Friday was another busy day for us! We started on the beach, headed down to a wildlife sanctuary for some birding and then headed out to the surfing hotspot of Hookipa on the north side of Maui to see the turtles and watch the surfers, windsurfers and kite boarders out on the ocean. We had a late lunch at the Paia Flatbread Company, made a stop at the sunflower fields before heading back to Kapalua to have dinner with Rob and his family. A busy, fun day!
The start of our Friday.
Friday morning, Mom and I let Justine sleep in a bit and we headed over to the beach across the street to see if we’d get another whale show! We did not, but while we were there, a rain shower blew through and we were treated to a fabulous rainbow!
We enjoyed the rainbow then headed back to make Justine jealous! From there we decided to head out for the day. Our first stop was to drive to the Keālia Pond National Wildlife Refuge. Keālia Pond NWR is a hidden wetland treasure transitioning the urban development and agriculture fields. Here, endangered Hawaiian waterbirds are protected and go about their daily activities, and are joined by migratory birds in winter. Quiet solitude for those that wander and explore the wetlands.
The protected wetland is home to the endangered ae‘o (Hawaiian stilt) and ‘alae ke‘oke‘o (Hawaiian coot), providing nesting, feeding and resting habitat. In the winter months there are over 30 species of waterfowl, shorebirds, and migratory ducks at the refuge.
It was fairly busy when we arrived, and we grabbed one of the last parking spots near the entrance. The sanctuary is a set of connected boardwalks and paths out onto the beach. We had a nice day, although a bit windy. This was the perfect setting for me to try out my new camera and long lens to see how it performs. There were lots of new birds for us to discover!
It’s always cool to see native species, so adding a few new ones to the life list is always great. There was a naturalist on site that filled in some details on what we were seeing. While not unique to Hawaii, we saw more black-crowed night herons in this one spot than I’d seen in my whole life!
One of the issues I had with my old camera was that the auto-focus was really bad. This new camera is supposed to be a lot better, and so I was eager to see what I can get. Based on a few initial attempts, I’m pretty pleased with it’s ability to track moving subjects.
It wasn’t all about the birds on this stop, there were some other cool things to see.
After walking the boardwalk, we headed out onto the beach to see what else we might find. We spent a bunch of time poking around the tide pools, when we saw lots of anemones, sea urchins, small fish (mini versions of the ones we were snorkeling with), and other sea creatures. It was pretty cool.
Exploring the tide pools!
While we were out on the beach we kept an eye out on the water for whales, and boy were we treated to another show! Again, it was much better with the binoculars, and all my photos were from very far away. But you’ll get the idea. From our perspective, the first set of breaches looked really close to the boat! I’m sure it was not that close, but they must have had such an amazing show!
After spending a good amount of time at the sanctuary, we headed further north through the beach town of Paia, and out to Hookipa Beach. Justine and I had done this spot almost every time we’ve been to Maui.
Our first view down onto the beach. So many turtles…
Hoʻokipa is a beach on the north shore of Maui, Hawaii, United States, perhaps the most renowned windsurfing site in the world. A combination of large, well-shaped waves breaking across a system of reefs that extend across the bay and consistently strong winds make it ideal for the sport. On our previous visits, there’s also been a large congregation of green sea turtles up on the beach. And lost of surfers as well. It makes for a fun time watching all the action.
The view of the “turtle” end of the beach. Yes, they are all turtles, not rocks! Someone on the beach said they counted over 50 turtles!
The main interest is the turtles. There were way more than the last time we were there! They do a good job of keeping the beach blocked off so people don’t go to that end. It’s really cool to watch the turtles come in and out of the water, crawling over each other to try and find a comfy spot in the sand.
Looking out over the surf break.
While we were on the beach, we spent some time watching the surfers, wind surfers, kiteboarders and some guy on one of these new wing boards that I had not seen before. The surf looked pretty good, and the people out on the water looked to be having a good time. There were lots of jumps and many of them were catching huge air. We watched for a while, taking it all in.
This guy was surfing real waves ona boogie board. Crazy!
The kiteboarders were out in force.
Hookipa is the spiritual home of windsurfing.
After watching for a while we headed back towards home. We were a bit late for lunch, but we were starving and so decided to stop in Paia to find some food. We settled on the Paia Flatbread Company, and ordered a salad and a couple of pizzas to share. The food was amazing -I think we’ve found a new favorite for the future.
The amazing pizza oven - the only source for cooking (and heat) in the place. But they really make it work!
Earlier in the week we had noted a huge field of sunflowers along the highway. As it was on the way, we made a quick stop to take some pics with the sunflowers.
Justine has a small team that reports to her, and one of her employees, Rob, has a family vacation home on Kapalua Beach (the beach we got married on and were snorkeling at earlier) and was on Maui at the same time we were there. Rob, his wife and kids were staying with them, and Rob’s parents were kind enough to extend an invitation for us to have dinner with them on Friday night.
Our dinner spot on Friday night.
We arrive just before 6:00 p.m. with a hope to see a great sunset. Sadly that didn’t materialize (and in fact we got a bit of a rain shower), but we still sat on the patio and enjoyed the last light of the day. They made us an amazing prime rib dinner and we had a fabulous time. As you can imagine, their home is spectacular, and we really enjoyed our evening.
Looking back towards Merriman’s, from their patio.
After a very full day we were happy to head home and off to bed.