So as I was saying...Paia-small, small town. Chris did all of the planning so he thought it would be best to do most of our excursions while we were here. The day we arrived we had a snorkeling trip planned, but upon landing we had a message saying it was cancelled due to the weather. Not exactly an ideal way to start a tropical vacation.
But we rescheduled for the following day. The snorkeling was supposed to be at Molokini, a partially sunken volcanic crater known for its snorkeling. About half way there, we were informed that the water was too choppy so we were going to head to Coral Gardens. Did we see fish? Yes. Did we see lots of them? Yes. But whatever spin your boat company may give you, Coral Gardens is the ugly step-sister to Molokini.
The boat was great as was the crew. The wetsuits were provided by the tour and boy were we glad we had them. The water was definitely on the chilly side. We enjoyed a nice lunch. So all in all it was a beautiful day.
That night we ate dinner at Mama's Fish House. This is probably the most popular restaurant on Maui and for good reason. The food is amazing. Chris and I showed little self control and ate until we were about to burst. If ever given a choice of last meal-Mama's Fish House would be it :-)
So the next day was probably one of our most favorite excursions. As it turns out, this was something that we could have done on our own, but we had the most wonderful tour guide that made this day long adventure so memorable. Our tour was booked through Hike Maui and we went on the full-day Hana waterfalls and rain forest hike. Actually, we didn't go to Hana, which having been several times before so that was totally fine with me. We stopped just as you got on the road to Hana. Our guide was Kahi, a native of Maui, a grandfather (still can't believe it), and just about the nicest guy you'll ever meet. The tour provided everything-river boots, bug spray, lunch, transportation from our hotel, etc...
Kahi is a naturalist and throughout an entire hike we were taught about the native (and mostly) non-native plants and their uses. This included some tasting along the way.
I would say the day could be summed up~over the river and through the woods...In all we saw 5 separate waterfalls, Chris jumped off one cliff into a pool of water, I braved the freezing water to swim under a waterfall, we dined on boulders, hiked on slippery rocks, followed the trail of wild pigs (as identified by their urine~ewww!), and pretty much were exhausted by the end of the day. But, wow, you can't call the day boring, it was pretty amazing.
On Monday morning we checked out of the Paia Inn and drove up Haleakala to Skyline Eco Adventures for some ziplining on the crater. It always amazes me how different it is on different parts of the island. It's quite forested up there, Ziplining was fun. I certainly wouldn't call myself an expert, but we do seek out ziplining while vacationing so we felt pretty comfortable up there.
So after this excursion we headed down the volcano and over to the other side of the island-Wailea.
To be continued...
