Lahaina, Iao Valley

Made our way across to the west of Maui towards our accommodation in Kaanapali. The views are spectacular with huge Haleakala rising towards the left (largest dormant volcano in the world), and to the right Puu Kukui with its steep valleys. When we reached the coast we were treated to views of the beautiful Pacific to one side and Puu Kukui to the right.

Our accommodation here is luxurious / condo style, fully contained with even TWO coffee makers, dishwasher etc. Delighted to find that there is a Hard Rock Cafe here, so thought we'd try our luck here. As it turned out only a 15 minute wait.

No wonder these places are making a packet. The food was superb, the service good as well, rock music playing all the time and rock paraphernalia all over the place. Quite an experience.

This place is located in Front St Lahaina, a beautiful little whaling village which now caters very much to the tourist dollars. Finding a parking spot was like looking for one in Pitt Street at 11am. All pretty tired after our meals so made our way home to collapse.

A bit of a restless night. Pete was coughing a lot. His cold has given him a chest infection. I don't feel too good either. I am catching Pete's cold, but I don't mind that - it's my ear that's hurting that concerns me. May even consider a visit to a doctor. Just finished our continental breakfast of croissant and apple, and thinking about how to spend the day.

After the restless night we seemed to be ages getting going, and about 11am we set off for the Iao Valley, around the other side of Puu Kuukui. There are so many things in Hawaii to marvel at: the ocean, the tropical vegetation, the flowers, the birdlife, the animal life and particularly the sheer cliffs and valleys such as we saw today in the Iao Valley.

After looking at the needle we walked a little way along a bubbling stream, noticing a number of beautiful big trees - a couple of which bore mangoes, and one a large willow. I christened one of these trees "The Magic Faraway Tree". Made our way back to Wailua where the boys insisted on Maccas for lunch.

Drove back to Lahaina to wander round. Lots of historic buildings which date back to the 1800s.

We came upon an enormous banyan tree which covered a whole park, then noticed a free bus to the train station - a cane train that runs up to Naapili. We took the train, not the most comfortable of rides but with an amusing commentator who also sang to us. On the return trip saw a beautiful rainbow rising low out of the valley. When we returned we almost jogged to the Dome Theatre for the 5.00 session about history etc of Hawaii. I'm afraid after the long day and feeling a bit off colour that I began to feel ill with the aerial shots which made you feel like you were actually in a plane flying through the valley/rim of the volcano and so on. I had to close my eyes or the lady next to me was going to wear my lunch.

Took a little time to recover but walked back toward the car and stopped to buy some "natural" ice cream in waffle cones - $12 all together for 4!

Drove around to the Safeway store to pick up a couple of provisions - decided we would eat in tonight and get up at 2:30 to catch sunrise on Haleakala. After our pizza had been in the oven for 1/2 hour and was just beginning to melt, we decided the oven wasn't going to work so cooked it on the stove top instead! The accompanying chips we had were a hit - Pete said they were the nicest ones he's ever had!!Read more