Our fourth day in Maui we ventured outside of the lush landscape of Western Maui and headed to a change of scenery on the Southern side of Maui. South Maui is known for its long stretches of beautiful beaches and its fine resorts. With so many beaches to pick from (I think 5 of their beaches are in Maui’s Top Ten Beach list), we had a hard time choosing which beach to go to.
At the end of the day, Po’olenalena Beach won out because our travel books mentioned that it had a great rocky area for snorkeling and its parking lot stayed on the empty side (it would have been a bummer to drive an hour to a beach only to find out that there was no parking). Since Southern Maui beaches are known for being pretty crowded, I wanted to go to a local beach that was relatively untouched by tourists. Po’olenalena Beach perfectly fit the bill.
This long sandy stretch of beach was relatively empty, perfect for a quiet relaxing day at the beach.
Like most beaches on Maui, this beach was rimmed on either side with rocky lava formations. While there were rocky sides to both ends of the beach, the middle of the beach provided a perfectly sandy and smooth bottom (unlike some other Maui beaches where you are constantly dodging rough rocks on the ocean floor).
Besides being gifted with a beautiful sandy stretch, this beach had amazing views of some of the other Hawaiian islands off in the distance. To the right hand side is La’nai and on the left hand side is Kaho’Olawe. Kaho’Olawe is the smallest of the Hawaiian islands and very sparsely populated due to a lack of fresh water. It was used as a training ground of the US Navy during WWII but the land has since been turned into a reserve that can now only be used for native Hawaiian cultural purposes. You can also see the western side of Maui from the beach, which is directly behind me in this picture.
It still doesn’t get old that nearly every beach on Maui let’s you see from the ocean all the way up to the mountainside.
After we finished exploring our surroundings, Mr. A wanted to head straight to snorkeling. So we put on our gear and dove right in. This beach was a little more difficult to snorkel in than Napili because the waves were much stronger. Even with the stronger waves, we were able to see a lot of marine life. We, of course, saw another turtle but the main highlight here was the coral–some of the most vibrant that we saw.
When we were finished at Po’olenalena, we headed a little further south to check out one of Maui’s most interesting sites, Oneuli Beach. This beach is one of two beaches on Maui that are referred to as the black sand beach.
In comparison to the black sand beach near Hana, this sand really isn’t that black. I would consider it a little more salt and pepper, a mixture of red, black, and white. The name even leans a little more towards that description—Oneuli means dark sand.
To the left side of the beach is a large cinder cone called Pu’u Ola’i. This cinder cone is what provided the material for the sand you see below. Over the years, the waves have beaten down the cinder cone. These particles are then deposited on the beach via the waves in the form of sand.
This beach was easily one of the cooler things we saw in Maui (although the true black sand beach, Waianapanapa definitely beats this beach by a mile) While it’s an amazing site, it was really difficult to access. You need to study your map pretty well because the beach itself is not marked well. Once you find the sign, your car must embark on a white knuckle unpaved windy path to get to the parking lot and the beach—our rental car was less than thrilled.
With our exploring done for the day, we headed back to the condo to relax, snorkel, and make dinner (relaxing being my Dad, snorkeling being Mr. A, and making dinner being me and Mom).
Mr. A was pretty successful on his adventure, capturing tons of pictures and videos of the turtles.
Mom and I were also pretty successful with our local dinner experiment, with everything but the chicken coming from the farmers market. For the record, grilled purple sweet potatoes and pineapples are amazing. We spent another wonderful night parked on our lanai, eating dinner, scouting out turtles, and watching the sunset. My idea of paradise.