Maui – RDZ Photography

Virtual Travel – Hawaii

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Transportation, Water Features

Because of the uniqueness of Hawaii I have no state highway maps in my collection. For this trip we will use a National Geographic Map from 1976.

Having spent an amazing 3 weeks in the islands, there are plenty of photos of the highlights. As a result this is a very long posting full of photos.

Hawaii – The Big Island. Covering over 4000 square miles, it is slightly smaller than Connecticut.

Big Island HI Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park

Big Island South Point

Southernmost point of any U.S. State – take that Key West

Green Sand Beach

Black Sand Beach

Volcano National Park

Kaimu Bay

McKenzie Park

Hilo – One huge banyan tree

Akaka Falls

Hilo (again)

Waipio Valley

Pololu Valley Overlook

Kapaau

Kona Cultural Festival

Off Kona

Maui

Views from the water

Lahania

More coastal Maui views

Iao Valley

Haleakala National Park

Kahekill Highway

Waimoku Falls

Hana

Kahului Hi Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center

Makai Glass Company

Dingking Surfboard Company

Molokai and Lanai

Lanai

It was once massive plantation, so the landscape has been altered to support the sugar crops.

Lanai cat sanctuary

Molokai

Drive to the far eastern end of the island

Halawa Valley

Native leader

Tallest seacliffs in the world – 3000′ high.

Oahu

Ka’ena Point

Makaha Valley

Honolulu, Waikiki Beach & Diamond Head

Waiahole Preserve & Kaneohe

North Shore Oahu

Dole Pineapple Plantation

Back in Waikiki

View from Diamond Head

Iolani Palace

Hawaii State Capitol

Aloha Tower in Honolulu Harbor

Makapu’u Overlook

One final night in Waikiki

Kauai

Waimea Canyon

Kalalau Lookout

Waimea Canyon

Polihale State Park and Beach

Waimea State Park Beach

Opeaka’a Falls

Rainbow Trees

Wailua Homesteads

One of the million wild chickens in Hawaii

Cocoa beans

A Milestone – Posting Number 1000

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

This photography blog started out as a way to share some photos with friends, but after a number of years it has reached a milestone – posting number 1000!

To celebrate I give you my favorite 40 photos of all time. (I tried to make it less but could not)

Scottsbluff, Nebraska

Milwaukee sunrise

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan

Duluth, Minnesota thunderstorm

Yellowstone National Park – All Hail the Geyser Gods

Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Mendocino County, California

Cambridge, Ohio lumberjack contest

Cincinnati Renaissance Festival

Loudonville, Ohio – Native American Pow Wow

Alaska Peninsula

Columbus – Krampus

Chicago

New York City subway art

Cincinnati – Rosie the Riveter Contest

Lanai, Hawaii – Cat Sanctuary

Haleakala National Park, Hawaii

Waimea Canyon Park, Kauai, Hawaii

Columbus – Krampus V2

Washington DC – Embassy Day

Houston – Lucky Land

Amarillo, Texas – Cadillac Ranch

Cleveland – Parade the Circle

Columbus Zoo

Montreal

Olivos, Argentina

San Antonio De Areco, Argentina

Buenos Aires – Casa Rosada

Bariloche, Argentina

Buenos Aires – Retiro Train Station

Buenos Aires – Recoleta Cemetery

Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina

La Leona, Argentina

El Calafate, Argentina

Buenos Aires – Palacio Barolo

Igauzu Falls, Argentina

Hawaii – November 2018 – Day 18 Art and History of Maui

Architecture, Art, History, Nature, Sciences, Transportation

Day 18 of the Hawaii trip is a travel day, so we stayed fairly close to the airport for our late afternoon flight. We found a number of interesting artistic and historic sites to visit.

First up was the Sacred Gardens. This location seemed to be part gardens, part religious, part cosmic and more.

They did have a ‘Buddha Garden’, with some nice sculptures.

Their claim to fame though is their labyrinths.

Just down the road is the Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center. Situated on the grounds of a former sugar plantation owner, there are a number of buildings for various uses including a tiny high school.

The grounds are immaculate.

Makai Glassworks is located in another former sugar plantation. We were able to observe the artist at work.

In the same area, but off the tourist path, is the Dingking surfboard shop.

A true find, they make custom surfboards.

In addition to the surfboards, they do other custom woodwork including this great canoe.

But their specialty is surfboards.

Our next stop was the Surfing Goat Dairy, and as our directions had us turn into the road we were amazed that a dairy would have such a fancy entrance – until we realized the entrance was for a neighborhood of multi million dollar houses, and the dairy was off to to the side.

But they did have goats, and surfboards.

While most of the employment in Maui now is tourism, they once had thriving businesses in agriculture, primarily the sugar plantations and pineapples. They even once had railroads to bring the goods to the port, as evidenced by this former railroad office.

In my 3 weeks in Hawaii I did not see 1 railroad track (although there are apparently a couple of historic railroads around).

Sugar cane processing was once a big business, but it is all now gone. This was the last processing plant, and it closed a few years ago.

The history is celebrated by a museum housed in the former superintendents home.

The interior has a nice display of the people and lifestyles of the plantation life. Outside they have some of the equipment used in the processing.

This truck and trailer was used to bring in massive amounts of the sugar cane into the factory.

While these large claws picked up the cane in the fields.

A quick stop at Target – where they are ready for Christmas Hawaiian style.

And a great Hawaiian pizza – and it was off for our flights to Kauai.

Hawaii – November 2018 – Day 17 The Road To Hana (and Beyond)

Architecture, Nature, Transportation

The Road to Hana is a famed Maui attraction. Winding for 52 miles from Kahului, it passes over 46 one lane bridges, and has over 600 curves.

It basically runs up and down the gulches throughout east Maui, with many of the gulches featuring waterfalls.

It was raining fairly hard as we made our way down this early morning, so some of the falls were more impressive than normal. The good news was our early start meant we missed most of the very slow tourist traffic on the way down.

Unfortunately unless you had a 4WD high clearance vehicle you had to come back the same way, which we did later that afternoon.

Eventually we reached Hana, and continued on to the portion of Haleakala National Park that is on the ocean. As we passed into the park grounds we were met with another great waterfall.

Our main destination for the day was the Pipiwai Trail.

This trail takes you up the mountain past the Seven Sacred Pools.

Through an amazing bamboo forest.

After clearing the bamboo forest you are presented with the highlight – the 400′ high Waimoku Waterfalls.

After returning back down the trail we started backtracking up Hana Highway. Just beyond Hana is the Wai’anapanapa State Park.

The seas were angry that day, and the waves were high and frequent.

The blowhole at the park was more impressive than any of the others we saw elsewhere.

Even the birds seemed excited.

As we continued our journey back to Kahului we passed an area where numerous cars were parked along the road. Following the others we made our way down to an overlook where everyone was checking out the waves.

They were reported to be 20-30′ high here, which brought out locals as well as the tourists.

The only surfboards we saw that day were lining the parking lot of the shops.

As we made our way back to the hotel for the night we passed this architecturally interesting temple. We were fortunate that despite quite a bit of rain we remained dry for our couple hours of hiking, as well as the visit to the state park.

Hawaii – November 2018 – Day 16 From Maui to the Moon

Architecture, History, Nature, Sciences, Transportation

Early on a Sunday morning we took off and headed up the tallest mountain on Maui.

Up we went until we were at the same level as the clouds.

And the road kept going – we could see Molokai in the distance, and we kept going.

we were looking down on the 5000′ high West Maui Mountains and the clouds now. Where could we be going?

The moon!

No not really, it is Haleakala Mountain (and National Park). The buildings are an observatory.

But if you could visit the moon in shorts this is the place (to be fair it was in the upper 50s but it is Hawaii so I am wearing shorts).

Haleakala is a volcano, and the top is the crater with numerous cauldrons. They like to point out that while it is officially 10,023′ above sea level, there is another 19, 680′ below sea level, so it is taller than Everest (but shorter overall than nearby Mauna Kea).

There are numerous cauldrons in the crater, which is a deceptive 2600′ deep.

While barren of vegetation, the crater floor is full of color, as this series of photos will show. These are some of my favorite photos of all time, all from the same place!

We went down the path into the cauldron for about 45 minutes – resulting in a 2 hour hike back up. For me this was one of the tougher hikes, it is 10,000′ in elevation, it is continuous, without shade (and I likely only went down 700-800 vertical feet)

It is an incredible place, and we were fortunate that it was a very sunny day the day we visited, as the clouds often obscure the mountain (at least parts), and later in the day and for the rest of our time in Maui, it was at least partially obscured.

We returned to Maui (aka sea level) and went for a drive to Kahakuloa. While most people drive the famed road to Hana (we did – later), this road was far more impressive and challenging. It was mostly a lane and a half, often clinging to the cliffs to the ocean, with minimal guard rails.

It was great!

Great unexpected views would just pop up without warning.

The road passes through a couple of little towns.

Eventually you make it back to a road with state highway maintenance (aka – two lanes), but the views continue.

We stopped at the Nakalele Blowhole.

Another north shore coastline (note the road running along the top of the hill).

Maui’s north shore is known for the surfing. We watched a number of them catch waves before calling it a day.

Hawaii – November 2018 – Day 15 – Best 30 Minute Flight in the World

History, Nature, Transportation

We left the ship in the morning and spent a bit of time in the town of Kaunakakai at a farmers market, while we waiting for our flight’s scheduled time.

Eventually it was time to go – in our 9 passenger Mokulele Airlines flight to Maui. As we boarded the plane I asked the pilot if we were taking the north route to Maui, and with a smile she said ‘yes’!

We took off over the only flat land on Molokai.

The north route takes you over the famed Sea Cliffs. Known as the highest sea cliffs in the world, some are over 4000′ high. Now you know why the pilot was smiling.

A family owned airline, they are known for their island hopping routes.

The best views in the world out the windows of our little 9 passenger plane on a regularly scheduled route..

One of the saddest policies in Hawaiian history was the sequestering of leprosy patients. One of the most famous of these is on Molokai, where over a 100 year period over 8,000 people were sent to spend the rest of their lives in isolation.

Today it is a National Historic Park accessible only by mules down the 1,600′ high cliffs, or by plane.

More of the steep valleys along Molokai’s north shore.

There are numerous waterfalls coming off of the cliffs.

Two of the 8 highest waterfalls in the world are along these cliffs. I ‘think’ we are looking at Olo’upena Falls and ‘Pu’uka’oku Falls, both nearly 3000’ high.

Amazing cliffs and waterfalls.

Our last view of Molokai was of the Halawa Valley, where we spent the day before with Pops and his family learning of Hawaiian culture.

After crossing the 20 mile channel we were over Maui,

While rugged, the mountains are not as abrupt as Molokai. They do however have a great little road running through them (more on that tomorrow).

More canyons as we approach the airport.

Maui is basically one massive mountain on east end, with other tall mountains on the west end, with a flat valley in the middle. All of a sudden it looks like Southern California!

The water in the ocean just off shore had great color though.

Making a couple of quick turns to land and we were in Maui. What a spectacular flight!

The traffic and congestion will quickly make you wish you were back in Molokai.

We did make a quick trip up to Iao Valley before the sun set though.

The ‘needle’, a 1200′ high (from the valley floor). It is really a ridge, as it continues beyond sight.

As we walked to dinner along the coast we saw this great turtle hanging out in the lava rocks.

Hawaii – November 2018 – Day 13 Hanging Out with Dolphins and Whales

History, Nature, Sciences

Day 13 was a relaxing day with some morning kayaking and an afternoon of playing in the ocean.

First up – the dolphins

While it is a bit early in the season for whales to be in Hawaii we did spot one who gave us a glimpse of his/her tail.

As we made our way along the Lahania Roads area between Maui, Lanai and Molokai, we passed an island/rock known as Kaho’olawe. The small round cave like openings are really pock marks where the US military used i to practice bombing.

Fortunately this practice ended years ago.

The rocky surface provides great contrast with the green landscape of Maui.

The afternoon was spent playing in the ocean,

including the crew providing wake board rides with the skiff.

Notice the giant cruise ship in the distance. No wake boards rides off the back of it.

As with the trip to Alaska, the crew and fellow guests are the best part of the ”Uncruise’ Experience. While the guests come from various backgrounds and are various ages (mostly 50+, but not all), they seem to have a sense of adventure and respect of nature in common, which makes the trip more fun.

Both trips we have had have featured great crews who know a lot about nature, and their jobs, and strive to do their jobs with a great approach, and always a focus on safety (but not so much you don’t have fun).

Here’s to my fellow travelers and the Safari Explorer crew!

Tomorrow is our final day already.

Hawaii – November 2018 – Day 11 Lahaina, Maui

Architecture, Art, History, Nature, Transportation

Our trip brought us to Lahaina, on Maui. One of the oldest settlements in Hawaii, it was once the royal capital of Maui Loa.

Today it is a center of tourism (as is most of Hawaii).

We were anchored just off shore where we had great views of the houses and boats along the coast.

Another day – another great Hawaiian rainbow.

Meanwhile the first mate casually monitored the situation.

While the crew readied the skiffs.

Once on the skiff, we headed towards shore.

But first, a dolphin show (not planned, just lucky).

Once on ground, we made our way to the famed Banyan tree of Lahaina. Planted in 1873, it is the largest banyan tree in America, covering almost 2 acres.