Maui #8 - Coconut & Sugar Cane

This morning was somewhat overcast. We didn't rush away from the condo, but headed to Ulua Beach around 8:30 to try out our snorkelling skills again. The beach, which is only a few minutes' drive from our condo, had only a few people; many more arrived while we were there. 

After watching the surf for a while, we felt it was safe to go in, although a little rougher than we'd seen the previous time. However, this end of the beach was still very quiet. We put on our snorkelling gear and headed out. We soon discovered that the surf and the snorkellers were kicking up so much bottom sand, visibility wasn't very good. In fact, we didn't see nearly as many fish as we'd seen here a few days ago.

One fish we did see was the Unicornfish. Seeing a small school of this fish was very exciting; we hadn't expected to be able to spot this fish.

After about half an hour, we decided snorkelling just wasn't going to be successful today, so we packed up and went back to the pool and hot tub. Ahhhh ... this was a great decision!

In the afternoon, we headed out for some sightseeing. Our first stop was the Tropical Plantation. This beautiful location is seated on the edge of the sugar cane fields and backs onto the West Maui Mountains. Although it's free to visit the gift shop (a very nice one!), they charge to take you on a tram through the grounds. No one is allowed to walk through the plantation grounds - a great shame. I would like to have seen the plants up close and at a slower pace.

However, we enjoyed the ride. There was one stop where we watched the driver/guide husk a coconut. She spoke at length about the benefits of coconut water and how to get the coconut open effectively. One tip she had was to put the open coconut in the freezer overnight; she said the husk will then just peel away from the meat. We're going to try this!

As the tram came to stop at the end of our ride, the driver sang aloha to us and then said something in Hawaiian. I was positive she said something about "Iesu" or Jesus. I found her a few minutes later and asked her what she had said.

"God loves you," she said. Sure enough ... we'd found a sister in the Lord!

As Hilary and I walked toward the gift shop, we came across a Hawaiian man weaving baskets under a beautiful shady tree. The baskets were gorgeous and he was selling them. As Hilary chose one for herself, I watched him begin another. "How long does it take to make one?" I asked.

"About 15 minutes," he said without raising his head.

"I'll take that one." We waited and watched as he quickly wove my basket. He told us our baskets will dry and, if we follow his directions, should last for years and years. We handed over our money and took one of his instruction papers. I immediately saw that he had signed his name on the paper with a fish. I laughed and said, "I like your fish!"

He lifted his head and saw his face for almost the first time - he'd been bent over his weaving and his face was hidden by his woven hat. He smiled and said, "Eternal life is absolutely free."

"We agree completely," we said. So, we met two fellow believers within a few minutes. It was a very pleasant visit at this plantation!

Our next stop was a Burger King. We hadn't had any lunch and felt we needed some serious fast food. I haven't seen Hilary down so much food so quickly during the whole trip!

From the Burger King we headed into the West Maui Mountains to Iao State Park. This location is in the rain forest and is the site of the Iao Needle, a rock formation that is a sharp point that has eroded from the hillside. Earlier Hawaiian warriors used it for a lookout and this particular valley was the location of the last war in Hawaii. It was so fierce (muskets and cannon were used) that the bodies piled up and dammed the river.

We walked around the short trail and admired all the foliage and the river. At one point, we saw some Hawaiian young people swimming in the fast flowing river. We also saw some Hawaiians walking out of the trail area with collections of long wavy sticks. I asked them what they were for and one said (I think), "We've building a hale." I'm not sure what that is, but they had lots of sticks!

As we strolled to the parking lot, we noticed LOTS of cats sitting around. There were so many (I'm sure we saw 20 or more) and they seemed so watchful, I was pretty sure they were feral. Hilary wanted to get pictures of them, but I kept her well away from them. We had already seen one or two mice in the undergrowth, so I think they do a lot of hunting; they looked very well fed.

On the way home, we stopped at a museum at one of the original missionary houses. Unfortunately, it was just closing, but we browsed through the gift shop.

This evening we watched a movie called "High School Musical." It was on the Disney channel (we've watched a great deal of this channel!) and Hilary said Megan would be very jealous that we'd had a chance to see it.

It has been a very interesting day!