleakala crater. I rushed around trails, read signs, took pictures, felt faint - I'm usually good with altitude. I guess 90 minutes is not quite long enough to acclimatise. The views are amazing, and I'm particularly lucky that I had a clear view of the crater - all 7.5 by 2.5 miles of it.
I really like Maui, there's a lot of traffic, but also a lot of really nice places. With more time and more money i would love to come back.
