Well, we arrived safely in Maui. Seems the flight that John read as 6:00 was actually at 5:00, but we made it just fine and didn't have to sit around and wait. Must need a better printer or new glasses :-) We picked up the rental car at 6:00 sharp and headed to the timeshare to drop off our luggage. The room wouldn't be ready until noon. So, we checked out the beach at the bottom of our hill and found wonderful lava outcroppings and crystal clear water. Then stopped for breakfast at a great place and then headed to and Iao Needle. The valley is what remains of the central caldera (crater) of the West Maui volcano. There is a wonderful stream through the valley that has trails along it. Quite pretty. Got a few short showers along the way, but we were pretty well covered by the trees.
After our walk there we found our way to Costco and stocked up a little for the week and then headed back to the room. It's great with a lanai on the front and the back and you can see the ocean from the front one. The landscaping is wonderful and folks seems to be very friendly and helpful.
We got stuff moved in a we settled a little and then headed down south through Wailea, a planned resort area with some really posh places. We checked out the beaches there, as they are all public access--the white building behind it is one of the resorts.
We then headed further south to the end of the road to Makena-La Perouse State Park. That area is all lava flow. The King's Trail along the sea takes off from there and we followed that for awhile. In a few places some lichen has begun to grow, but most of it is still barren black or dark brown lava all the way into the sea. Some beautiful blow holes where the lava has been broken through by the crashing surf. Very interesting!
As we were driving back, we saw these cute little quails along the side of the road. Turns out we have some of our own right here that wander by our lanai when we're having dinner. A very fun day!!
