Howdy y'all. Well, we have reached the last day in sunny Maui. We arrived here 3 weeks ago, and I think we can safely say we've explored much of this island, and done everything we wanted to do. Has been a great hols within a hols! Will certainly always hold very fond memories of Hawaii.
On Monday we returned our car, so got back to doing local activites, close to home!! We visited the beach down the road, Ho'okipa, which is uber-popular amongst surfers & windsurfers. We knew the swell was going to be a bit lower than normal, and so might be ok for us little snorkellers to do some exploring without getting squashed by a grommet (aka a talented young surfer dude)!
Wasn't the best visibility, but we saw 10 massive turtles! Yippee! You could see their heads popping up above the water, from the shoreline, so we knew
they were out there! Came across 8 of them all grouped together, rolling around in the tide, so that was a pretty special experience! They were up to a metre long, for sure.
Yesterday, we embarked upon a challenge which we had been considering doing ever since we arrived on this island. Haleakala is the volcano which we hiked a few weeks ago - it commands your attention all the time, as it stands proud in amongst the clouds in the centre of the island. There is a paved road which goes all the way to the top - from
sea level up to 10,023 feet (3055 m) over a distance of 35 miles (56 kms). Now....what do you think we had to do?? With 2 mountain bikes?? Climb the darned thing of course! I was half dreading having to do it, as I knew it would be tough. But Brent was determined to make it to the top. Considering that we were on bikes with fat nobbly tyres, we knew it would take awhile (the fastest pro roadies get up there in 3 hrs on skinny tyres). Started at 7am. And 7 hours later, we were at the top, lying flat on our backs, exhausted, in the sheltered lookout point (funny looks from other tourists was amusing). Took a total of 45 mins of breaks along the way, at 2500ft, 5000ft, 7000ft and 9000ft (see pic at top left - this is Brent at 9000ft, and we were both stuffed! Hardly had energy to take photo for goodness sake, haha). And, trust me - these breaks were essential! Was definitely a mental and physical challenge for us both. The legs weren't too bad, but our butts suffered!! Was going snail pace at the top - just couldn't force the legs to go any faster! Took us an hour and a half to whizz back down the mountain - all pure downhill! Was pretty chilly at the top, so had to carry layers up there to ensure we didn't freeze our bums off. We are both stoked that we did it, as the mountain had been beckoning us to 'give it a go' the whole time we've been here! Not many opportunities to ride from sea level to 3000m in 1 day.
Today we've just been packing our bags and bikes, in anticipation of our flight to San Fran tomorrow. Out for dinner tonight with our newfound friends here in Maui too, which will be fun! Have been fortunate to meet some top people here, and hopefully we'll see them again one day. That's all from us now....until next time....in San Fran, back on the mainland, farewell from Maui x
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