So we went snorkeling!
Day 2: The Search for Ulua Beach
The weather wasn't the greatest because Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be the two worst days of the tropical depression, but it mostly skirted north of us.
I do remember there were two weather systems going on north and south of us, so we were caught in a dead zone of 90+ degrees and stifling humidity. The sun was intense -- this is actually our first full Hawai'i summer, and it still feels like it's ramping up. August and September are going to be terrible!
But anyway, we decided to take our AirBNB host's suggestion and go to some of the snorkel spots near the south side of Kihei and into Wailea.
Apparently Cher has a beachfront house in Wailea.
When we got to that area, we understood why. It's beautiful, ritzy, exclusive, and secluded.
The wind was really bad that day. We had talked briefly with our host about going out on his boat, because he offered if we gave him $50 to cover gas and a 30-case of Coors Light. Yeah, you read that right. A 30-case. Apparently those exist. He declined because his boat is small, and the wind and chop would make it impossible to go safely.
So the first place we went was Mokapu Beach Park (I think -- Stephen will likely correct me later). We were outside a resort, and there were tourists snorkeling, so we thought, "why not?" Or rather, Stephen thought "why not?" and I was more like, "I didn't come to Maui to snorkel in crappy tourist locations in choppy, windy conditions."
Yep, this day was going to go well.
Actually, it was murky, the fish were sparse, and the wind made the waves choppy and hard to navigate. Stephen saw a turtle and I couldn't have cared less. This was not my Maui.
So, I complained a lot, and we left. He suggested we walk down the beach toward Ulua, because if he read the guide book correctly, that's actually where the good snorkeling was. We think we found the beach, because there were some rocks and coral jutting out from the beach, so we thought that had to be it. We thought we would snorkel around. We got in, got a bit of the way out, and then I got uncomfortable with the strength of the current, the choppiness, and the lower visibility.
A snorkeler had died from a shark attack on this side of the island only a few months ago, and I wanted no business with that.
Plus, it was just miserable snorkeling.
We got out, sunned ourselves off a bit, marveled at how we found a little nook in the beach that felt completely private, and then got so hot that we decided we needed to move on. Stephen was now convinced that he was wrong about Ulua Beach and that we needed to walk even FARTHER to get there, so that's what we did.
We actually ended up at a schmantzy high-end resort with all-white buildings and beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the ocean, and then Stephen saw the nice shower and bathroom facilities that told him this was, in fact, the beach part he had been looking for all along.
(Side note: the guidebooks we were using were 15-20 years old, so we took all details with a grain of salt. As you'll find out, that was a mistake. Every. Single. Time. Apparently Maui hasn't changed at all in 15-20 years, but it took A LOT of error for us to figure that out)
This time, we hopped in the water, swam out past all the tourists, and suddenly this expansive world under the sea opened up for us!
In our relationship, Stephen is the photographer, and I'm the videographer. Oddly enough, he seems to do better with the underwater still camera, but he can't center fishies on the ActionCam to save his life, and while I take blurry, crummy underwater stills, I can wield the ActionCam like a beast (IMHO). So here are Stephen's pictures, followed by a link to a composite he made of the videos I took.
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| Milletseed Butterflyfish |
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| Turtle |
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| Moorish Idol |
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| Porcupine Fish |
And then we found our first ridiculously cool fish of Maui -- the Blacklip Butterflyfish! We haven't seen these guys on O'ahu!
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| Blacklip Butterflyfish |
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| Four-spot Butterflyfish |
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| Cowry shell? |
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| Just a school of fishes |
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| Spotted Boxfish female -- one of my faves! |
Another cool thing we saw was an actual live cowry shell. Those are the big shiny brown ones with the white spots that you frequently see for sale in touristy knick-knack shops. I think this is supposed to be a picture of it. If not, it appears in the video at the end of the post!
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| A pair of very shy Moorish Idols |
And yet another surprise that we hadn't seen before, at least alive...
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| A starfish! |
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| Teardrop Butterflyfish |
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| A pair of Blacklip Butterflyfish |
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| More Blacklip Butterflyfish |
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| Yellowtail Coris baby looks nothing like the adult |
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| You did not find Nemo. |
So there you have it on our first snorkel trip on Maui. Third time is a charm, right? Plus, we have a video on YouTube where you can see more fishies!
I would have loved to take more photos and videos of fishies, but I was wearing my black surfsuit, and I actually ended up with the faintest sunburn on my shoulders. I thought I was crazy, thinking that I was getting burned in spite of my black long-sleeved getup, but no, the Hawai'i sun was really just that intense. We had to call it a day.
Somewhere along the way, Stephen lost his wedding ring.
Other than that, there really wasn't anything more to write about for this day. We decided pretty quickly, though, that we were going to do the other part of the Road to Hana -- the Seven Sacred Pools (insert cheesy echo voice) the next day, so we needed to rest up for yet another long drive.
And I need to rest up for yet another post. Aloha and a hui hou!
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