Maui is by far the coolest island I have ever visited. When I headed over to Maui, this past December I didn’t quite know what to expect. Maui’s geology is very unique and it is also home to one of the biggest surf breaks in the world. Less then a week before I headed over there, Pe'ahi, aka Jaws went off!!! People were slashing 40-50 foot waves.
When I arrived in Maui one of my buddies from SOU, Jake Barefoot picked me up. He helps run Barefoot Adventures which hooks people up with super cheap tours on all of the Hawaiian Islands. We stayed at his house, which was this old plantation style house about 5 minutes away from Jaws. They had a garden and a bunch of fruit and citrus tree’s. It was a super sick place to stay and a perfect place to enjoy the real Maui.
One of the first activities we went on was this self-bike tour and sunrise viewing of the Haleakala Shield Volcano. I’ve spent a great deal of my life around and climbing the Cascade Volcanoes so to see a different type of Volcano was quite interesting. Looking towards the thing you were struck by its very large mass. The Magma in HI is born from a hot-spot in the mantle and has a very low Viscosity. It is mostly composed of Basaltic material and is less explosive then it’s relatives over in the Cascades, which explode very violently. The sunrise at the Haleakala Volcano can be one of the most colorful and beautiful sunrises in the world and it most defiantly didn’t disappoint.
I recently had purchased a remote timer and wanted to try to take a high resolution time-lapse with my Canon 7d. However, the timer wasn’t functioning very well and it ended up being quite a battle to keep it working. I ended up getting a ton of shots, but I wasn’t too stoked on defective equipment.
The ride down from the top of the crater was very cool with a side of sketchiness. It was this really windy road down from around 7,000 feet. The views were really incredible and you could see the Pacific ocean creep closer and closer. As an avid bike rider I had enough experience to know the bikes we were riding weren’t exactly a fine tuned machine. In the end though, the views and the sunrise was enough for me wanting to come up back wanting more.
The following day we were scheduled to go on this 64' Catamaran called the “Gemini.” The trip was going to include a snorkeling adventure, lunch, and some whale watching. Right off the bat, I was impressed with the crew and boat and knew it was going to be quite a good time. The Snorkeling part of the trip, we headed over to this old collapsed pier that was used during World War Two. We got to swim with some turtles and even saw a white tipped shark as Jake scared it out of its hole. After about an hour of snorkeling we headed topside and grabbed a very tasty lunch with a couple of cold beers. We sailed East for a bit and then spotted some Whale tail. Whale season was just starting up in HI, and there were plenty of Humpback whales in the area. Seeing these whales really made me want to get in the water and see there massive size, but that will have to wait for another adventure. All in all it was one of the most relaxed enjoyable boat ride that I have ever been on. The captain David was very knowledgeable about biology and I really enjoyed talking to him. If you ever make your way down to Maui and desire a really fun relaxing sail I would highly recommend these guys.
The rest of the week we went on three more really fun trips including a Land tour around the Island, a Fishing Trip, and a downhill bike ride, but that will have to wait for the next blog posting as this one is getting rather long. So please enjoy the pictures and new gallery.
