We followed a great suggestion from our concierge and drove up to Napili Bay to the Gazebo for breakfast. She told us there would always be a line but to hang in there. We did, for an hour. You couldn’t beat the view while you were waiting and the line just continued to build behind us. We got another perfect table right on the bay and loved our breakfast with macadamia nut pancakes and Portuguese sausage and eggs. We didn’t need lunch that’s for sure. We drove around the north tip as far as rental cars were allowed to go for gorgeous views of the coastline. In the afternoon Christy and I rented snorkeling equipment and we all went down to the beach at Black Rock in Ka‘anapoli. It wasn’t ideal conditions with the wave action but after getting slammed with the biggest wave of the afternoon while I was putting on my fins and Christy losing her mask in the surf for several minutes, we made it out to see so many different kinds of beautiful fish. We watched the younger folks jump off the cliffs at the end of the point with lots of “You can dot it!” and clapping after the jump from those in the water below. After we dropped off our gear on the beach we went out for a swim and saw a turtle. We got our masks back on and Chris met him eye to eye and swam with him just like I had done on another trip. What a thrill! Norm was content to sit on the beach and be entertained with the antics of a Mr. Bean - like attempt to snorkle, never did, and use a boogie board, again never made it. There is nothing much better than a swim in the warm ocean, a shower, and dinner at a fabulous restaurant. We went down to the Whaler’s Village and had a cocktail at sunset at the Hula Grill and a wonderful fish dinner at a perfect table at Leinlanies.
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| Breakfast at the Gazebo |
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| Napili Bay |
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What a special experience today! After reading “Born in Paradise” about Armine’s experiences growing up on the Haleakala Ranch, I could always picture how wonderful it would be to ride horseback across the green upcountry hills looking out to the Pacific below. I never thought I would be up on a horse again but there I was riding across those same green hills with the same views as she had talked about a century ago. Of course my horse walked all the way and I had a marvelous trail guide while she probably galloped across the hills with her father. My horse was named Hapa which means half and half in Hawaiian. He was a Montana horse with one brown eye and one blue eye. We bonded immediately. Christy rode the biggest horse, Applejack, the same one that is in the add and Norm rode laidback Appie, the Appaloosa who like to stay at the rear of our small group of six. It is still a huge working ranch and provides organic beef to stores such as Whole Foods with the label Maui Beef. We came across a group of mares with a stallion that were in the pasture that had been working horses on the ranch and were now retired. What a beautiful retirement home! Our guide was darling and reminded us all of Sandra Bullock. What an experience!
We were only about 30 minutes from the Haleakala crater. After much discussion as to how wise it would be to go up 10,000 feet with plugged ears from the flu, we decided to go for it. I had flown across the crater years ago in a helicopter but had never driven up to the top. We drove through the clouds to a beautiful view of the crater in the sunlight. Thank goodness our ears were none the worse. We had lunch in the cowboy town of Makawao at a Mexican place that our guide loved. It was the biggest and best homemade tamale I ever had. Lat in the afternoon we took Norm out to the north shore to watch the sailboarders at the Hookipa Beach lookout and saw a paddle boarder get creamed. He went one way and the board went another. He finally made it to shore. The waves must have been 20 to 30 feet tall, gorgeous. We had an early night back at the condo for cards and Maui cookies.
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| Here we are on horsebak. |
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| Haleakala Crater |
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| North Shore |
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