More Maui

As the ship docked overnight, there was no need to wait for clearance to go onshore this morning. We tried the breakfast buffet at the Aloha Café. There were mixed reactions from the family. Half preferred the freshly prepared options at Cagney’s, the other half preferred the speed and relative convenience of the buffet.

Our tour today was with Georgia, from Holo Holo Maui Tours, again. Today we headed west toward the Iao Valley for a much shorter tour. The lush and visually stunning Iao Valley and Needle were first on the agenda. The children enjoyed playing in the fresh waters of the Iao stream. We had to force them to leave for a brief stop at the Heritage Gardens, a public picnic area paying homage to the various immigrant groups in Hawaii. Unfortunately, some of the buildings were not maintained well which was a shame.

Iao Valley

The refreshingly cool river

Family fun wading around the river bed

A most beautiful picnic spot!

The Japanese Pavilion. They did a large amount of the field work

The Chinese Pavilion and its resident stone lions...

More lions...

Lunch was at a restaurant called 808 (after Hawaii’s call code) recommended by Georgia. We got there just in time. After we were seated, it appeared that the everybody on the island came too! The food was simple, fresh and tasty with generous serves.

Our last stop before heading back to the ship was Bailey House, a museum of Hawaiian history and art. The stone building was originally a house for the missionary families built within the grounds of the former last ruling chief of Maui. We had a brief tour and explanation of the various artifacts that are within the house as well as the history of the building itself. 

Once back on the ship, we had dinner at Cagney’s, our first of three dinners at one of the specialty restaurants onboard. We had a three restaurant ultimate dining package to use up. Dining at these restaurants would otherwise incur a surcharge. We noted that in general the service so far has not been as good as on the other NCL ships. We were not sure if this was due to the fact that the Pride of America was the only ship to be registered in the USA which meant it had to go with US labour laws. The workforce thereby would be vastly different to those on the Caribbean nation registered ships. The steak though…was good 😊

Lara headed to the Teen’s club and reported that she enjoyed it. Elliot chose to read and Jonah preferred to continue working through the movies that were available….

A replica traditional canoe on display

Cauldron for whale blubber. Oma's first comment...that was used to cook humans! 

An amazing collection of extinct snails

Intricate local seed necklace

Jonah feeling sad for the stuffed bird

Prawn cocktail = back on the ship!

Road to Hana and Beyond

One of the perks of being in a suite is being able to have breakfast and lunch at Cagney’s. This morning, however, the table service was slow, and the cold buffet was limited. Luckily, our tour meet-up time was not until 0830am.

Breakfast at Cagney's

 Maui wore the mantle of being the most visited of the Hawaiian Islands. As such, there was abundant choice of tour companies. We opted for Holo Holo Maui Tours mainly for their “All the way around” full day tour, a tour which essentially circled around Mount Haleakala, the largest dormant volcano in the world. It ended up being a great choice. Our guide for the day was Georgia. She was knowledgeable with the history, culture, flora, geology, fauna, and music of the islands! This would later set us up to better appreciate the differences between the various islands. We also loved being able to see the stark contrast between the wet rainforest of the windward side of the mountain and the “desert” side after the town of Hana where most visitors stop and turn around. We were glad that we chose to drive all the way around.

Some of the unexpected highlights include lunch at the food trucks along the way. We were generously given free fresh coconut juice and fruits on account of Georgia knowing the local vendors. Bonus! We also learnt about Charles Lindberg and Sam Pryor (founder of Pan Am), who we soon learnt were buried on Maui! We were also glad Georgia was here when we swam at the black sand beach in Waianapanapa State Park. There was a sharp drop off and the surf was tricky. I would not have wanted to venture out without her prompts of when to actually start swimming out and when to duck under the surf! My father was fascinated to know that Sun Yat Sen's brother lived in Maui and was active with funding his revolution in China.

Just a beautiful beach?

Maybe not...

What looked like rocks turned out to be turtles!

We spotted one swimming in the water too!

A surprise for us to see this! Rainbow eucalyptus

Chickens chickens everywhere....

Amazing banana bread!

We thought Georgia over ordered when she bought 2 loaves. It didn't last...

Fresh coconuts

A very happy child

Fresh fruits served on sugarcane

Dramatic landscapes

Simple engineering with channeling water to have self watering taro fields

Georgia introducing us to the flora

Enjoying the sweet nectar!

Black sand beach of Waianapanapa State Park

Waterfalls everywhere! 

Just by the side of the road...

Grave of Charles Lindberg

The dramatic scenery change on the "other side"

Maui's Grand Canyon

A little honey farm on top of the hill

We stopped but it wasn't worth stopping...

Sun Yat Sen Park

 By the time we returned to the ship it was well past 6:30pm and so we dined at the Aloha Café buffet. The food offering was decent with good variety and reasonable tasty food. The crowds were not too bad either.

We finished dinner in time for the Polynesian show. It would have been very entertaining were it not for the fact that we had already seen a luau! There were many similar elements chronicling the journey of the Polynesian people across the islands of the Pacific. It was still a pleasant way to end what was a busy and enjoyable day.

Dinner at the buffet