Part 7: Aloha Hawaii - Days 14, 15, 16 & 17

We decided to have a quiet day on the Thursday. There was a little whole foods cafe I wanted to try out just down the road for us so we walked down to Joy's Place which was about a 20 minute walk.

I really wanted to try one of their Collard Wraps (marinated tempeh, crunchy veggies and Indonesian peanut sauce in a green collard leaf), but knew that would be a little extreme for Tony, so we shared a sourdough fresh tuna sandwich. I had a kale smoothie, which I am now addicted to!! Every day after work, I make myself a kale smoothie! 

Look at that tablecloth!!!

We obviously got too accustomed to the air-con so decided to walk for a little more. Again, we should have learnt from the other day! Far too hot for that sort of carry-on.  We ended up going back to the hotel and collapsing. I think I may have even had a nana nap! Then of course we needed to have a swim to cool off again!

We watched the sun go down again...

Later, that night, after consulting my trusty Trip Advisor app, we decided to go to Coconut's Fish Cafe for tea. It had such rave reviews and so many positive comments, I thought it must be a winner and we were not disappointed.  It is has custom designed surfboard tables, lots of bright colours and a funky, casual feeling to it.  The tables are communal so you basically just plonk yourself beside someone and wait for your dinner to come out. 

Their specialty is Fish Tacos, so it would have been wrong not to order this.  Oh my, fresh fish in coconut milk, combined with a spicy coleslaw, and mango salsa all on a tortilla base...so yum! 

And then it was back to the condo for a bit of stitching while we planned Friday...

We decided to explore the Western side of the island...Lahaina, Kaanapali and Napili.  It was going to be about a 45 minute drive.  We stopped about 20 minutes into the drive at a lookout  and looked back towards Kihei. It was a cloudy kind of day so there was quite a  haze around.

Lahaina is a small, historic town that used to be a whaling village. It apparently gets very popular in summertime as the beaches are lovely and it is the gateway to all the resorts further north.  We drove through it before we realised it was Lahaina! So we pulled up to a Borders, had a look there and then decided to walk to the main street...why have we not learnt that we shouldn't walk in the middle of the day in Maui? It was a couple of kilometres, it nearly killed us, but we saw some nice sights along the way.  We headed for the beach as we thought it would be cooler walking along there, but the water was warm and there wasn't much of a breeze! Not even any air conditioned shops to dive into for 5 minutes to cool off!!

Mountains at Lahaina

Lahaina beach

The main street

Awesome little juice bar...I got a kale smoothie!!

We psyched ourselves for the walk back to the car, and then continued heading north to Kaanapili.  This is a resort beach and there are just huge hotels and condos here. It felt very sterile and touristy.  You couldn't even really get down to the beach as there were guards on all the roads. We ended up parking at a hotel and wandering down anyway, but it's not my kind of thing....I much prefer the less touristy areas.

We had had enough of the heat by this stage so just decided to drive back to Kihei, just in time for another gorgeous sunset...the best one yet

We didn't feel like going too far for dinner so found Bistro 808 about a 5 minute walk from the condo. It was lovely... It had no walls, so felt like you were sitting outside, which we kind of were. Beautiful meal ... I had wasabi seared tuna, which was just divine. It just melted in my mouth. I wished I could have had another plate of it again!

Saturday, we decided to have a relaxing day again. There was one more quilt shop I wanted to go to which was The Maui Quilt Shop, so we headed up there. It was a 5 minute drive from the condo.

It was a small shop, but boy they had crammed a lot into here. Lots of Hawaiian fabrics and batiks and some modern ranges, but they were tucked here and there throughout the shop.  I left with some interfacing and some needles!  

We then drove down to Wailea, another resort beach. Again, it reminded me of Kaanapali so we kept driving...we found a little beach that looked like it was a beach for the locals...no tourists here

Not sure what this beach was called

Wailea Beach

Wailea Beach

And of course what would Maui be without a  sunset....

And a bit more stitching...

Sunday was our last day on Maui. I was ready to be going home...It was a bit of a dreary day...still hot, but very overcast. We had decided today to drive up Haleakala Crater, which is in the National Park, however the cloud was low and it was raining the whole way up.  The summit is at 10,000 feet, so it took us a couple of hours to drive all the way up. Interesting how the landscape changes as you go up the mountain.

At the top...very lunar like landscape

Cool little alpine plant

Obligatory photo at the top

At the summit

Loads of these little birds around.

Lunar landscape

Heading down

Old lava flow coming down the mountain

We called into Safeway on the way home to get the necessary bags of sweets for the kids and friends back home...

And then time to sit and enjoy our last sunset on Maui before we began the mammoth task of packing for the flight home on Monday!

Hope you have enjoyed the virtual vacation....