Exploring Iao Valley

WAILEA, Maui, Jan 9 - The last two days were rained out.  Literally.  The beach?  Something gray and muddy.  Barely visible in the distance.  Not very appealing.  Noisy, with big waves reshaping the shores and destroying sand castles that fathers had so carefully built for their kids.

So I mostly read and watched football.  Uncharacteristically (the latter).  I even drove into town (Kahului, 15 miles away) on Sunday just for a change of scenery.  I used shopping for an iPod as an excuse.  The last time I was on the beach, a wave surprised me and killed my CD player.  So I decided that may have been a sign from upstairs that it was time for me to step up to the plate and upgrade my audio system.

The rain continued through the night and into late morning.  Then suddenly, just like that, the sun appeared.  The rest of the day was glorious.  Guess God is trying to make it up a little to us vacationers for all the rain and doom in the last few days.

This afternoon, I went back into town to complete my iPod purchase.  That did not take long.  I headed back home.  As I approached the coast, suddenly I began to wonder what the view from mountain (Puu Kukui - the "yin" volcano) would look like. So I turned right to a road on which I had never been before.  After that, it was as if the car was driving itself. Which led to an unexpected new little adventure...

The "warm and wet" ("yin") volcano is usually shrouded in clouds.  But this afternoon, it seemed fairly clear.  So I pointed my car in the direction of Iao Valley (a huge crevice inside the volcano), hoping to see things this time that I missed on my last trip due to rain.  This is what the entrance to the Iao Valley looks like (above).

This foliage is so dense in places that the valley looks like a regular rain forest.  Have you ever seen any "ivy," for example, with leaves this big?  Its vines seem to be strangling the big tree like a boa constrictor's (click on right image) deadly grip around a captive victim.  (There are no native snakes in Hawaii).

And then I came across some tamer fauna - like this cock that got quite noisy and agitated with me when I took his picture.

A bit farther along, at the side of the parking lot that lines the entrance to the State Park (above), I came across another unusual scene.

This lady was feeding a whole bunch of cats.  She brough them cans of cat food.  "They are strays," this kindhearted soul explained.  The cats live here in the jungle where there's plenty of water and food - for those who can fend for themselves.  Others evidently depend on animal lovers like this park visitor.

"That's very interesting," I said.  "And sad.  "It's very nice of you to be doing this."

Walking on into the park, I came across this magnificent scene.  The peak straight ahead is famous.  It's on many Hawaiian postcards.  It's called the Iao Needle.  But the postcards don't show the fluffy clouds enveloping the mountain peaks behind the Needle.  I stood there for a while, taking in this breathtaking scene before climbing to an observation point, at the foot of the Needle.

On my way back, I saw this teenage girl, about to jump off a bridge (highlighted above; wearing a black swim suit top).  The bridge is at least 30-40 feet high.

As she jumped (above); the other women crossing the bridge (see the earlier frame), shrieked.  They must have thought the girl was committing suicide.

She was obviously well practiced at her little stunt.  By the time I made it to the point on the bridge from which she jumped off, she was already swimming leisurely in the pool of water below.  She reminded me of the similar stunts I used to do in Dubrovnik (on the Adriatic coast) when I was about her age (click on right thumbnail to enlarge).  Except I would dive (not jump) off vertical cliffs into the ocean below.

I headed home for a second time, when I road up the mountain along the southerly slope of the volcano seemed to pull my car like a magnet.  I followed it...

...only to enjoy beautiful views of Kahului from a nice new neighborhood called Wailuku Heights.  If you really focus hard, you can see in the above picture a faint outline of what, to the naked eye, looked like a huge cruise ship.

Looking from the same spot in the other, southeasterly direction, you can see the normally dry Haleakala volcano (the "yang") mostly hidden by the heavy clouds.  Way off in the distance, at the tip of that peninsula, is Wailea, where my condo is.  And all that green in the middle are sugar cane fields in the middle part of the island that looks so tame and fertile (see "Between Two Volcanoes," Dec 2005).

On my third effort to head home, I ended up stopping at this modern shopping mall at Starbuck's.  I found more than just coffee there...

Inside the mall was a sculpture of Queen Kaahumanu after which the shopping center was named.

And beside the sculpture was this plaque with an interesting history of Hawaiian's first female ruler (late 18th, early 19th century).  If you're interested in such matteres, hopefully you can read the plaque yourself.

Remember that cruise ship?  Well, I couldn't resist.

On my fourth effort to head home, I took a little detour to the Kahului harbor.  And there she was...

... "Pride of America," docked in all her glory - 81,000 tons; 15 decks; 2,146 passengers tended to by a crew of more than 1,000.   Ironically, "Pride of America" is a flagship of NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines).

The sun was already setting by the time I actually left Kahului on my fifth and last trip home this afternoon.

And what a sunset I found in Kihei, on the beach of the condo where I spent last year's Christmas and New Year's.

The gorgeous sunset was a fitting end to a glorious afternoon - my last full day in Maui.

END of Day 7

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