Well Aloha!

We were up too early today to make sure we caught our flight to Maui today... organisation at the airport was a bit stretched but we arrived there after a 30 minute flight and a complimentary tropical juice drink - no sooner were we going up, we were coming down.. Picked up the hire car... boy oh boy.... since leaving Japan we've noticed a distinct drop in service and politeness... "photo-id.... credit card... do want to upgrade to a jeep so you can put the roof down (but not fit your suitcases in)"... any chance of a please?

So we set off, after a visit to Costco for contact lenses they didn't have and croissants, for a trip around the north west of the island. The majority of it was single track round taken at 20mph.. only 31 miles but 90 minutes! As soon as we got out into the countryside, it was just as we expected, rain clouds were hovering over the hills which looked just like Lost or Jurassic Park and the coast was white-tipped waves. Extra #1 has a few scenes on the way and Ms H doing a blue steel look (Zoolander).

We stopped off at Nakalele Blowhole (I beg your pardon) at the most northerly part of the island and walked down to it.  Basically there was a hole in the ground rock down to the waves that were crashing in underneath and big spurts of water shot up out of the whole, then drained away. It was very regular, little spurt, big spray spurt, big splashy spurt. Extra #3 shows the big splashy spurt phase!

And finally we arrived at our hotel in Napili Bay, which is apparently one of the best 5 beaches on the island. We again chose not to upgrade to a beach view room because we expected to be on the beach instead. And that we did... I do not recall ever swimming in the sea back home, maybe I did once, but I do not partake... cold water, no no. Where as warm water, yes yes. We reckon we must have been in 2.5-3 hours, it was so much fun, the beach was steep  and big waves came in and we "body surfed" towards the beach often getting stranded like whales... ok, I got stranded like a whale, or retreating back into the sea. Oh the fun I have been missing... but cold, no no, I'm not doing it. Mrs C enjoyed obnoxiously floating as Ms H put it... basically looking smug that she can float with her feet sticking out. As sunset came, a wedding began on the beach with about 8 people there. Extra #3 shows all of those things... and the main blip as we left a canoeist was ensuring he photobombed my blip. We went back to the room and swam in the even warmer swimming pool for half an hour. 

We've now learned Maui shuts early each night, so when we came to find somewhere to eat at 9pm, everything was shutting... so we went to the supermarket and cooked our own dinner back in the room,

Now this is why we came here...