Maui Wowie

An old friend is getting married in Maui this year and she asked about our time there. Me and Mr. Swelle travelled to the island on our honeymoon in 2005, three years before I began writing this blog, so I thought I'd share with everyone. And revisit our trip to paradise. Looking at the photo above I can still smell the air and feel what it was like to stand at the water in the presence of this awesome natural beauty.

No one would ever describe me as adventurous, particularly brave or thrill-seeking, but I had one afternoon when I did something nuts (of course I had no idea how crazy it was going to be before doing it). We did the Road to Hana tour which takes you all around this glorious Maui mountain on a mini bus, on a very narrow road, at times on the very edge of the ledges (see photo below. That is a heck of a lot higher than it looks!). We saw cars that had gone over the edge that were caught in trees. This mountain was dense with the lushest rainforests and natural wonders like an 80 foot tiered waterfall, rainbow eucalyptus trees and black sand beaches. Our tour guide was a very friendly and very fearless Somoan woman who told us all kinds of stories about the various parts of the mountain, and she even found time to fit one in about how her dad would beat her and her brothers and sisters when they were little. That was probably the least enjoyable.

So these are photos from the Road to Hana. I'm missing a lot of them which kind of makes me feel sick. Amongst those gone astray are the grave of Charles Lindbergh and a man who was well known on the island who I can't recall the name of, but will never forget because he had monkeys for children ("So do I" I hear you saying but he really considered his three monkeys his flesh and blood, he was even buried amongst them - yes, they had their own tombstones and somewhere I have pictures of them). He would dress them up in little suits and take them to church, and as I recall his fellow parishioners were none too pleased. (It was probably the flinging of monkey feces during the liturgy that put them over the edge).

You can see how high up we were, we're practically in the clouds! It was here that we stopped at a hut selling banana bread made with the bananas from the trees on the mountain.

Lava rock

The black sand beach

Charles Lindbergh said this when he was dying of cancer and advised by his doctors not to travel as it would surely further diminish his last days: "I love Maui so much," he said. "I would rather live one day in Maui than one month in New York."

Comments

[Lawgirl]

I snorted at the part about the woman telling you about her abusive past (not because of that but because of the venue). Classic!

[elena daciuk]

i've been there too! SO beautiful...your pictures make me want to go back...les sigh...

[WendyB]

Those photos are soooo divine. Though I must disagree with Lindbergh, being a diehard New Yorker :-)

[HauteWorld]

Gorgeous images! I visited Hawaii (incl. Maui) when I was about 3 years old, so you can imagine, I don't remember everything, but I still have strong recollections of the beach, the lush landscape.... and my mom trying to get me into one of those grass skirts ;-)

Really wish to go back and since the husband's never been, I'm sure we will visite in the near future.

P.S. I haven't shopped at Sinequanone in ages.... the last few collections seemed to go a more conservative route for my taste, so I can't say I've visited any of their stores since I moved to Paris. A friend of mine did recently complain about a quality decline as well, so I wouldn't be surprised.

[steve kleinbaum]

Just love maui.... great post!

[joseph stewart]

Also cant forget the yummy cupcakes!