Another Week of Fun....

So my friend Ninja Dave joined me for a week here in Maui, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend who remained behind in Toronto. It was a "boys week" and we did some hanging out and such.

Ironically, Dave is not much of a water person, so snorkelling, surfing, wakeboarding, and many of the other activities here on the island had little or no appeal to him. I was forced to become creative.

We went to another luau, different from the one I previously attended. It was not as good as the first one, but still enjoyable. There were a larger number of performers, so the show was more rounded, but I still felt the first show was better.

We also biked down Haleakala, the larger of the two volcanoes that form the island of Maui. The start of our bike ride was at 9740ft above sea level, and we biked right down to the beach in just over 38 miles. Now if you think that's hard work, imagine what the participants in the "Cycle to the Sun" race go through each year, which is a bike race from the beach to the top of the mountain, 38 miles of race uphill the entire way. If that sounds hard, imagine what the "Run to the Sun" people go through, which is the foot race that occurs the next day.

Dave and I also drove to Hana, which is on the east side of Haleakala. It's only a 50 mile drive from the airport to the town of Hana, but the road is so winding and twisting that it takes almost 4 hours to make the trip one way. However, this is the wet side of the island, and much of the rainforest here is untouched, leading to some amazing scenery.

The last main trip we made was around to the north shore of Halemahina, the smaller volcano, and the area in which I am living. On the north shore are some old Hawaiian burial grounds, and while one is not allowed into the grounds themselves, one can come very close and peek. It was quite interesting. Around the same area, we found a stretch of coastline where many people had made small sculptures by balancing rocks. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try my skills, and thus the picture.

Now, I'm back on my own, for the last two weeks of my stay here. I plan to work on evening out my tan, and keeping the beaches from flying away. Going to be hard to return to snow after all this, but I have had a great time so far, and still have plenty left.