Hawaii - Day 4/5

Our last day on Maui we spent just relaxing around our hotel. We went for a run along the beach trail in the morning, had a late breakfast, and then lounged at the pool for most of the day.  It was great.  The next day, we packed up and flew to Kauai for the second half of our trip.

As soon as we got to Kauai, we had lunch and then took a helicopter tour of the island. AMAZING! This was probably the highlight of the trip. I was nervous since I've never been on a helicopter (and get motion sickness) but I was good. And we even flew with the doors off. Highly recommend... I never felt unsafe and the views it afforded were awesome. 

Our pilot was a great tour guide and the views were just stunning.  Most of Kauai is inaccessible so this really was the best way to see it. We flew threw canyons including Waimea Canyon, saw tons of waterfalls, saw the Napali coast which is breathtaking.  Our tour was just the two of us and the pilot. We used Mauna Loa Helicopters which I'd definitely recommend if you are ever in Kauai.

Here are some of the pictures I took from the trip.

Going over the first mountain

Gorgeous waterfalls all around

This was taking looking down out of the helicopter

Look at all the cascading waterfalls from this basin

I love how the land just ripples like water

Here is Waimea Canyon - the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii

We actually hiked to the top of this waterfall the next day

First view of the Napali Coast

Beautiful Napali Coast

A great helicopter ride!

Hawaii - Day 3

The next day, we ventured up the west side of the island.  We first stopped in Lahaina to see the sites and do some shopping.  Then, we drove up the coast through Kaanapali to the top of the island. We went to the Nakalele Blowhole.  It's a short walk down from the road but so worth it.

Here's the beautiful coastline you get to see

It was a gorgeous day so after every eruption of the blowhole, we would see this amazing rainbow

Us!

One of my better shots of it exploding, complete with rainbow

A wider shot

Just amazing! We could have sat there for hours just admiring the views and soaking in the sun. Instead, we hopped in the car and drove a short distance to a beach to relax.  It was such a beautiful day on the Northwest shore of Maui.  After cleaning up, we went to Sensei for dinner/sushi - another incredible meal on Maui!

Hawaii - Day 2

The next day we drove the Road to Hana and ventured around the entire island.  We started early in the morning to beat a lot of the traffic and allow ample time to explore.  I had brought the Hawaii Revealed Guidebook for Maui which we used as our tour guide for the Road to Hana. It had great suggestions of where to stop.

Here you can barely make out the road. It curves right along the side with MANY one lane bridges. It makes for a fun drive although slow!

Stop at an overlook of the interior of the island

You pass a ton of waterfalls on the drive like this one. It would take you days to probably stop at all of them or explore!  We mostly stopped at ones mentioned in the book.

One of our favorite stops was this Red Sand beach near Hana. It was a bit of a tricky hike but short and well worth it.  It was beautiful to just relax and watch the surf break over the rocks into this little cove.

You can see how protected the cove is. There were a few people swimming.

Now we can cross green sand, black sand, and red sand beaches off the list!

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Seven Sacred Pools which is actually inside the Haleakala National Park.

We decided to do the Pipiwai Trail hike first, up to the Waimoku Falls. It's about a 4 mile hike round trip.

About half way through you come to this beautiful banyan tree.

One of our favorite parts was this bamboo forest.

Thankfully, there was a wooden boardwalk since it often is wet.

And the prize at the end!  You could get very close to the base of the falls. You are in this sort of half circle valley with the falls in the center. It was very serene and beautiful and we enjoyed resting there.

Here's a full shot from further away of the falls.

After making it back to the start, we headed down the path towards the O'heo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools).  We didn't have our suits to do some swimming but we still scampered over rocks to get a closer view.

The pools feed out into the ocean.

Here you can see the various waterfalls with the road to hana above.

Beautiful falls!

From there, we continued on the road around the backside of the Island (rather than turn around and head back through Hana).  Many locals had told us that the roads were perfectly fine (even though the rental car companies warn against it).  And the locals were right!  I'm so glad we continued around or we would have missed the gorgeous sites on this side of the island.

Lots of cattles roaming this gently sloping side of the mountain.

Clouds roll off Haleakala

We even found a winery to stop at and have a tasting (and purchase some gifts).  After a long day, we stopped in Paia for a bite at a pizza place (Flatbread Pizza Company).  It was delicious and the perfect way to end our long day.

Hawaii - Day 1

Bryce and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this year and wanted to celebrate with a trip for just the two of us... first time we have been away just the two of us since having kids 6.5 years ago!  We figured if we were going to all this trouble, we might as well make it worth it.  We splurged on a trip to Maui and Kauai, two places we had really wanted to visit.  Mema and Papa came down a few weeks early to watch the kids while we were gone for 10 days!

We went to Maui first. It's amazing how easy travel seems to be when you don't have little kids tagging along!  We arrived without any troubles on Saturday evening. We had dinner and found our hotel and went to bed pretty early.  The next morning, we had planned our sunrise bike tour. Having been to Hawaii before, we remembered how those first few days your internal clock is way off so we figured if we had to get up early one morning, might as well be the first one!

We were up very early to make it to the bike place by 3:30am.  Then we got fitted for gear and headed up the mountain to the summit of Mt. Haleakala.  It was VERY cold and windy.  We waited in the van for awhile before venturing out to watch the sunrise.  It was gorgeous.

Picture just after sunrise

See the sunrise just coming out of the clouds 

After watching the sunrise, we were taken down the mountain to just outside the park where we mounted our bikes.  We chose the tour that allowed you to go down at your own pace so we weren't in a big pack.

Geared up!

Part of the view on the ride down

I had read a lot of differing opinions on the bike ride about safety, etc. I was glad we could do it on our own so we could go as fast/slow as we wanted. I never felt unsafe. We even stopped for breakfast along the way.

After making it back to return the bikes, we headed back to the hotel for some food, a nap, and relaxing at the pool before a delicious dinner at Spago.  Overall, an incredible first day!