Chillin’ in Maui

We flew Hawaiian Airlines to get between Kaua’i and Maui. It was a quick hourish flight. I don’t think I’ll ever grow old of Maui; it’s never disappointed us. We spent the majority of our time chillin’ at the beach and snorkelling. This week was definitely nothing but a relaxing week. The snorkelling once again was absolutely incredible just off the beach at the Westin Ka’anapali resort. Stick your face in the water at the shoreline and you start to see so many fish. Some of the cool highlights were seeing homu (green sea turtles), an eel, a very bright yellow cornetfish, a red pencil sea urchin, puffer fish, and my favourite the moorish fish. The weather was perfect despite the daily forecast calling for rain. It so happened that good friends of ours were also staying here during this week and so we got to hang out with them too. 

Z tried a couple new things this time around. Along with our friends, Z found his diving spirit

again and ended up doing two dives. The first was a shark dive with the Maui Ocean Centre. MOC is an aquarium and oceanography centre that is designed to teach people about Hawaii’s unique marine environment. The shark dive provides an opportunity for certified divers to swim in the shark tank on a supervised dive. Before getting into the tank, we got a behind the scenes tour of the operations at the centre and while Z and our friends were on the tank for their up close and personal experience with the sharks, I got to watch from the safe side of the tank. The shark tank had about 20 sharks in it including a tiger shark, some stingrays, and other fish. They all appeared to live in harmony and Jim, the marine biologist/dive master as part of our tour explained that they watch the interactions to ensure there is no aggressive behaviour. The sharks in the tanks are all undergoing rehabilitation with an end goal of returning each back into the open ocean. After the dive, we stayed to watch the morning feeding. We also explored the rest of the aquarium which is larger than I had first expected. 

Z’s second dive was a night dive at Black Rock; again with our friends. I stayed behind at the hotel this time and ended up watching one of the many amazing Maui sunsets that I never tire of. Z had a great experience here too. The dive was just over an hour and with it being full moon he said the moonlight helped them see even without their flashlights. On this dive some of the more unique sightings included: lobster, octopus, and a white tip reef shark. So glad I wasn’t there because I’m quite sure I would have had a panic attack. Z enjoyed this dive and lived to tell about out, thankfully. 

We tried a couple new restaurants this time around. Sea House is a great sea front restaurant located on the Napili Bay. I had the Haleakala pancake, which is one of the best pancakes I’ve ever had. It’s a custard filled, banana and pineapple pancake with cinnamon brown sugar. It was light and airy and tasting amazing. The beach and the bay were incredibly peaceful and the water looked calm so we decided after breakfast to go back after getting our swim and snorkeling gear. Just a short walk from here is Kapaula Bay which is a great bay for beginner snorkellers with quite calm waters. Here we saw three turtles hanging out. After a day at the beach, we decided to take in happy hour at Sea House too. We feasted on a variety of pupus, including some delectable Lani ribs, caprese crostinni, and coconut shrimp. We definitely come back here and probably do a similar breakfast, spend the day at the beach and enjoy happy hour. 

We also tried Sangritas, a Mexican restaurant, which is a short drive from our resort. The food was delicious and the portions were big enough for us to take leftovers. Prices were reasonable and this is definitely a place we’ll come back to. 

We were away for two weeks and it was one of the most relaxing vacations I’ve had. It really felt like I could leave my life stresses behind. The ocean breeze and the sounds of the waves does that for me. Not to mention the beautiful most incredible sunsets. It was really a shame to leave this all behind, but we’ll be back again some day and until then....

To travel is to live....until next time....life is good!