There were certainly a few tears shed at the airport Monday morning, but all went smoothly with our flights. After two 5 hour flights and a 3 hour stop in San Francisco, we got to Maui's Kahalui Airport at 4:30pm local time, about 10:30pm Toronto time. And since we had been up for two full days, we were getting a little tired! Sleeping on the plane was as uncomfortable as ever, so we passed the time with some movies and crazy eights! We managed to get our selves a cab almost all the way to our accommodations, but the cab wasn't in the best condition for dirt road driving so we ended up hiking the rest of the way to our Retreat, about 1/2 a mile or so. Unfortunately by this time it was dark, so we didn't get to take in much of the beauty of the land, and we missed a couple signs, so it was probably more like a 1 mile hike by the time we were done! When we finally arrived at the Opua House, one of the other guests greeted us very warmly and called the owner to come and meet us to give us the low down. Being sweaty and exhausted, we were so thrilled with the warm welcomes we got from everyone here at the Maui Eco Retreat, and we felt right at home.
After a much needed full night of rest, Jason and I awoke to the beautiful smells sounds of Maui. There are coconut palms absolutely everywhere, flowers on every tree, bananas, guava, passionfruit, and citrus all around us. The best part, picking it right off the tree and eating it! We have been eating our fill of local fruits, and after getting our rental car in order yesterday, we took a day-trip down to the ocean. It was about a 30 minute hike down the very steep jungle, with lots of ropes for support on the cliff-like terrain. We took some videos as we stopped to take in the views on the way down, and we could see some locals spear-fishing off the rocks below. We got to chat with them once we got to the bottom, and it turns out that they had a pretty good catch earlier in the day, but as they were fishing some more, an eel came along and starting stealing their catch and pulling it down into his hole! They were then in the process of retrieving their fish and lobster from the eel's lair. We went for a very salty dip in the choppy waters (little did we know their would be a tsunami warning later that night), and made the very high climb back up to the top. The views here are breathtaking, the weather is gorgeous, and we feel like we've found a little private paradise for ourselves. Today we've taken a trip to the nearby waterfall, which is definitely a lot easier to get to than the ocean, and met a nice couple there from Ottawa. The drop from where we were down to the bottom of the waterfall is about 150 feet, and you can see straight through the trees to the ocean again. Amazing. Tonight one of the current guests is departing after spending 3 months at the retreat, so the other folks are having a little party for her. They've invited us to come and make some music around the bonfire with them after dinner :)
Looking forward to our snorkelling trip that we've booked to Lanai to see one of the world's best snorkelling spots, and to see some local dolphins and sea turtles!!! We also plan on biking down the Haleakala Crater while we're here, but we'll keep you posted on our adventures. There will certainly be some underwater camera shots to see from our snorkelling trip! Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow yet, but just relaxing here and watching the view from our private deck is enough. Check out the videos we've taken so far, and we'll definitely have some more soon!
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