Aloha: Natural Wonders

Justin & I are very good at being beach bums, but there were also a number of things on Maui we wanted to see & do during our trip. We chose a day with a rainy forecast to skip the beach & head north from Ka'anapali to see some of the sights of the north western coast.

I think that seeing the Nakalele Blowhole may have been my favorite activity of our entire trip. It sounded cool in our guide book, but I was really more impressed than I had anticipated being once we arrived. Once you get this far north on the western coast, there are no longer sandy beaches. Instead, futuristic looking outcroppings of volcanic rock border the tumultuous sea. See what I mean? I think this pic looks like the surface of some faraway planet!
The "mushroom rock," which denotes that you've arrived at the right spot to see the blowhole
More cool rocks
A friendly little crab, one of many on the outer face of the rocks
The blowhole in full force. It's hard to get perspective with no people in this pic, but think about 70 feet in the air.
I loved just watching the ocean raging at this place. The colors are so beautiful!
This is what happens when you want to get just a bit closer to the edge - you get drenched! J saw the big wave coming toward the cliff I was standing on, but there just wasn't enough time for me to scramble back down before it poured all over me. Like my outfit? Despite looking rather nerdy, I was glad I'd brought my tennis shoes along for this excursion. Hiking down the steep & uneven terrain to reach the blowhole would have been tricky in flip flops. A skirt in these gale force winds was not my best choice, though.
Water sucking back down into the hole, preparing for it's next outburst
It was super windy, so we look half drowned & rather windblown, but oh well!
A few other gorgeous views from our drive


Even further north are the Olivine Pools, peaceful gatherings of calm water protected by the rocks around them from the surf. They're supposed to be really beautiful on a pretty day & have colors that resemble jewel tones, but our cloudy day made them less impressive. We chose to just look from above instead of hiking all the way down, & I was very glad we did once it started pouring rain. See those tiny people down there? They got soaked!

Any time a rain shower moved through, though, we were treated to magnificent rainbows!
Skipping forward to the day we headed home, we wandered down to South Maui to the Wailea area, which is the other part of the island with a lot of resorts. We drove through the fancy resort & residential area & then happened upon this natural reserve. The tiny road you're on is surrounded by huge stretches of volcanic rock. Very cool!


We didn't include the Hana Highway in this trip since this pregnant girl gets majorly carsick, so no waterfalls this time. Always a reason to go back, right?