Maui: Vacations

Maui gets its fair share of rain.  Not long ago we had one of the largest downpours that Maui has seen in more than 10 years!  This picture is a little bit “calmer” than that day though.  It is a picture of a Banana plant in one of our more tropical storms (you know, the kind of storm where its raining like crazy but it is still somehow sunny? Yea, we get those.)

Maui has some amazing sunsets.  We have beaches, forests, rain forests, volcanoes, jungles, deserts, wide open fields, ranches, cliffs, you name it.  So there is always a chance to pick up a picture of an amazing sunset.  This is one of my favorites.  The oranges and purples still blow me away.

Talk about battered land! This place experienced winds exceeding 100 miles per hour, devastating fires, massive flash floods that demolished the roads and trails. The Kula Forrest Reserve is finally reopened!

I’m going to argue that this needed to happen though. The roads are stronger, and they are reseeding like crazy! (Go DLNR!) Anyway, here is a link to the Maui News article.

This is a rarity here in Kihei. You rarely seem to see these in Maui. Maybe at a political building once and a while or at the libraries, but here is one Condo that is showing off the Red, White and Blue.

This picture was taken at the top of Haleakala, Maui’s dormant volcano.

Here is a picture of an Eel I ran into. This guy was pretty big and I think I was way too close when I took this picture.

Big beach is one of the most amazing beaches on the face of the earth. The diving is amazing when it’s calm, skim boarding is unbeatable when there are shore breaks, body boarding is intense on huge days and you can ALWAYS find your own spot on the beach. They call it Big Beach for a reason!

Anyway, here are some pictures from a while back that were taken at Big Beach in Makena.

This first picture is my favorite. I guess we’re just waiting for waves.

Next up is a black and white pic of big beach at sundown. This is a stunning picture of Big Beach this time of night.

Ok, these waves were very small today, but that doesn’t mean you can’t skim on them. Here is one of my good friend Joe Mattson getting a little bit of air off a trash wave.

Here is one of Joe skimming. He goes for a flip, but ends up diving.

Here’s one of me. I love this picture.

Even on small days at Big Beach you can get inside of a barrel. Here is Joe riding the Makena barrel. Yep, that’s him inside, you can barely see him!

Here is a picture of the southern half of Big Beach Makena.

The water at Big Beach can be amazingly blue at nightfall.

Here is Joe Mattson on the last wave on the day.

Graffiti is an interesting topic. First off, graffiti is vandalism if done on other peoples property without their permission. So there is the first argument. Secondly, it is a form of art. Argument number two. The third argument is an interesting one.

Scenario: You uncover two-thousand year old ruins. The ruins were vandalized with “ancient paint (lol)” 1900 years ago. This means that the “graffiti” is now just as “historical” as the original ruins. Do you destroy history (clean up the graffiti) to save history (the original society) or do you leave it? Re-apply the same thought to hours ago instead of hundreds of years ago.

I guess I don’t really care as long as it doesn’t annoy me to look at. I have no desire to spray anything ether, so you can rest assure that none of these are mine.

Kihei, Maui Graffiti

So lets start with this little piece of graffiti from Hawaii. It is from a water way just off the highway in Kihei.

Next up we have the “Southern Walk.” Guess it got it’s name because Kihei is located on the Southern side of Maui.

Next up, graffiti from the religious nuts. Religious graffiti scares me. I always expect to see a body hanging near by.

There is artistic, and then you always seem to get some idiot with a can of paint that wants to tag his name on a wall. So here is my epic example of lame graffiti in Kihei.

I’m going to guess that this next one was done by the same idiot with a spray can.

Just a little bit more. Here is some graffiti on Maui, here is why we don’t sell paint to kids under the age of 18 (seriously, it’s a law!)

Last but not least is this Water warning sign in Kihei. I’m adding this one just because I like the effect the flash gave the sign. The splats are paintball marks, the tag is some yellow paint that isn’t at all reflective.

Maui is one of the few places you can jump in the water and see a sea turtle in minutes. You don’t even have to get a passport to visit if you already live in the US! (how easy!) Anyway, here are some pictures I took one day while diving off the south shore of Wailea in Maui, Hawaii. I would say I was “lucky” this day, but it is always like this.

Turtles of Polo Beach: Wailea

Here is one of my favorites, this giant Hawaiian sea turtle was heading right at me!

This huge turtle was hiding in the coral. It must be kind of hard to be so awkwardly big and try to hide from anything.

This Polo Beach turtle was on the move. These suckers can swim fast! There was no way I was going to catch up with him.

It is amazing how well these Hawaiian sea turtles can blend in. This guy was probably about twenty feet deep just chilling on the bottom.

This not so ninja turtle came at me after being scared out of the rocks. It wasn’t me who startled him.

I have to tell you. As cheesy as it may sound, swimming with sea turtles is one of the most amazing things. I hate when people invade where they live. If you are going to swim with them do just that, don’t get in their way, or let yourself be known (yea, they will know you are there, but there is no reason to be anything but passive around these guys.)

This Maui sea turtle was fun. He swam around me for a good half an hour. I probably could have gotten super close to it, but I would rather them come to me over me going to them. I wouldn’t like it if they just walked into my house and got in my face…

Check out the Maui picture gallery here!