Hawaiian Islands Tour
January 24 to February 5, 2020
P. Michael Henderson
I'm going to leave the map at the beginning of each page so you know where we are.
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2/4/2020 (Tuesday) Today we go to the top of Mount Haleakala. Maui has two extinct volcanoes: Haleakala, which means "House of the Sun", in the southeast and Mauna Kahalawai, which means "Holding House of Water" but which is often referred to as "House of the Moon", in the northwest.
We were up early to make breakfast and meet the bus at 8am. Judy's been feeling congested and didn't sleep well last night.
We joined Alvin and Gail for breakfast. It's a good thing Tauck provides breakfast because the check was $114 for two people for the breakfast buffet.
Today we're taking two small buses because the big bus can't negotiate the switchbacks on the road up the mountain.
Here's our driver for today, "Peaches". She kept up a lively commentary for the entire drive from the hotel all the way to the top of the mountain.
Here's the route we took. It's 52 miles from the hotel and about 37 miles from the bottom of the mountain to the top.
I shot a bunch of not-so-great shots of the area through the window of the bus as we were driving up the mountain. I won't bore you with those - I'll wait until we get to the top and show a few from there.
We eventually reached the entrance to the park.
We stopped at a ranger station at about the 7,000 foot mark to see the sights and to use the restrooms.
Here's a view from the area of the ranger station, looking northwest. You can see the valley floor between the two volcanoes and Moloka'i off in the distance.
They had these stamped "certificates" to show that you had ascended the mountain.
A side note: while we were going up the mountain, and while coming down, we saw a number of people on bicycles coming down the mountain on the road. There are "tours" where they drive you up to the top of the mountain and provide you with a bicycle to go down the mountain. The bicycles had disc brakes on both the front and back wheels.
Our niece and her husband did one of those rides. The tour company took them up the mountain very early in the morning so they could see the sunrise from the top of the mountain and then they rode down. You don't have to be in good physical condition to do the ride since it's all downhill.
We continued up the mountain until we came to the parking lot at 9,740 feet. From here we could see the observatories at the top of the mountain.
We walked to an observation point to view the remnants of the caldera. It was an utterly fantastic landscape.
Judy and I had our picture taken there.
There's a half mile trail to the very top of the mountain but I don't think any of our group went up there. We were satisfied with the view from where we were.
The view from that spot toward the valley was not that great because of the clouds and haze. This picture was taken in the same direction as the previous one. You can see the other volcano and Moloka'i, but not clearly. We're above the clouds.
Eventually, we boarded the bus for the return trip.
When we got below the clouds we had a better view of the valley floor. This picture was taken looking towards Kahului.
The neck of the island is surprisingly narrow and flat, and some geologists have suggested that at some point in the way distant future the two parts might be separated by water.
Almost at the bottom of the mountain we stopped at the Kula Marketplace to use the restrooms, to shop for souvenirs, and some of us picked up a sandwich for lunch - it was about noon now.
Then it was back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the luau on our last evening. Judy has been fighting a cold so she sat on the lanai and enjoyed the balmy air while I worked on this blog.
A bit before 6pm we wandered down toward the beach where the luau was to be held. Here's a view of the beach.
Here's the lawn where the luau will be held. There's a raised area in the rear where the entertainers will perform.
Gradually the tour members wandered down and we had appetizers.
Two of the musicians who were entertaining us.
A small part of the food. They were all Hawaiian dishes. The pot in the center was shredded pork cooked in a delicious sauce.
A view of the group enjoying the meal.
Then a hula dancer came out and entertained us with several "story" dances.
Another dancer came out and recruited a number of the women for hula lessons, but I didn't get any good pictures of that - sorry.
The last entertainer was a "fire dancer" who worked with two torches, twirling them, throwing them up in the air and generally defying danger.
That was the evening. People started saying good-bye and drifting back to their rooms.
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2/5/2020 (Wednesday) We're heading home today. Our flight doesn't leave until about 1:30pm so we could sleep a bit late. After breakfast we met the bus that took us to the Maui airport. There were nine Tauck guests on the bus. I didn't remember to take a picture at the hotel, but got this one at the airport.
We had several hours before our flight so we did some shopping, buying some chocolate macadamia nut candy. Judy tried on some Hawaiian couture but decided not to buy anything.
As we walked to the gate we got our last view of the Maui mountains.
Our plane eventually arrived - a Boeing 737-800.
And soon we were off, leaving behind the crystal clear waters of Maui.
The trip was uneventful - about five and a half hours. We arrived about 8:30pm and our driver was waiting for us. It nice to arrive a bit late in the day because there was less traffic. We made it home in about 45 minutes.
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2/6/2010 (Thursday) No trip is over until we pick up Skipper from boarding. He's older now so we worry a lot more about him - but he seems to have done well.
And that was another trip. Our next trip is a cruise this summer along the Norway coast with Regent.
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