Abundant beauty
Maui is full of surprises. Nature has really created an amazing paradise here, with so many different climate zones and magic places. The view of mountains, lush vegetation, beautiful beaches and a majestic ocean is accentuated by the prevailing weather, which is somewhat like a chameleon. It is actually quite predictable, the constant element is that any given day is full of change. It is always pleasantly warm, but never blue and hot. Normally you feel the easterly tradewinds, and it brings clouds in all shapes and colours. The clouds stack up at the two mountain ranges on Maui, and this unloads rain. Now you may think rain is rain (especially having lived in Vancouver), but not so here. It comes in a large range of sounds, drop sizes, frequencies, densities, directions, … Many times the sky will be blue, and you get just the most pristine shower with tiny drizzles, just enough to make you feel good but keep your Tshirt dry. Then you get the Monsoon-like downpoors which arrive rapidly and are very loud. You also get gusty rain which hits you sideways. And there is steady drizzle. All this water falls at various times of the day. On Maui, rain is a beautiful thing, regadless of its shape, because it does not really bother you, in fact it feels very good on your skin and for peace and harmony of your soul. You will not see people with umbrellas or people frantically trying to escape the rain (with the exception of newly arrived tourists who always look baffled why no one is joining their frantic escape).
Rain and sun makes – you guessed it – rainbows, the hawaiian symbol in the license plate. These also come in various shapes, sometimes double, bright, faint, long radius, short radius, … Every single time it fills my heart with joy, and even the kids, who have more interest in the small sand crabs than the grand sights at that age, always make joyful sounds when they spot a rainbow. Here are some examples:
Kanaha beach single long
Kanaha Beach double high, about 5 minutes later
The North Shore (which is where we live) has great beaches and reefs for watersports. Check out the weather in these shots, always different, sometimes within minutes. The great news is: the right clothing is a pair of boardshorts and a T-Shirt, if you want also a long-sleeve one.
Sienna on her peanut project in Kanaha
Robinson was very intrigued by this boy Andrzej. He moved here from Warsaw with his family and is not just a radical skier, but now charges across the bay on a windsurfer. Guess what: he is seven years old!
Robinson checking out Andrzej
It is kind of hard to see, I admit, but the whole horizon is littered with windsurfing sails and kites. It can be a madhouse down here, with 100+ windsurfers and 70+ kites. It’s all those Germans invading the beach, I tell you. In the end it is all good, there are plenty of waves for everyone, and the glowing happy faces on the parking lot show that it really creates those moments of flow which are the basis for happy moments.
The usual madness: 100 windsurfers, 70 kiters at Kanaha
The smaller of the two mountain ranges is Pu’u Kukui in the West. The drive around the coast is quite spectacular and narrow, sometimes modeled after early 1900 Swiss mountain passes. You get terrified drivers’ faces coming towards you in their Mustang convertible, with an even more terrified look on the wife’s face (when the wife drives, the man’s look is just as terrified), but somehow we all make it around the mountain. Here is Kahakuloa, a tiny group of houses in a little bay that seems so peaceful that you just have to take some of that peacefulness with you in form of banana bread sold at the only shop in town, a little roadside stand.
Kahakuloa village
The next bays bring waves and beaches, and one of the most famous world class waves runs in this area, in Honolua Bay. Here is a lonely bay which actually had two surfers in it, and we could not figure out how they got to this spot (maybe by helicopter, there are lots flying around)
North Coast beach
Lahaina is and old fishing village on the West Coast and the classic sunset cocktail and dinner location. And despite all the tourists walking around, it is a great way to kiss the sun goodbye. Here we are at Kimo’s which we can highly recommend:
sunset cocktails and fish at Kimo's in Lahaina
Categories: Hawaii - Maui