Day one on Maui and it was time to do some exploring.
We sat through an Expedia Presentation so we had some ideas on where we wanted to go for starters.
First of all we headed back toward the airport to see what we’d missed in the darkness when we drove in. It was a beautiful drive. The sun was out and the road (rt. 30) followed the coastline.
People were already gathering at the various beaches along the way. Finally at Ukumehame Beach Park we spotted some “would be surfers”. We pulled over to watch but it soon became clear that there just wasn’t enough surf. The ocean was calm and all the wannabe surfers were just sitting on their boards hoping for a wave that wasn’t coming any time soon. Time to move on.
Next stop was the scenic look-out over the whale sanctuary. There were some boats and a couple of divers but no whales.
We moved on a bit further then turned around and headed back the way we’d just come. We wanted to go to mile marker 38 to see what was on that stretch of road. The Expedia rep said after mile marker 38 the road got very dangerous so that was going to be our stopping point.
We had lunch at Beach Bum’s Bar & Grill then headed back up Rt 30. It had started to rain and the traffic was slow. Eventually it came to a halt. After sitting for awhile we finally began to move and around the corner we saw the reason for the hold up…paving crew! Once past this obstacle we were surprised when all of the cars ahead of us began to turn off the road. Not knowing what was going on we followed and there they were… surfers! The real deal.
We later learned that we’d stumbled on one of the premier surfing spots on Maui, Honolua Bay. This was a great experience. Much more thrilling to watch in person than on the TV. I hope we see more surfing like this while we’re here.
