Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Our first day in Maui we used to explore our timeshare. It has a big beautiful pool with 2 jacuzzi's right on the ocean. The sand is soft and the waves are continuous - such a beautiful setting.
Once we were settled in, we drove to Haleakala National Park which is on the summit of an old volcano. It was a very curvy drive up, but so pretty. There was cloud cover when we looked at the summit from the base of the volcano, but we decided to go anyway. As we drove up, we actually drove through the clouds and emerged into the sunshine. At the top, we were looking down at the clouds and watching them sweep over the summit - pretty cool.
The Haleakala Observatory is also located here. It is one of the most important observing sites in the world. Lying above the tropical inversion layer it experiences superb seeing conditions and dominant clear skies, so it has many international scientist working here. It is not open to the public, but what a spectacular place to work.
There are many plants and animals that live here. One bird is the Nene (pronounced Nay-Nay) or Hawaiian goose. These birds hatch their babies here, then fly to Japan, Alaska and then back to Maui to have their babies the following year. Quite a long way to travel. There is a plant called the silversword which is only found on this summit - nowhere else in the world. It can live up to 90 years, and produces a tall spire with flowers on it only once, and then it dies. They bloom in the spring so we didn't see any blooms but I put in a picture of what they look like when they do. These plants were almost extinct a few years ago, but the Rangers fenced off the Park so the goats couldn't eat them and worked with school kids to replant thousands of them and they are now doing very well.
The ground is all black and crumbly with lava and Fred found a large lava rock he wanted to bring home but the Rangers said no. The rock is black in some places from the volcano, and then turns reddish as the lava oxidizes over time.
We left the volcano and had lunch by the ocean at Mama's Fish House. What a perfect day with the Trade Winds gently blowing, and fish for lunch that was just caught that day.
- comments