Sorry for the delay getting this post written and published. It was a loooong day! We left Serenity at 8am and returned at 7pm. But we had a great long morning before we ever left the ship! We woke to stillness which was so unusual that it woke us before sunrise. We are on the starboard side so even though the TV nav map showed us in only 20 meters of water traveling at under 6 knots and land right there, we couldn't see it until after sunrise. We went to Marketplace for the early continental breakfast since all full breakfasts onboard wouldn't give us time to brush our teeth before leaving the ship by tender. I don't know why Honolulu had breakfast a half hour earlier when I don't think any excursion left before 8:15am and no tendering was involved. Anyway... When we returned to the cabin to prepare and apply bug repellent, Clay went out on the balcony. There were a lot of small boats out and about and I went out to ask him what they were doing. He didn't know he was using his tablet. I heard a whale breathe close by and asked if he heard that. He said they were preparing tenders on our side. No, I pushed to the rail in time to look over and see a baby humpback whale submerging and just in time to catch his mother breathing. Clay raced into the cabin to get his camera and missed them surface close again before leaving. We must have anchored right in the middle of a humpback whale nursery. There must have been at least 8 mother/child pairs off the starboard side. The small boats were whale watching excursions. You could hear the whale watchers hooting and cheering every time a pair got close to them. It was a magical morning.
Eventually, though we hated to, we had to go sit in the Stardust Club to join our excursion. It was $379 per person. Description is pasted below. I added the hot links.
HANA ROAD ADVENTURE & PICNIC
Capture the essence of the Maui's Rain Forest Coast on a tour designed for just 8 Guests. Stretch out in the leather appointed, luxurious Limo-Van with first-class captain's chair seating to tour the famous Hana Highway. Refresh with a waterfall swim and dine oceanfront with a 3-course luncheon.
Your tour begins with pick-up from Lahaina Pier in a leather appointed, luxurious Limo-Van with first-class captain's chair seating. As you journey to Ke'anae, observe Maui's North Shore along the historic Hana Highway while snacking on Berry coffee cake, juice and hot coffee. Arriving in Ke'anae enjoy splendid view of the taro fields that populate the landscape, one of the main industries in region. Continuing past the Waikani Falls, glistening with fresh mountain rainwater, view tropical rain forests and lush green hills on your way to your luncheon in Hana. Arriving at the Hana Beach Park, indulge in a scrumptious 3-course chicken and fish luncheon complete with stunning ocean vistas. And after lunch there will be plenty of time to stroll, swim, sunbathe or just relax and enjoy. As you journey back to your Crystal ship, swim in a freshwater pool under a cascading waterfall and pause in Ho'okipa to view another breathtaking ocean vista popular with Maui's World-Class windsurfers.
We started with a walk through a square in Lahaina with a talk about the world's 6th largest banyan tree planted there. We were advised to use the restrooms there before boarding as our next stop would be in over 2 hours. We did not have an option for a waterfall swim or dine oceanfront. We did not snack in the van. Our 1st stop was at Kaumahina State Wayside. We were supposed to have a potty break, see the ocean view from up high and have cream cheese iced pound cake with local fruit sodas or I think coffee. Today was a federal holiday so there was no service and the water was shut off and the toilets were overflowing. Our guide, Keith, told us to just get back in the van after the views and we'd drive another 15 minutes or so to Ke'anae Peninsula where there was a small ocean front park. We had lots of drive-by photo pauses and stops. Several times we were able to park, unload and walk to falls and use nearby restrooms. The speed limit on the Road to Hana is 15 so even though the road isn't all that far in distance, it takes a long time. I believe this would be one of the world's most scenic drives right up there with the Amalfi Coast, some of the Alps passes, the Cabot Trail. It was something big. Our lunch was not at Hana Beach Park, it was at Hana Farms. We had a cold pasta salad, a choice of either a chicken wrap or a fish wrap with sliced fresh pineapple and brownies. After lunch, Clay & I walked over to the shop and shared a cup of delicious chocolate mac nut toffee ice cream. We continued on to the downtown area of Hana proper where Keith pointed out everything and then unloaded us a the Hana Beach Park for photos and final potty stop before starting the return drive. Officially, the paved Hana Road continues beyond Hana but that is where we turned around. We backtracked to spend an hour of free time at Wai'anapanapa State Park. We stopped again at Ke'anae on the way back for toilets. Other than that it was all just photo pauses from the van until we reached Ho'okipa Beach Park. Clay & I had been here before to watch surfers, wind surfers and kite surfers. Today it was so calm that it was only regular surfboards and even paddleboards among swimmers. But, Keith promised Hawaiian green sea turtles! We'd only seen 1 in 2 visits to Hawaii and it was in the surf not ashore. We didn't know about them gathering ashore here and didn't walk down to the beach before we just viewed the wind & water sports from the upper parking lot before. This is the advantage of having a good and informative tour guide!
We got back to Lahaina about 6:15pm. The last tender was 9:30pm. Keith had pointed out where the ABC Store was as he drove us around the banyan square to return us to the tender pier. We shopped in there for a final Hawaiian souvenir as well as at Whalers General Store which had a wider selection except in t-shirts. We boarded the tender right before the day's last excursion, a sunset catamaran cruise, arrived. It was a rough ride back to Serenity and a perilous tender disembarkation with the swells being up to 2 feet. It was much calmer in the morning.
We got to the cabin and changed for dinner. I found that the day in sand-filled Keen sandals had re-opened the calloused place on the ball of my right foot. It had never healed properly since last summer when i had ripped a piece of rough flesh off there with pumice. I believe the callous was part of my right foot kind of dragging due to Parkinson's Disease. In any event, since this has gone on for over 6 months, I am going to assume it will just be an ongoing problem. I'm not sure what I can do about it, but try to keep it from getting infected. I have Bactine and Neopsorin and am using both. I am still pumicing it gently to try to keep it from getting too thick. We have 2 sea days before Fanning Island, Kiribati so maybe some healing will occur before I really have to do a lot of walking again.
We found our cabin had already been serviced when we got back onboard. We had our quickest dinner ever in Waterside. We had a another letter from Stacey, the WC hostess about things to look forward to along with a pair of WC souvenir magnets that won't stick to the walls like the little magnets we brought with us. The magnets were meant to put up a large sheet printed as a WC route map. Oh well. It caused me to turn the page on the event scheduler calendar that Stacey had earlier delivered. I noticed that at the bottom of the new page was typed Full World Cruisers First Shore Side Event.. This was the 1st mention of such that we'd seen. It seems like the kind of information that Crystal should already have shared so we can make plans. As it stands, we have plans to take a ferry across the harbor in Auckland that day for a 3:30pm Segway tour. Clay went down to Reception to find out what they could tell him. All they could tell him was that buses would start running at 5:15 pm that day to shuttle full WCers to the event. It is not clear that we'll be able to do both or if we'll want to participate. In the absence of any useful information to influence a decision, we won't try to reschedule the Segway and take our chances that either we'll still be able to attend an evening WC shore side event or that we won't be interested in a cocktail party of something like that. Time will tell. I'll keep you posted.
Photos
We got to the cabin and changed for dinner. I found that the day in sand-filled Keen sandals had re-opened the calloused place on the ball of my right foot. It had never healed properly since last summer when i had ripped a piece of rough flesh off there with pumice. I believe the callous was part of my right foot kind of dragging due to Parkinson's Disease. In any event, since this has gone on for over 6 months, I am going to assume it will just be an ongoing problem. I'm not sure what I can do about it, but try to keep it from getting infected. I have Bactine and Neopsorin and am using both. I am still pumicing it gently to try to keep it from getting too thick. We have 2 sea days before Fanning Island, Kiribati so maybe some healing will occur before I really have to do a lot of walking again.
We found our cabin had already been serviced when we got back onboard. We had our quickest dinner ever in Waterside. We had a another letter from Stacey, the WC hostess about things to look forward to along with a pair of WC souvenir magnets that won't stick to the walls like the little magnets we brought with us. The magnets were meant to put up a large sheet printed as a WC route map. Oh well. It caused me to turn the page on the event scheduler calendar that Stacey had earlier delivered. I noticed that at the bottom of the new page was typed Full World Cruisers First Shore Side Event.. This was the 1st mention of such that we'd seen. It seems like the kind of information that Crystal should already have shared so we can make plans. As it stands, we have plans to take a ferry across the harbor in Auckland that day for a 3:30pm Segway tour. Clay went down to Reception to find out what they could tell him. All they could tell him was that buses would start running at 5:15 pm that day to shuttle full WCers to the event. It is not clear that we'll be able to do both or if we'll want to participate. In the absence of any useful information to influence a decision, we won't try to reschedule the Segway and take our chances that either we'll still be able to attend an evening WC shore side event or that we won't be interested in a cocktail party of something like that. Time will tell. I'll keep you posted.
Photos
