The Krauska Family Blog

We have now made it all the way around the island. It is very interesting to see the different parts of the island and how different they are. Today we explored west Maui. Again, it’s like another road to Hana but not as long. This road however is a lot more narrow and has some steep drop offs. The views on this road were again breath taking. At times you feel like you are driving through parts of Jurassic Park.

On this road we saw some guys doing some hog hunting. The had a huge hog strapped to the back of their truck with cages full of dogs. I wish I got a picture to show you all because it was definitely different.

We stopped to overlook Honolua Bay. This bay is one that has no beach and is covered in rocks to get into the water. The clarity here, just like everywhere else is spectacular! From above you can see all the coral reef that fills the bay. I was very excited to explore this area, but we wouldn’t be doing this till tomorrow! We even saw a sea turtle from above!

Honolua Bay

Honolua Bay, this is the area we will snorkel.

We continued on, exploring west Maui and stopped at Nakalele Blowhole. You have to hike down pretty far to get a view of it. It wasn’t blowing very high at all so the hike was necessary to even see it. We hiked around for awhile before we even saw it. We hiked past it to see if we could view another blowhole on the other side but instead ran into some locals. They were sitting down and looked like they were digging so I was nosey and asked what they were up to. They were collecting salt. The salt hits the rocks, the water evaporates and leaves behind the salt. It was very interesting and probably the coolest thing about this stop.

heart shaped rock at Nakalele blowhole

Where I stood at one point. I evenutally made my way down the rock.

Where Brandon stood, he made me nervous!

The salt that the locals would scoop out

On the way back to the first blowhole, Brandon slipped and cut his foot on a rock. I had to play doctor once we got back to the car. Good thing Brandon packed a first aid kit! Walking around all these lava rocks and blow holes was very cool and at times sometimes scary. I kept my distance from the edge but the views were amazing here!

Brandon's cut.

At the Nakalele blowhole

Our next stop was at the Olivine Pools. We decided not to hike down to them because we had just finished a pretty big hike and we weren’t swimming so we just checked it out from above! On our way to central Maui and still on skinny narrow roads there is a place you must stop at. This place is Julia’s, they apparently have the best banana bread on the planet. I had a piece but I wasn’t feeling the best so Brandon ate most of it. He loved it though!

Olivine Pools

Julia's, best banana berad on the planet!

We then made our way around to central Maui and stopped at Ioa Valley. Here you can view the Ioa Needle which is a prominent point sticking up from the valley. This is the area that really looked like you were in the movie Jurassic Park.

Ioa Needle

After this we headed back to our hotel, rested some and then went out to the beach. We had one final sun set to catch and we also wanted to watch the sunset torch lighting ceremony at Black Rock. Sitting on the beach just looking at God’s creations just leaves you speechless, especially when you are sitting by the one you love!

Torch Lightening Ceremony

Partial view of the pool area at our hotel.

After the sun set and the ceremony was over we went into Lahaina for dinner. We ate at the Lahaina Pizza Company. They have deep dish pizzas and were very good. We had to wait for awhile because most restaurants here in Maui are pretty small and there were 2 big parties that pretty much took up the entire restaurant. Even though the wait was long the pizza was great!

Our deep dish pizza.