Our second full day in Maui we woke up at the crack of 2 am to head up to the top of Haleakala Crater to catch the sunrise. While it was painful to wake up that early, we had read that seeing the sunrise from Haleakala’s summit was a must see for all Maui visitors.
The drive to the top was windy, cold, and dark. It took us nearly two and a half hours to reach the visitor’s center at the very top. While the weather started out promisingly, as we climbed further and further up the mountain, we slowly started to feel like we had entered into a cloud. Our visibility diminished to a few feet in front of the car as we were surrounded by a huge white mass.
We were hoping that once we got to the final destination, the upper visitors center, that things would improve—no such luck. We stood out in the freezing cold cloud for thirty minutes waiting for the sun to finally peak through.
At the end of the sunrise, we were given this view. Major bummer. Not only were we frozen to the bone and completely soaking wet but we didn’t really get to see the sun. Apparently, the weather on the mountain is very unpredictable, so many tourists experience the same wet disappointment.
While we were pretty upset, we knew that the mountain had several scenic overlooks that we could explore on our climb down. So we headed back to the car, removed our winter gear (travel books suggest wearing winter coats and accessories to watch the sunrise—I would definitely concur; it was freezing) and traveled back down the winding roads.
Our first overlook featured the shoreline of Southern Maui.
This is a good example of the winding roads we took to get up the mountain (in hindsight these are nothing compared to what we did on the Road to Hana).
We continued on our way down the mountain through the lush green landscape. The dichotomy of the landscape on Maui is truly awe-inspiring.
When we reached the bottom of the national park, we were all craving some grub. Luckily, Kula Lodge was sitting at the edge of the highway. Breakfast here was phenomenal, note my strawberry topped waffles with coconut syrup above.
And we had this beautiful view of Kula from our table.
Outside we were able to see even more of Maui’s lush landscape from the forest green all the way to the ocean blue.
The lodge also had a huge garden on the grounds that we walked through with tons of native Maui plants.
After breakfast, we ventured back to our condo on Napili Bay. Once we got back, we decided to embark on our first snorkeling trip in the cove on the condo’s grounds. We were all really excited to dive in because we heard that the cove was full of sea turtles.
Unlike the sunrise, we weren’t disappointed this time. The turtles were everywhere.
When the weather at the condo started to take a turn for the worst, we decided to employ the previous day’s strategy of driving out of the rain. So we headed to the drier ground of the nearby Kaanapali Beach.
If you’ve ever heard of a beach on Maui, it’s probably Kaanapali. It’s 3 miles of white sand and crystal blue water covered with high rise hotel after high rise hotel. Luckily, in Hawaii, the beaches are all public property so every beach (even those with hotels on them) has a public access point. With the help of our travel book, we were able to sneak into a free public parking spot literally right next to the beach.
Once named America’s Best Beach, Kaanapali didn’t disappoint. The waves were calm and the sand was smooth. We spent a few hours here until the rain finally came and found us again.
Back at our condo, we decided to stay in for dinner that evening and munched on grilled local fish. The great thing about renting a condo was that we could make dinner when we didn’t have the energy for a four star meal.
At the end of our meal, we were greeted by this breathtaking sunset.
Night after night. It never got old. I hope I never live to the day when a sunset bores me.