Note: This is the 14th of 16 posts about our 21-day trip that included a 17-day (16-night) cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) ship SPIRIT from Vancouver, British Columbia to Honolulu, Oahu. This post has 20 photographs with captions and some narrative. Photos by me (Bruce) using a SONY alpha 6400 or Google Pixel 6 Pro unless otherwise indicated. (Photos by Linda taken with a Google Pixel 6.)
WEDNESDAY 13 September 2023 — (T18,C15) Kahului, Maui, Hawaii
Our ship arrived in the harbor at Kahului, Maui early this morning. As was well-reported in the news, Maui had recently suffered a devastating fire in and around Lahaina. This obviously impacted some of the planned shore excursions, but we did not detect anyone being upset about changes in planned offerings. Indeed, tourists were being encouraged to visit Maui and support the local economy, but the Lahaina area was obviously off limits. Any disappointment for cruise passengers was inconsequential compared to the loss and suffering of the impacted islanders.
Our main activity today was a shore excursion with “Hike Maui” east along the first portion of “the road to Hana.” We were transported in vans and had an excellent tour guide. There was a lot of walking, but it was mostly easy and it was nice to get off the ship and use our legs to walk around town and in the woods.
The NCL SPIRIT approaches Kahului, Maui, Hawaii at sunrise. (Photo by Linda)
Linda soaks up the sunrise as it floods the port side of the ship inbound to Kahului, Maui.
The mountains loom behind Kahului, Maui and make their own weather, as mountains are want to do.
This sign says it all: “Aloha, Welcome to Kahului, Maui, Hawaii” with the NCL SPIRIT in the background. We enjoyed our time on this ship. It’s the smallest ship in the NCL fleet, but it’s still pretty big.
I hold Sadie’s “Apa and Ama” artwork by a large map of Maui, Hawaii. Notice how the island resembles a person in lying on their side with the head at the upper left and facing down and slightly left. The cruise port at Kahului is in the curve of the neck on the back (north/upper) side. Most of the head is high mountains. The town of Lahaina, which suffered the worst of the recent fire, is more or less directly opposite Kahului on the other side of the central mountains. Travel to that area was not allowed, of course, as the area is still recovering and rebuilding. (Photo by Linda)
From a web search: Maui is an island formed by two volcanoes: Haleakala and Mauna Kahalawai. Haleakala is a 10,000 foot shield volcano that means “House of the Sun” and had its recent eruptions between 1480 and 1600. Maui is an island formed by two volcanoes: Haleakala and Mauna Kahalawai. Haleakala is a 10,000 foot shield volcano that means “House of the Sun” and had its recent eruptions between 1480 and 160012. Mauna Kahalawai is an eroded shield volcano also known as the West Maui Mountains (the “head”) that last erupted 320,000 years ago. Maui does not have any active volcanoes, unlike Hawaiʻi Island, which has two of the world’s most active volcanoes: Kīlauea and Maunaloa.
We went on a shore excursion with “Hike Maui.” Our first stop was the town of Paia. From a web search: Pā’ia is a census-designated place on Maui, Hawaii with a population of 2,470 as of the 2020 census. It is home to several restaurants, art galleries, surf shops and other tourist-oriented businesses. It was formerly home to the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Mill from 1880 to 2000. Pā’ia is the first town on the Hana Highway when heading eastbound towards Hana. It was cute, inviting, and very walkable. “Surf shops” were much in evidence.
We came across a ukelele shop while strolling around downtown Paia. Yes, Ukuleles really are a thing in the Hawaiian Islands, and this shop had a lot of them! They were all exquisite instruments whose craftsmanship was obvious, and are sold to customers all over the world. They ranged in price quite a bit but some of them were, as you might expect, very expensive.
The front façade of the Mele Ukulele shop. I had a nice conversation with the owner, as much about photography and cameras (he was also a SONY shooter) as about ukuleles and living on tropical paradise island.
“Hike Maui” has taken us to a bamboo grove. Much of the bamboo was very tall, as shown in the next photo. The tour provided water and a light lunch, which was appreciated.
The tour guide used Linda’s Pixel 6 to take this photo in which we are dwarfed by a stand of bamboo. It was nice to have a photo of the two of us that wasn’t a selfie. (Photo by Linda, sort of)
The plant life in Hawaii is remarkable; unique, diverse, beautiful and fragile (to outside negative influences).
Our tour guide stops to explain some plant life along the trail. (Photo by Linda)
I just liked this plant, photographically: An interesting backlit pattern in contrasting shades of green.
We pause on our way to the waterfall and wading pool for photo op. (Photo by Linda’s phone, but someone else obviously took the photo.)
On part of a hike to a small waterfall and swimming hole we had to go through this tunnel of twisted branches. This was one of just many interesting things that were part of the hike.
We always appreciate good signposts to help us get where we need to go.
This view seemed to be quintessentially Maui; a rugged coast with a white sand beach set off by beautiful blue and green water and a blue sky with some puffy clouds. If you look carefully at the white sand beach, you will also see a large gathering of very large sea turtles.
A zoomed in view of a section of the beach showing the very large sea turtles resting on the sand. This section of the beach was closed off and posted “No Admittance” but we saw people ignoring that, both from land and from the sea. (Photo by Linda)
I included this photo to show that Hawaiians’ also have a sense of humor.
We are back on the ship and having diner around 7:30 PM. We did not do specialty dining very often, but we got two dinner meals as part of our fare, so we apparently used our second one this evening to dine at Teppanyaki, the Japanese table side grill. The food was excellent and the chef was very entertaining. (Photo by Linda)
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