Maui and The magical underwater world

Tourists, turtles, the fight about shade and happiness of dolphins

We were lured to Hawaiis most popular island by dream beaches, wonders of nature, breath taking sunsets and the powers of volcanos. That it is a surfer's paradise didn't mean anything to us.
After all the stress of the two-day-long journey, we were looking forward to some relaxation.

The waterfront of Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

Too many people

The beautiful sunsets from our accommodation - a little
outside of Lahaina

Unfortunately relaxation comes not so easy, when you share the beach with thousands of other people, who fight over the little shade there is. Yes, the beach was a dream - palm trees and black volcano sand is beautiful and yes, the view to the sleeping volcanos inland is indescribable, but if you have to share it with uncountable strangers - it becomes less precious, less impressive, less amazing. The almost lonely moments in our accommodation, where we could look right over the sea to the neighbouring island of Lana'i, were the only ones, where we could truly enjoy the beauty of Maui. We were really glad, that our host only offered 12 rooms. Only a few kilometers away lies Ka'anapaali - and there one tourist bunker after the other is filled with an uncountable amount of rooms and tourists.

The view of the mountains of Maui

The town of Lahaina

The ruins of the "fortress" of Lahaina

The closest town to where we were staying is Lahaina, the tourist centre of West Maui. One souvenir store after the other, world wide known cloth labels, Star Bucks, Restaurants with sea view and in between a few old american houses, two museums,... Lahaina is not that big. The one main tourist road is the only "nice" street and therefore overrun with people. In the evening at every corner a street musician is showing their more or less incredible talent.
Really impressive is the park close to the harbour. One single tree - a Banyan Tree - is occupying the whole place. It looks like there were many trees, but it is just a single one.
At one edge of the park lies an old ruin from the 19th century. It used to be a fort, build in the war between whale hunters and priests (who wanted to forbid girls to enter the ships of the whalers topless).

My first impression of Maui was... I could not decide. On one hand I love the palm trees, the sea, the tourist feeling - on the other, I hate the many people, the crowded beaches, the car fixation (you can't go far by foot or public transportation) and the american supermarkets (everything is full of sugar!)....

With this image you can almost forget the many tourists that
are walking over Maui

The fantastic, marvelous, wonderful underwater world of Hawaii

After our first few disappointing days on Maui, the improvement came with a boat! Although stomach troubles were on there way - before I even entered the boat, on the boat, after leaving the boat, the night before, the night afterwards and the whole next day - this trip was one of my absolute world-trip-highlights!

What a dreaming underwater world

Die tour brought us (unfortunately with 1.5 hours of delay, where we had to wait in the hot sun) to a riff in front of the neighbour island of Lana'i: Ready? Set Snorkel? Dive! A - for me so far - once-in-a-lifetime incredible peaceful and quite world opened up. I am missing the words, so pictures have to do it:

Impressions from snorkeling in Lana'i

Finally the dolphins are jumping

After seeing the fins of dolphins in Australia, we finally discovered a jumping and playing school. Yes, that's the way, I always imagined dolphins!

Another tour we did, was whale watching, where we could see some humpback whales. Unfortunately the did only jump far, far away. Close-by we only saw the water fountains, fins and some other whale parts.

With these impressions, we are leaving the "dream island" of Maui and the journey continues. Next stop: New Orleans!

Please, forgive me for all my spelling, grammar and vocabulary mistakes!! My mother tongue is German.