And Maui ends.....

Well the holiday is sadly coming to an end. We are now back in Oahu and have three more days here before we head home. Maui was just incredible. The condo we rented was fabulous. Being able to sit out each morning with our coffee and watch the whales is something we will never forget. This morning we also had a sea turtle come say hi, pretty awesome stuff!

The weather is a little cooler here in Oahu and the forecast is for rain over the next few days. This doesn’t worry me as I have lots of shopping to do!!!! We have been incredibly lucky weather wise and if this is ‘winter’ I can only imagine what it is like here at the height of summer!

Our last day in Maui was spent swimming at Black Rock. I am sure all the beach shots are starting to look the same to you but each place we went holds its own little piece of magic!

Yes this is how the Harris' roll

Black Rock Maui

No I wasn't taking a pic of the random lady - check out the guy jumping off the cliff!

Only MY daughter would find shops at the beach!!

Awwwww

(the kids were making gagging noises....)

My beautiful daugter!

(who would only pose for me if I bought her this over-priced hairclip!)

Maui Day 4 & 5

Tuesday we headed off to Kapalua Beach. What a gorgeous spot. We all went snorkelling and saw heaps of fish. No turtles though and I really don’t want to leave Maui without seeing one! Well truth be told I don’t want to leave for many reasons but I do hope I see one today as it’s our last full day *sniff*. The closed down three beaches up the coast due to an 11 foot Tiger Shark yesterday YIKES!

For lunch we headed off to Leodas Kitchen & Pie Shop (get ready as I’m going to shout) OMG IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD! I really loved the décor. You walk in and are greeted by a class cabinet filled with the most delicious looking pies! Chris & Jakob shared a burger and Mikayla and I shared the Chicken sandwich (we are finally learning that sharing is best otherwise we roll out of the eating places feeling ill!!!). Then it was pie time! We shared a large banana cream pie (amazing!) and a ‘hand held’ apple pie (we call them apple turnovers at home). Due to my terrible sweet tooth I also got a berry pie and apple crumble pie to take home. We had the berry that night for dessert with some vanilla ice cream and will probably finish off the apple crumble tonight! I want to go back before we leave but not sure if we will have time. So many pies so little time……

We spent the rest of the day lounging at the condo and had pizza for dinner. A serious detox is on the cards when we get home!!!!

Yesterday we spent the morning by the pool and then headed into Lahaina. We stopped at Bubba Gumps for lunch (kids love that place!) and then onto Ululani's for some more shaved ice (YUM). We took it across the road and sat on the bench seat and looked out to the water. Nice way to spend an afternoon!

We are headed to Dukes restaurant for dinner last night. It’s a 10min walk along the beach from our condo. We had a great dinner listening to the live music and again watching the sunset. There is a lot of ‘VOG’ (volcanic fog) coming over from the Big Island which is causing some spectacular sunsets. Although the local tell us it’s really bad for their respiratory system.

Last full day in Maui. We are all so sad, we have just loved it here. Chris and I got up this morning to have our usual coffee on the lanai and were greeted by whales VERY close to shore right in front of us. They had a teeny tiny baby with them, which must have just been born as it was only the size of a small dolphin. They all jumped out of the water for us……. Just amazing. It’s still as exciting as our first sighting when we arrived a week ago.

PS:

***Happy Birthday to my Mum. It's the 26th here in Maui so we will have an extra cocktail tonight and cheers in your direction!***

Kapalua Beach

Lunch at Leoda's Kitchen & Pie Shop

Lunch at Bubba Gumps sitting over the water at Lahaina

Live music at Dukes last night

Standing in the restaurant - how's that for a sunset?

Maui Day 3

One of the adventures we were all looking forward to was the whale watching trip we had booked from back home in New Zealand.

The day finally arrived and we met with the others on the beach for a short safety briefing at 9.45am. Just before 10 the big catamaran Trilogy IV glided in from behind the surf and beached itself in the sand. A set of steps dropped down and we all climbed aboard.

The kids all sat on the trampolines and the adults on the seats provided. Once we had turned around a more official, though humorous, introduction was made by Captain Casey of himself and the fantastic crew, Caleb and Amy, then it was off to spot our target species, Humpback whales.

It wasn’t long before we spotted the first, a two week old calf. He breached 4-5 times as we watched and his mother, who glided by but never came to the surface, was ever present. We saw small satellite groups of males jump and dive and lie on their side splashing the water with their fins. All this followed by vigorous ooohs and aaaaaghs from all on board.

Impossible to get photos with a little ‘point & shoot’ so you’ll just have to take our word for it!!

Amy was our resident ‘whale expert’ and Caleb had the kids spellbound with stories of whales, pig hunting and being speared through the chest by his best mate while spear fishing. They were all very informative and very friendly.

We think in the two hour trip we saw up to 20 whales which was just fantastic and well worth doing. It is hard not to get a little emotional being so close to such huge and majestic creatures in their natural environment. We all felt quite privileged to have been able to do this, in what is such a magical place on earth!

We walked along the beach to the “Hula Grill” for lunch and then headed back to the condo where we all fell asleep! I’m not sure if it was the 2 hours on the open sea, the cocktail of seasick medication, the huge midday lunch we consumed or the last 10 days of constant activity but we were shattered!

We ate out last night at the Aloha Mixed Plate in Lahaina and then it was home to bed. We are off snorkelling again today. Looks like another clear warm day here in paradise!

Jakob gets the best seat on the boat!

The Captain

An Adult weighs about 40 tonne - makes a decent splash!

The little baby

Tail shot!

Check out this amazing shot I got!!!!!

Just another sunset from the balcony....

More Maui

Day 2 in Paradise. Is it bad that I am already looking at flights to come back before I am only halfway through this trip??

Ok so the day starts off with Chris walking to the shops behind our hotel to get coffee. It’s taken two days but we have found our ‘coffee spot’. We like to start every morning off with a coffee on the lanai (balcony) and watch the world go by. In Oahu, we would watch the very early morning joggers & walkers out by the Lagoon and the daredevil surfers out past the reef. Here in Maui we just have the ocean in front of us. We sit and count how many whales pop up to say hello. Every morning there are at least 4! I think I’ll have to live a very long time to get a better setting to wake up to.

Mikayla & Jakob snooze in the mornings so we take advantage to get out and have some ‘no kids time’ (and exercise) by going for a walk. Today we walked to The Whalers Village which took us about 50mins each way. We stopped in at the Cane & Taro for an OJ and shared a bagel.

Once home we all headed out to Kahekili. What a lovely spot. We all snorkelled – first time for me and the kids! It was amazing – well once I stopped hyperventilating and realised I wasn’t going to die LOL. We saw heaps of colourful fish, coral, a sea snake and we thought we could hear whales!! The locals confirmed for us that we did indeed hear what they call ‘the whale songs’. It’s just incredible and so loud!

We are off on a Whale watching tour this morning. Weather looks perfect for us, no wind and another beautiful day.

Ta Ta for now x

Stopping for and organge juice at 'Dukes' on a morning walk

It's impossible to get a picture of the whales jumping out of the water.

One just breaching and one spouting

Main Street of Lahaina (for Junior & Lahaina!)

Shaved Ice @ Lahaina

Lahiana

Lahiana

Lahiana Town

More Lahaina!

Best shaved ice on the planet

Happy hour at Dukes

Watching the sunset at Happy Hour getting happier....

Tastes like pink lemonade but makes one fall off chair!

On the beach walk to my left (for nanny & Uncle Stevie)

Same spot on the beach walk but looking right - nice place for a game of golf??

Our view at breakfast

Kahekili Beach

The sunset last night from our balcony *sigh*