The North Shore

WAILEA, Maui, Jan 10 - I was "homeless" on my last day in Maui.  I had to check out of my condo at 11AM.  My flight home was not until 9:40PM.  So I spent the entire day living out of my car.  And being "homeless" in Maui wasn't so bad after all.  Take a look...

The surf was high and the scenery was ruggedly beautiful along the north shore of Maui, just east of Kahului. 

As one wave after another crashed into the rocky shore...

...I felt mesmerized by the power and beauty of the angry ocean.

Believe it or not, there were surfers somewhere out there in all that white stuff, looking for a "perfect wave."  Some of them were even windsurfing.

I had tentatively intended to drive eastward on the 57-miles road to Hana, a treacherous twisty route that I remember from 1989.  Both of my daughters got nearly carsick because of the endless turns and switchbacks.  The road was a little better now, but still not exactly the way I envisaged spending my last day in Maui.  So after about 15 miles, I turned around and headed back toward Kahului.  Right in the middle of the jungle...

... that's where I came to this interesting looking fruit stand.  I stopped.

I am glad I did.  Because a local boy cut up for me the largest coconut I have ever seen.  There was so much juice in it that I could not drink it all.  The staff had to decant it into a bottle for me.  And the coconut "meat," as they called the fibrous interior part, was a delicious snack. Yum!  It's not sweet at all, which is what we're all led to believe based on the "coconut" they used in baking back home.

But I did also get dried coconut coated with brown sugar cane sugar.  Now that was sweet.  And yum!  Guess you could say that I feasted this afternoon exclusively on local produce.

Just before I left this cute jungle outpost, I spotted in the lower part of the fruit stand some enormous round fruit (left corner above).  "What's that?" I asked one of the girls.

"That's grapefruit."

"Grapefruit?  Really?  Then that must be the largest grapefruit I have ever seen," I marveled.  As a former owner of dozens of grapefruit trees, I felt I could speak with some measure of authority. :-)

One of the two sales girls cut up a grapefruits and let me taste it.  I am not a great fan of grapefruits, but this one was delicious.  Very sweet.  And pink inside.  I told the girl that my dogs used to eat pink grapefruit like that, though they were not nearly as big.  She said her dog eats corn.  Guess some dogs will eat anything.

As I am now posting these pictures, I am amused by the cut-off sign in the lower left portion of the picture.  "Rilled ABOB" anyone?  Another local delicacy? Or "grilled a Bob?"  :-) (In one of the earlier photos, you can see that the full sign actually reads: "Grilled KABOB Medley").  :-)

I next stopped at a place called Twin Falls (still on the north shore).  Some boys were playing Tarzan here, swinging on jungle ropes...

...before splashing into the pool of water below the waterfall.  The water looked pretty murky to me, so I was wondering what animals were also sharing it.

On the way back to the road, I took this close up of the nearby trees.  Hopefully this should convince you that the term jungle was not an exaggeration, nor a reference to Tarzan.  Alas, there was no Jane here... :-)

And that's all she wrote from this trip to Hawaii.  Aloha! And "mahalo" (thank you) for following it with me.

THE END

Back to Hawaii Twenty-O-Seven Index

Backto Home