December 5 - Maui and Hilo

I need to catch up on writing about my days here in Hawaii. Yesterday morning we docked in Kahului, the principal deep-water port on the island of Maui. Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian islands and it’s sometimes called the Valley Isle because of the large valley forming an isthmus between the two volcanic masses comprising the island. The older volcanic mass on the northwest side of the island has eroded considerably while the southeastern part of the island is formed by the younger volcano Haleakala which rises to just over 10,000 feet above sea level (five miles from the sea floor to the summit). The flanks of the volcanoes have been cut by erosion so that they have very picturesque deeply incised valleys and ravines. The isthmus between the two was formed by the deposits from the erosion. 

I think the geology of Hawaii is very interesting. It’s actually an archipelago consisting of eight major islands, several atolls and a bunch of small islets. It stretches for around 1500 miles from the southeasternmost point, the big island of Hawaii, to the northwestern end which is an atoll. The islands are on the Pacific tectonic plate which is moving slowly to the northwest and they sit on a hot spot in the Earth’s mantle, hence all the volcanic activity. Because of the movement of the tectonic plate over millennia, the northwestern islands are the oldest and the most eroded while the Big island is the most active. Just southeast of that island there is a submerged and growing volcano which millions of years from now will probably become another Hawaiian island. The Pacific Plate is moving at the rate of about 32 miles every million years so I know I won’t be around to see the next island appear. 

Since I’d been advised by my friends who had spent a lot of time on Maui not to drive part of the road to Hana, my friends and I decided to drive around most of the shoreline of western Maui. We picked up the car at the Kahului airport, which was a short taxi ride from the port, and headed out. Stephanie was my copilot and Colleen was my very able navigator. We drove first to the Iao Valley, which sounded in the description I’d read like something very representative of those deep valleys I mentioned earlier. When we got there we learned that we needed to go online and get a reservation (to hike) and pay a $5 per person fee. The lady at the entrance to the parking lot told us there was poor or no signal there and we could turnaround in the parking lot and drive back down where we came from to get a signal. We didn’t want to hike; we just wanted to take a picture or two so we slowly turned around and got that and left. So much for Iao Valley. 

This is the little bit of Iao Valley that we could get a glimpse of from the car

The rest of our trip was better but we didn’t take lots of photos. I don’t know why; we just spent a lot of time looking as we drove along the coast. We drove through Lahaina which was the area of Maui that suffered the terrible fires in August , 2023. That was where I’d come ashore on my previous visits and it used to be a beautiful town. Now it’s just a barren wasteland. We didn’t see much rebuilding at all, and I can’t help but think that after the immediate aftermath when it was in the headlines, Lahaina has been forgotten by the powers that be. Not far to the north along the coast we came to Kapalua. There’s where many of the spectacular resorts are located and the contrast was incredible. We drove past lush golf courses and hotels with beautiful palm trees and lots of flowers. We turned around and backtracked because if we’d made a loop we would have had to go along the northeastern coast of west Maui which has lots of switchbacks and narrow one lane roads which the pilot (moi) didn’t want to drive. Instead after getting back to the isthmus we drove down the coast of eastern Maui. We stopped at a beach along the way for pictures not swimming (none of us like sand!) and a place where we could see the nearby island of Molokai and where humpback whales can be seen. We didn’t see any! Then we headed back to Kahului. 

A scene of a beach along the coast of west Maui

And another

In Kahului we passed a Costco, but I restrained myself and we didn’t go in and check it out. It’s actually pretty interesting to go in Costco in other places because they carry different merchandise from mine at home, like flower leis, lots of fresh tuna, and tropical fruits we never see in Virginia. (I know this because many years ago Al and I stopped in a Costco in Maui.) 

 As I write this I realize it doesn’t sound very interesting, but I think the three of us had a good time and I managed to get us all back in one piece despite not knowing where I was going. 

Today we docked in Hilo on the eastern side of the “Big” island of Hawaii. It’s the largest and youngest of the eight major islands of the state. Hilo is the port from which people usually visit the Volcanoes National Park. The island is a little over 90 miles across, but it’s growing because of its active volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. The tallest point on the island is Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano which measures 33,000 feet from the sea floor to its summit at 13,803 ft. above sea level. That total height makes it the world’s tallest mountain, taller than Mt. Everest since Everest’s base is above sea level. 

I’d been to see the volcanoes before both by helicopter and by car, so today I didn’t take a tour. Instead a friend and I took the shuttle into Hilo town and did some shopping. Hilo looked prettier to me than Kahului yesterday. There was a little park along the waterfront and then a few streets of interesting shops selling local products and tropical looking clothing. I bought a few things which will look great here and in the places I’m going to next like Bora Bora and Tahiti but would look pretty strange in Williamsburg. Once again I got caught up in what I was doing and didn’t take any pictures until we were sailing away.

Hilo town as we sailed away

One historical thing about Hilo worth mentioning is about what happened when there was an earthquake in Chile in 1960. In May of that year the largest earthquake ever recorded occurred near the city of Valdivia, Chile. It measured somewhere between 9.4 and 9.6 on the Richter scale and lasted for about ten minutes. The quake caused a tsunami which traveled at speeds of about 400 miles an hour eventually reaching the big island, 6200 miles from the epicenter, with waves as high as 35 feet. When the tsunami swept into Hilo Bay it destroyed the town and 61 people died. If I’m ever in a place on land where I get a tsunami warning, I’m hightailing it to high ground!

After getting back to the ship I just didn't feel like going to the restaurant for dinner so a friend and I ate sushi down in the Club.  I didn't discover that I really like sushi until a couple of cruises ago, but it's really good!  Aloha for now!