Ten days on a tropical island is amazing! We are so thankful we were able to take time for ourselves during our busy schedules. We reconnected as husband and wife and really enjoyed the time we had together.
On Wednesday we didn't really have anything planned so we headed out for the day with no agenda. We found ourselves at the Maui Ocean Center. We walked around and saw some of the fish we snorkeled with out at Molokani Crater.
We than scheduled a Whale Watching tour with the Pacific Whale Foundation. We were very lucky to find a "competition" pod on our tour. The tour guide apologized to us in advance on future whale watching trips as we will probably not see this again. The competition pod was at least 2 males trying to win over the female.
One of the whales swam under the boat.
You can see the turquoise color is actually the white underneath their fins. This picture doesn't do it justice on how pretty it looks glowing under the surface of the water.
Awesome tail slap.
These mammals are amazing! It was so fun to look out into the ocean and always see them.
On Thursday we booked a Rainforest Hike with Hike Maui tours. It was an all day tour into the rainforest and to see some amazing waterfalls! They taught us about all the plants and trees and how you could survive off the land.
Apple Banana's! They are very yummy!
Elephant Ear
Heading into one of the canal's that directs all the rain water to the sugar cane fields.
The water was a little chilly, but it was so much fun to swim under the waterfall.
Nate getting ready to jump!
Nikki's turn. I actually had to jump twice because the first time we didn't get a good picture.
We had an amazing hike to all these beautiful waterfalls!
After our hike we headed to Hookipa Beach to check out the waves. The surf was around 12-18' feet, so the waves were amazing to watch.
This beach is very popular for surfing and wind surfing.
We than traveled a few more miles on the Hana Highway to where "Jaws" the wave happens. "Jaws" was not happening the day we visited since it only occurs a few times a year. Here is some information on Jaws that I found on Wikipedia.
The surf break, a deep water reef break, is called "Jaws" due to the size and ferocity of the waves. In order for the surf at "Jaws" to reach its extreme heights, many specific ocean and weather conditions must prevail concurrently. Because ocean swells large enough to produce this kind of surf occur only during winter months, primarily between December and February, they typically coincide with very strong winds which have a large effect on the surf. Other swells, particularly the small but powerful trade wind swells, can make the surf choppy and difficult to ride. There are several other surf spots around the world that boast similar wave heights; however, "Jaws" is famous for its wave forming quality. The reef and rocks at "Jaws" are shaped in a way that magnify incoming swell energy and produce clean and well defined right and left-directional waves with gigantic barreling (hollow, air-filled wave interior) sections.
Surfers have to get towed in by jet ski during Jaws since this area is not easily accessible. We had to drive on a long narrow dirt road to get to the cliffs over looking this surf break. Luckily it had been dry the last few days, so we didn't have to walk as the road sometimes can only be driven by four wheel drive vehicles. If you look close the picture above, you can see a surfer to the left of the break. We think these waves around 20' feet tall.
Waves come in cycles. I learned that it is all about timing waves.
One more post to come! It will be our day trip on the Road to Hana!
