Lahaina, Maui – First Port of Call

This morning, we arrived at the port town of Lahaina, on the island of Maui. This is a tender port, meaning that we will have to go ashore using the ship’s large lifeboats that are also used to ferry passengers ashore from the ship when there is no dock for the ship to berth at. Since the tender rides are on a first come, first served basis, we needed to get to the holding area early. Today, we are only in port from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM,  but having to use tenders can add time to the process of getting on and off of the ship.

Wake up time this morning was at 5:15 AM, which is more like getting up to go to work than for vacation. However, we needed to be able to get ready, go to breakfast, and then go to the waiting area to be on the first tenders going ashore. The plan for our day is to rent a car from Hertz, which is the only rental car agency in the actual port town, and is within walking distance from the dock area where the tenders let you off.  All of the other car rental companies are at the nearby airport, which is about a 15 minute shuttle ride or longer away. It also happens to be in the opposite direction of the route we are taking today, which is to go and drive part of what is called the Hana Highway. The worst part of the shuttle service is that only the rental car driver can take the shuttle to get the rental car, all car passengers have to wait at the ship to be picked up by the driver after getting the rental car. That is also the case for the car return, but even worse is that the last shuttle service from the rental companies at the airport is at 4:00 PM, which is much earlier than the ship’s departure at 5:30 PM. With Hertz, we can use the drop off box, and then walk back to the ship, allowing us to extend our day closer to the actual time we need to be back on the ship.

We arrived at the tender holding area, one of the dining rooms, at about 7:30 AM. There was already a short line, but we secured tender tickets for the first group to go ashore. We boarded the tender at close to 8:15 AM, and were ashore about 15 minutes later. It was about a seven block walk to the rental car company, and we actually beat the Hertz shuttle service there, allowing us to get our car before the lines started. We were not sure there would be a Hertz shuttle at the pier, but a couple of the passengers on the tender were also using Hertz, and indicated there was a shuttle service, but were not sure what time they would be there to pick up passengers. Apparently, the shuttle was waiting near the tender drop off, but we did not see it when we left the tender. It was actually nice to stretch our legs some on land after the four days at sea.

We rented a small Subaru, and off we went to drive the Hana Highway. We had already entered the cross street location of the start of the Hana Highway into our GPS the day prior to arrival, and so we had no trouble getting out of Lahaina, and on to the correct road to the town of Kahului, which is where the Hana Highway starts. This was about a 45 minute drive from Lahaina, although it is only about 25 miles away.  The long drive time was due to lower speed limits and curvy roads. The Hana Highway is a winding road that goes from Kahului to the city of Hana, and has some of the best views in Maui. Since the speed limit is only about 25 mph, and there are a lot of bridges that are one lane where you have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear before proceeding, we already knew that we would not be able to drive the entire distance to Hana in the amount of time we had for our port call. In addition, there are many areas to stop at to view waterfalls, and other scenic areas, adding time to the drive.

We had picked a point about 25 miles down the highway towards Hana as the target distance that we planned to travel today before we turned around and headed back.

After arriving at Kahului, we turned onto Highway 36, known as the Hana Highway. All of the stories we had read about the road were true, it was very winding, and the lanes were narrow. It took a little while to get used to crossing the bridges, which are all one lane. There are places on the road indicating where you are to wait to yield to oncoming traffic. Most of the time, you can see the other side of the bridge, sometimes, it is not as easy. Most of the traffic was going in our direction, but occasionally, there was some traffic going the other way, requiring us to wait until they cleared the bridge. We realized that since we were only going part of the way, we would be going against the “normal” flow of traffic on the way back.

The first stop was at the Lower Puohokama Falls, which required us to walk a short distance on a trail to see the falls. The falls were nice, and the vantage point from the trail gave us a good opportunity for photos. A little farther down the trail, we could also see the ocean from the path. Heading back to the car, we were off again to the next scenic area.

The next stop was at the Pua’a Ka’a State Park to view another waterfall. It was becoming apparent as we looked at the waterfalls in the guide book, that there had not been much rain lately in this area. Most of the “waterfalls” were only small trickles of water as compared to the photos in the guidebook. The book did explain that there were periods of time where the waterfalls were pretty dry, and this seemed to be the case for today. This was the case for the waterfall at Pua’a Ka’a, it was barely worth the walk up to see it.

We then drove to the last waterfall we would be able to visit before turning around and heading back to Lahaina. It is called the Hanawi Falls, and actually had a little more water flowing over it than some of the others we had visited.

The next stop was at the Waikana Falls. We actually had passed this falls on the drive out, but did not stop to see it at that time because when we had passed it the first time, it was too crowded in the small parking area to stop without parking out in the road. This time, we were able to pull into the parking area and take some pictures before it became more crowded. People seemed to come in waves, when we had first arrived there were only a few people, then all of a sudden there were many more. It was one of the nicer falls to photograph, so we set up the tripod so we could take a picture of us and the waterfall together. That became more difficult as the crowd increased.

This was to be our last stop on the Hana Highway before we completed the return trip back to Kahului. Although we had only gone 25 miles on the Hana Highway, it took us about 90 minutes to drive that distance back to Kahului, indicating just how curvy the roads were. Stephanie actually had a couple of bouts with some mild motion sickness, mainly caused by trying to read the guide book to help us determine where the various stops were for sightseeing. I was so occupied with driving, it did not bother me, but I am sure I would have also been bothered by the motion if I were reading.

We decided to stop at the Walmart in Kahului and pick up some provisions for the sea days ahead on the cruise. Walmart’s are just about everywhere in the Hawaiian Islands, and now knowing this, we could have picked up some of the items we brought from home, and lightened our luggage. Prices were not that much more than home on most items that we would have needed. However, not having been here before, we had played it safe and brought them with us from home.

We then headed back to Lahaina, and arrived at about 2:30 PM. Since we were a little early, we headed north up the Ka’anapali Coast. This is the area where all of the hotels and golf courses are on the western coast of Maui. We decided to head to an area called the Dragon’s Teeth on the Makalua-puns Point near Kapalua. This is an interesting lava formation right on the coast that appears to look like dragon’s teeth due to how the lava has weathered and has been bleached by the salt spray. The point is in an area of property owned by the Ritz-Carlton, and also near another area where during construction of the hotel, they had discovered an area where Hawaiian remains had been buried. The area near the point is now designated as a sacred burial grounds for the Hawaiian’s, and the hotel built nearby had to be moved farther away from the ocean after the remains were discovered there. To get to the Dragon’s Teeth, you actually have to walk along the side of one of the fairways for the golf course.

While we were taking pictures, we found that there were several large sea turtles swimming along the shore area, and we were able to get some photographs of them, although they were swimming in the area where the waves were breaking, and it was difficult to see them for any long period of time before the next wave came in and washed them around. It was getting late, so we headed to turn in the car at the Hertz office around 4:30 PM.

After dropping of the rental car at Hertz, we headed into the town to look at a few of the stores on the walk back to the ship. We bought one Christmas Ornament, something we try and collect on our travels. They are always small and light, and easy to transport home.

We were tendered back to the ship and were back aboard by about 5:15 PM. It was a long day, lots of driving, but an interesting stop in Maui.

We went back to the cabin to drop off our gear, and then Stephanie went to the buffet to pick up a few snacks, and we sat on the balcony and enjoyed some chips and salsa, along with a few adult refreshments, as the ship pulled away from Maui.

Even though it had been a long day in Maui, we decided to go to dinner in the dining room, and try and get a table with the wait staff from the other night in the Sante Fe Dining Room. We once again enjoyed our dining time with Georgiana, our waiter.  After dinner, we walked around the ship to allow our food to settle.  There was not much we were interested in on the entertainment schedule tonight, so after our stroll, we headed back to the room to get ready for tomorrow’s port of call, Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are planning on renting a car and visiting the Volcanoes National Park during our stop there.