Wednesday washer last full day in Maui before we had to head back home to reality. After the week started with the weather being a bit suspect, the last few days were amazing. We had originally planned to go up the volcano to watch a sunrise early in the week, but the poor weather prevented that. After replanning it for today, we ended up skipping that activity, as neither of us really wanted to get up that early on the last day of our vacation.
Instead, we slept in and enjoyed a leisurely morning. About 10:30, we headed down to the beach and rented a two-person kayak. Sadly the resort put significant restrictions on where we could go, so our trip was limited to the area around the resort. Still, it gave us a fair bit of territory to cover. To the north end of the beach was an area they referred to as "Turtle Town", where the turtles seem to regularly gather to sleep and feed. There must be quite a number of these spots, as it seems every boat and resort has their own "Turtle Town".
There were quite a few snorkelling boats out at the spot when we worked our way out there, and we did see a couple of turtles at the surface. There were way too many people,so we didn't stick around for too long. Instead, we made our way along the shore, checking out the amazing houses, watching some scuba divers and checking out the shore line. We worked our way into Makena Landing, where we had our best encounter.
I noticed that there was something on the surface, not far from us as close to some lava rocks. Upon further investigation, it was a fairly large turtle resting on the surface. He was completely unfazed by us, and allowed us to maintain a reasonable distance. After a little be (and it sure seemed like he was checking us out) he dove, and swam directly under our kayak. He then promptly surfaced on the other side, and took a few more breaths while eying us up. Then he dove, and swam off. It was a great encounter.
We explored for a while longer, before heading back into shore and returning the boat.
Our hotel - the Makena Beach Golf Resort, from the water.
The turtle came back up for air, on the other side of our kayak. After checking up out, he was off.