Maui: Days 1 & 2 (this is LONG!)

Jenn and I are now in Maui, enjoying some sunshine and warm Pacific waters.  It is quite blustery here though in the latter portions of the day, something that I have become unaccustomed to since moving away from Lethbridge.  I’m not quite used to the island life where it is windy (like Victoria).  Apparently it is the windy time of year here.  We are staying on the lee side of the island where the snorkelling is good (surfing is good on the other side) so I can’t imagine if it is windy here, on the wind-shadow side, what it would be like on the other side of the island...

Day 1:

Our first day we slept in and went out to get the lay of the land, buy supplies and book a tour to Molokini , a crescent shaped island (?) where there is apparently some really good snorkelling.  We also rented some snorkelling gear (and have gone a couple of times to some pretty good reefs just off of the shore).  We rented a little cottage just across the road from a beach (and thereby the Pacific) and went for a quick little walk.  Spotted some neat vines and its flowers growing out of the sand.

 

The day was still quite young so we decided to go do some snorkelling a little ways up the road.  Didn’t want to bring my camera and leave it on the beach, so I had to leave it at base camp and therefore have no pictures of that part of the trip.  It basically seems that wherever there is a rock outcropping from the shore then you are guaranteed to find a reef.  There are a lot of interesting fish, very colourful – unexpected for a newbie like myself because you look into the water from the top and don’t see very much, and don’t expect very much.  Then, once you dip your head and mask into the water you see the rock outcropping go out for a very long way.  Then, as you swim closer, you start to see all of the fish; almost all at once they materialize from thin air (or water I suppose...).

We returned to our cottage and rested a bit and ate.  Took some pictures of the sunset.

Day 2:

Our paid for and planned trips didn’t begin until the next day, so we decided to be full out touristy and rented some open ocean kayaks.  I felt like a bit of a flake, not really going anywhere exciting except for off shore for the hour that we rented the kayaks.  The rental guy told us various things they are required to say including “Stay 100 yards away from the whales”. 

Now, we did scan the oceans for whales before going to the kayak area and in the far distance would see some blowhole spray, but nothing that seemed achievable to us in our dinky kayaks.  Despite the far distance though, we did see a humpback breaching the surface at least five times...it was still VERY impressive from the shore despite being probably 1 km away (I imagine probably even further than that even).  I was thoroughly impressed that something of that size could get ¾ of its body out of the water.  When I was doing my lifeguard training it was hard enough to just get half of my body out of the water when treading water...

Being the friend of a whale-guy (Dug), you get to know a few things.  The proximity that human beings and their vehicular contraptions should be to the oceanic animals is well known – you get given stickers and such showing you the “No-Zone”.  When the rental guy told us to “Stay 100 yards...”, well, I took it as something that he had to say as part of his duties, especially since he said it so nonchalantly.   There was no way that we would be able to get close enough to any whales to have be aware of this rule.  We were also told to head to the right of the beach so that when the winds came (apparently a certainty), it would push us back instead of us paddling against a headwind.  All the whales that I saw were splashing around to the left of the beach.  All this added up to lame tourist kayaking...

At least, I thought to myself, we aren’t doing the stand-up surf paddling like that one group ahead of us was doing.  My respect for people doing this increased markedly though seeing them do it here in Hawaii.  Someone stand-up paddling on Okanagan Lake, when the water is still – seems kind of wussy, but on the ocean, with large swells frequenting the waters, it must be a lot tougher.  On top of that, guys, all of the dudes that I saw trying it could not stand on the boards.  Well, they lasted for about a second, I have to give them that much credit.  On the other hand, the ladies pretty much got the hang of it after a couple of tries, swells and all.  So, I’m sure it has quite a degree of difficulty to it.  I still won’t pay money to do it though...

We debated which way to head out, whether we would go to the right or just head pretty much straight out, making a bee-line towards all the other tourist kayakers.  The prospect of becoming part of a tourist flotilla, again, warning bells ringing: lame tourist kayaking.  Taking up the role of a lame tourist kayaker, my zeal to get anywhere (there really wasn’t anywhere to get to in a half hour anyway) diminished and we floated or I watched Jenn paddle in the seat of the double kayak in front of me most of the time.

After we were a good distance from shore, we both stopped paddling and just hung out, with the occasional “doo-doo” Jaws theme coming from my mouth to bug Jenn (who get’s affected by those two infamous notes despite not even seeing Jaws and therefore not having a reasonable basis for her discomfort!!).  Jenn kept asking where we should go and I, disconsolately like a child, would say “There’s nowhere to go...”

Jennifer, putting up with me (and probably the reason any man marries a woman – finding someone who’ll withstand all our shenanigans!) just floated, probably happy that I actually made some sort of decision.  The kayak end up spinning towards the shore and therefore the sun beat into our faces.  Jenn requested a “righting of the ship” so our faces would not get baked.  As I started to paddle to turn the kayak we heard a very loud sound, almost like a wave breaking on shore – an exhale.  As the kayak spun around we saw two humpback whales swimming by, rolling in and out of the water.  We were amazed (Jenn much more vocally than I).  We were also a little jealous of the two kayakers between us and the whales who were close enough to smell their “whale breath” (don’t worry dug, they were still quite far away). 

The four of us were the closest, the rest of the flotilla a bit of a ways away and starting to frantically paddle toward the whales.  There were a couple of guys who were dead set on getting close including who we dubbed the “Whale Chaser”, a guy and his kid in a double kayak.  I’m sure that we heard his breathing as well as the whale’s with how hard he was working.  The beautiful thing about it was that the whale’s did a few undulations and then one big inhalation, a breath that we could clearly hear, the whale was on its way down, tail flipping in the air.  Whale Chaser – 0, humpback – 1.

We were satisfied enough with being that close.  I felt less like a tourist kayakers then, and Jennifer vindicated I’m sure.  (The women always right in the long run...)  We floated around some more.  More spray popped up all around us with the whales surfacing.  All the kayakers would start to chase the whales despite being so far away from them.  It looked a little like a soccer game between 6 year olds – every player chasing after the ball in a fluid, cohesive mass.  We floated, maybe turning the kayak around to get a good look, but did not chase.  We cursed the avid chasers but that is about it.  No whales breaching the surface either, but that might be scary up close.

We paddled a bit further out and then floated again, separated from the flotilla (we weren’t really THAT close together, but it still had a flotilla feel).  We floated again, truly in vacation mode, enjoying the blue waters and the sun, almost ready to head back.  I dangled my feet in the water, splashing them around trying to attract sharks – at least that’s what I told Jenn.  They wouldn’t want those measly, stinky feet...

About the time we were ready to make a decision to head back, we heard a tremendously loud exhalation behind us.  We spun around and there, very close to us, were the two humpbacks from before (I think).  We were awed before, but their proximity now made it even more awesome.  I pretty sure they were still 100 yards away but I’m sure that I smelled whale breath...  Of course, the two chasers resumed their frenzied paddling, the one with the son most of all, but by the time they reached where we already were we heard the big breath – just as if a human were getting ready to go underwater but 100 times the volume of air moving through the orifice.  Down went the whales.  I’m sure the whale chasers got a good close up view of the tails; we had a fantastic view.

Tourist kayakers yes, but, we got to see a very magnificent creature.  Those people who spend a lot of time on their sail boats must feel privileged.  I can’t imagine what it was like when Mike & Hyo (http://aboardio.blogspot.com) were anchored and whales were all around them - so much so that they feared collisions!!  Or when they were 0 m from the whale shark...

We came in after that and returned the boat.  We may have the rental guy takes us out on a 2-hour tour (I’d be a bit wary if it was a 3-hour one...) to go snorkelling and see some dolphin.  Dug, he promised us that we would be able to grab their dorsal fins and go for a ride!!  OK, maybe not... I’d be willing to pull them along if they wanted to go for a 1 km/h ride!

We went snorkelling from that beach right after.  It was more of the same from before, but a little bit different structures, stronger currents and we did see a “honu”, a sea turtle.  That was exciting too.

Now, we are sitting at the cottage having done all of our exciting things in the morning, apparently like typical Hawaiians.  Go to sleep at 8pm, wake up at 5am.  That’s alright with us, it keeps our internal clocks the same as Vancouver time.

My goodness this is going to be a long blog.  We don’t have free internet access here so I’m typing this up in Word so that I can cut & paste while I am sitting outside, at the edge of the cottage grounds, borrowing someone’s wireless internet... I don’t have many pictures.  I now wish that I had bought Jenn a waterproof camera that could take HD video.  I think that is what Mike & Hyo have and it seems to work really good.  Oh well, the low def pictures are in my brain (sight-to-memory compression doesn’t seem as good as even .jpg...)

Future Exploits:

Molokini snorkelling, backpacking and camping at Haleakala in a volcano crater (we had to bring cold weather camping gear for this...), a luau (Jenn wants to see some hula dancing), and more!