Now onto part II of the honeymoon...Maui! Many of our family and friends have been to Maui, so I was excited to see it myself. Nick's family used to vacation fairly often in Maui, so he is familiar with certain parts of the island. Although we did a lot of different things than he's done before plus we were on our honeymoon :)
We arrived in Maui at night and decided to rent a Jeep Wrangler for our first few days. pretty awesome. We stayed in Wailea at the Wailea Marriott Resort & Spa. Definitely a nice resort with a big open air lobby...everything was more sleek and modern at this hotel. That night a local recommended a local karaoke sushi bar...so good and fun!
Riding Jeep Style!
Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa
Day 1 in Maui was spent going to the Tedeschi Vineyards at the Ulupalakua Ranch. This was Nick's wedding present to me! We stopped and got sandwiches at Grandma's House in "upcountry" Maui and then drove the winding road to the winery. This is Maui's only commercial winery and has some great wines! We did the tasting and then had our picnic outside on the ranch. The rest of our day was spent relaxing at the resort and sharing a bottle of wine during a BEAUTIFUL Maui sunset :)
Getting lunch at Grandma's House
Wine Tasting!
Oceanside wine
sunset and a sunburn
Day 2 was our adventure on the Road to Hana! AMAZING. We left Poipu at about 8am and it took us all day...we loved every second of this day though and were so glad we had an open top jeep to enjoy it. The Road to Hana is a 68 mile highway from Kahului to the town of Hana. It is a winding road through lush tropical rain forest that goes over 59 bridges (mostly 1 lane) and 620 curves...although the whole thing is curves, so I don't know how they count. The scenery is amazing and we followed our guidebook to see almost everything along the way. We saw many beautiful waterfalls right off the road as well as some awesome coastline views.
Road to Hana 4WD
Start of all the turns
View of Road to Hana from the other side of the road
One of many waterfalls we saw along the way
One of the main things we did along the way was the hike to The Four Falls of Na’ili’ili-Haele. Quite an adventure...we ended up following a man and his two sons because they had done it on a previous trip. The hike included a bamboo forest, boulder hopping over creeks, climbing on a rope ladder that scaled the waterfall, swimming through one waterfall pool to get to the next and seeing 4 beautiful waterfalls. Took up about 2.5 hours but was worth it!
entering the trail in the bamboo forest
the trail to Na’ili’ili-Haele waterfalls
waterfall #3
We grabbed snacks at the halfway to hana roadside stand, made it to Hana, and kept going to the Seven Sacred Pools. We finally made it there before sunset to get some beautiful pictures...we didn't swim because the water was pretty cold! Most people turn around at this point and head back through Hana and home on the same road, but there is a 1 lane grated dirt road that takes you along the south coast of the island and along the back of the Haleakala Volcano. It takes a 4WD, so we did it! The road this way is insane....no guard rails, no yield signs, RIGHT along the cliff. Once you get to the countryside of the volcano it's pretty easy....unless you see a cow headed straight for you in the middle of the road! luckily i had my high beams on and have good vision! That night we were pretty tired, so we ordered room service :)
view from road to hana
hawaiian ice at black sand beach national park
seven sacred pools
another shot of seven sacred pools
it's scary to drive on the edge of a sea cliff!
driving along the backside of the Haleakala Volcano
Day 3 of Maui was my wedding present to Nick...surfing lessons in Lahaina! We had a blast...we both got up and surfed...some better than others ;) We then went sight seeing through Lahaina and up to Kapalua and Black Rock. We tried to snorkel in Black Rock but the water wasn't very clear...however we did bump into (literally) a very large sea turtle....which caused me to suck in a lot of water.
ready to surf!
riding waves
Nick is up!
Surfing pair
Nick hanging loose with our surfing instructor, Danny
trying local brews at Cool Cats in Lahaina
Day 4 we had our last adventure....seeing the sunrise on the Haleakala volcano and biking riding down the bottom. This means you have to get up at 2:30am (during your vacation....), drive to the bike shop where they load you in a van and drive you to the top of the volcano. The sunrise was incredible and they do a native chant when it comes up. We then rode our bikes all the way back down the volcano to the shop. Luckily we chose to do a self guided bike ride so we could go at our own pace...plus we got to stop for a full breakfast at the Kula Lodge! yummmy. We had a really fun time doing this, but due to the early wake up call...we wouldn't do it again :)
4:30 AM
Haleakala Sunrise
Kalahalu Overlook on Haleakala crater
biking our way down!
The rest of our day was spent napping and eating at the other resorts in Wailea...the Grand Hyatt pool bar for lunch and the Four Seasons Farraro's for dinner.
dinner at Ferraro's
Day 5 and our last full honeymoon day was "Leslie and Nick relaxation day"....Nick played golf at the Wailea gold course and I got a massage from the Grand Wailea Spa Grande...which was incredible!! Since it was our last night we had a very special dinner at Mama's Fish House in Paia. It was the best dinner of our trip...the restaurant itself is beautiful and really cool with canopies and flowers through the restaurant. Then the food was to die for....amazing fish. What a way to end the trip!
Nick golfing at Wailea Gold
Mama's fish house
love :)
awesome cocktails and dinner at mama's fish house
The morning before we left we did some awesome snorkeling at Wailea Beach and worked really hard to pack under the bag weight limit...we made it but it was not easy!
Wailea Beach
All I can say is we love Hawaii and were incredibly lucky to spend 10 days in Kauai and Maui...we loved all the adventure, the food, the beaches, and the relaxation of traveling. I want to go back!
I want to go!!!!!!!!!!
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