Maui, Hawai'i (2nd to 9th of April)

We landed in Maui on the 2nd of April, in the morning. We took our rental car and we drove south to Wailea Beach and Makena Beach. The sea was just amazing, with different shades of blue. The waves and the currents were pretty strong. I was "knocked over" by a wave and my head filled with sand....it took me different days to get rid of it :)

Makena Beach.

In the evening we drove up north again, close to Paia, and met our couch surfing host Jonathan. We cooked dinner and talked about Maui and the other Hawaiian Islands.
The following morning we drove to Hana, in the East of the island, of course we took the famous "Route to Hana". The narrow and curvy route mostly follows the ocean but it is also in the jungle. The East of the island is the wetter side and therefore there are a lot of water falls and scenic views all along the road. Our destinations was not Hana itself but the road to it. 

Waterfall on the road to Hana.

Another beach-relaxing day and laundry day followed. We first stopped in Kahului, together with Wailuku, one of the biggest cities and airport city. Doing laundry isn't usually exciting, but this was the first time we used a laundromat, so it still was a kind of event! For the beach part of the day we chose the sugar-beach in Kihei, close to one of the best shave-ice, the Hawaiian ice cream (ice shaved very thin with addition of different syrups of your choice), places in Maui.
On Friday 5th we drove to the Haleakala National Park, an inactive volcano. The crater is located at about 4000 m above sea level and is characterized by its mars-like landscape of volcanic rock and ash cones. It is also a natural habitat of different endangered local bird and insect species, that only live in Hawaii, for example the nēnē goose. The meaning of Haleakala is "house of the sun" and is still an important place for Hawaiians, who come here to for some ceremonies and celebrations.
The volcano and his landscapes are really amazing and we learned different things about volcanic rocks and lava flows in the  visitor center.

Haleakala National Park.

After the park we drove to Wailuku to our hostel, where we stayed until the end of our stay in Maui.
On Saturday we explored a bit the city of Wailuku, did some shopping and ate local food and on Saturday we drove to Lahaina on the West coast, the old whalers city and now the more touristy part of the island, with lots of hotels and shops. On the way to Lahaina we stopped at a great scenic lookout and we could spot some humpbackwhales from the distance. In Lahaina we first stopped at the Whalers Village, an open air shopping mall, and then went on a semi-submarine tour. From the bottom of the semi-submarine we could see different fishes, corals and other sea creatures. The coral has unfortunately lost a lot of it's life and colour in the past years. Apparently this is due to the tons of sun screen  that gets into the ocean...

Sunset in Lahaina.

On our last full day in Maui we decided for another beach day and spent the day near Makena Beach, where we also had been on our first day.
On Tuesday 9th of April in the morning we flew to the island of Hawaii, also called the "Big Island".