Our second day on Maui was a lovely series of adventures, including my on opportunity to pay golf, some amazing whale watching from shore, exploring some local birds and wrapping up with a trip to Kapalua beach (where we got married) for a beach day and some snorkeling.
My day started with an amazing sunrise over the Pacific.
Thursday morning I was up and gone before the sun rose to get in a quick round of golf. With everything that we had planned, it looked liek it was going to be my only chance to play on the trip. I had booked a round at The Dunes at Maui Lani, one of the more reasonable courses on the island. Many of them are just ridiculous prices to play a round.
I was at the course about half an hour before me tee time, got a set of rental clubs (very nice ones at that) and got a few practice puts in before it was time for me to tee off. I had originally been told that I was playing with another group, but they had already gone off before I arrived, so I was playing by myself. I don’t really mind that at all - especially when it was the first full round of golf I had played in almost 2 years.
My round of golf - a quick one at that!
The sun was still coming up when I was on the second green.
It was quite a nice golf course and in great shape. The group ahead of me was playing really fast - I couldn’t keep up with them - and the group behind me was playing at about my place or a bit slower, so it was all very civilized. I was playing better than I expected, with my biggest challenge being the grass around the greens and chipping. It’s way different to the grass back home and I struggled with it.
I got around the course in record time - a little more than three hours. Which was amazing, as I didn’t have to feel like I abandoned Mom and Justine while I was out. I think I was back to the condo by about 11:00. Which made me about half and hour late, and I missed the whale show!
While I was out golfing, Mom and Justine had a nice leisurely start to the day. They had their coffee and some breakfast, then wandered across the street to the little beach to see what they might see. And what they saw was pretty spectacular!
Momma whale breaching and showing the little one how it’s done.
Now, I wasn’t there, so this is totally based on Mom and Justine’s description of the events. They saw a pretty great wale show - a mom and her calf doing tandem breaches for a good 10-15 minutes. Sadly I missed it, but Justine got the footage above and below.
The little park also ended up being a great spot for seeing some of the local birds. I have been pretty impressed so far with my new camera and this gave me a chance to really put it through its paces.
Red-crested Cardinal
This might be the prettiest bird on Maui. Like most, they’re not really supposed to be there, but there were lots around and they make such photogenic subjects.
Warbling White-eye
This little guy is also not supposed to be there - native to Asia and introduced. What was cool was how they were eating bugs and the fruit of some of the trees. They were quick and hard to capture.
Java Sparrow
Another very pretty bird that shouldn’t be here. It was introduced from (not surprisingly) Java and Bali in Indonesia. We saw a lot of these little guys throughout the trip.
We learned the name of this tree and its cool looking fruit, but I have since forgotten… <Edit> Justine reminded me that it is called Hala, one of the endemic fruits to Maui and used by the native population extensively.
Plumeras - Justine’s favorites.
Eventually, we got tired of the whale and bird watching and it was time to head back to the condo and decide what to do with the rest of the day. We decided to head over to one of the local water sports rental places and picked up our snorkel gear for the week. They had really quite nice stuff, and we were ready to use it!
We decided to head north to Kapalua Bay and spend the afternon at the beach where we got married. Mom had been looking forward to seeing it, and it wa sa pretty good place for snorkeling. It was quite busy when we arrived, but we were able to stake out a place on the sand. We even got Mom into the water and snorkeling, checking out the tropical fish and the turtles.
The beach at Kapalua Bay. We got married at the far end.
Merriman’s Restaurant. Arguably one of the best restaurants on Maui. We had our wedding night dinner there and the ceremony was on that bit of beach just below it.
We had a really nice afternoon on the beach. I took a bunch of video with the GoPro, so when I get a chance I’ll stitch together some of those videos and post them later. That will be well after the rest of these posts come out!