After a brief chill on the lanai with a light breakfast our day began by going snorkelling at Makena Landing Park. To be more specific, we went snorkelling with sea scooters. Remember those scenes in James Bond films where he’s swimming under water pulled by a motor? Yeah, that! Our tour guides, Tristan and Seth with My Splash Maui, were fantastic! They were professional, considerate, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. Basically a lot of fun. They got us kitted out and instructed us in how to use the equipment. Then they guided us all the way out to Turtle Town, showing and teaching us about the reefs, various sea creatures, the caves (we did not go in), the environment we were visiting, etcetera. We saw multiple varieties of fish, there was a white tipped reef shark in the caves, the guide let us handle two “fatty” starfish — one keiki (baby) and one adult, and we saw spiky sea urchins, an eel, a turtle, a puffer fish, and we heard whale song.
By the time we reached our furthest destination my body decided it was time to feed the fishes. Had I foreseen the likelihood of getting motion sick while snorkelling I would have taken Gravol before hand; alas, I did not. I mean, really, who knew sitting in the swells talking with other snorkellers between stretches of swimming would have the same effect as riding a boat in choppy waters? Clearly that was just me…
At any rate, we still had a great time and I would highly recommend taking this tour with Tristan and his team. The photos I’m attaching here from this experience were taken by Seth, who did a great job! He took loads of photos and videos, including one video that actually captured the whale song.
We returned to the condo to wash off and give my body a chance to regain its equilibrium before heading out to our next adventure. Before getting there, we stopped at Fred’s Mexican Cafe and Cantina for lunch. Why there? Why not? It was a choice we made on a whim from Googlemaps. Turned out the positive reviews on Google were absolutely correct. The place was fantastic, service was great, and the fish tacos and chicken quesadillas were perfect.
Oh, here’s Dan with the Dodge Charger I mentioned we ended up with:
Next stop was a 45-minute drive to Lahaina which turned into an hour because of construction on the highway and our Lady Sat Nav taking us to the wrong place. Googlemaps rescued us (again) and finally got us to the right place just in time for our first tour to start. As it happened Maui Dragon Fruit Farm didn’t have anyone else scheduled to join us for either of the two tours we booked, so we had the sole pleasure of our guides’ company.
The first tour was of the farm itself. Our guide (and I am so sorry, I do not remember the young lady’s name) was very pleasant and knowledgable about the farm, and provided us with a fully interactive tour. So many tropical fruits and plants are grown at this farm besides dragon fruit (which is not actually in season so we didn’t get to taste it). They have two or three different kinds of aloe plants, a curry plant, a watermelon plant, agave plants, wild bamboo, at least three different types of bananas, papaya, mango, pineapple, soursop, lilikoi, coconut… I could go on. We ended that tour with a sampling of in-season fruits: pineapple, soursop, papaya, mango, lilikoi, and two others that I can’t remember the names of.
The second tour was a stargazing tour, which did not end up in any opportunity to actually stargaze because of cloud cover, but the guide, Yi, was really interesting and informative. He showed us the three types of telescopes he uses, and then went through the different types of celestial events and constellations. So much information! Yi was very thorough. Dan might be exploring another hobby, were it not for how cold it is at home when it’s dark enough to see the stars… We exchanged numbers with Yi and promised to watch the forecast to see if we could make it back another day to do some actual stargazing with him. It turns out Yi is not only a fellow Canadian but also a neurosurgeon, which explains why he kept making analogies between how our brains and the universe work. Or something to that effect. I’m tired as I write this late at night, so I might not be saying that quite correctly.
After a long day we drove home and ordered a pizza for a late supper. Sure enough, by the time we drove into the condo parking lot the sky was clear of clouds and the stars were visible everywhere. Typical.
Adelle and Dan
Guigon Travels 