Maui, Hawaii (April, 1998)
Travelers:
Scott & Cherie Roberts, Ji
Beck, Stacey Coffee, Brad Papke, Kurt Weber
 What follows is a summary of our trip to Maui in Spring of 1998. We used a local
travel agent to book our flight and car rental. It was a Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays
package. If I recall correctly we paid about $850 for air, lodging and rental car.
It was pretty hard to beat. We found a condo in the Hololani complex through
our local paper. The condo was located in Kahana
which is in between Kaanapali and Kapalua. It was right on the beach, and had a
great view.
We spent most of our time snorkeling, scubadiving surfing or booggie boarding.
Dive Sites Visited
Ulua beach: Crowded, and it was very
rough when we did it. We were trying out our new equipment, and just did a quick
shallow dive and didn't see much. A little bit of coral, some typical reef fish, and
2 huge puffer fish. The visibility was pretty bad. We were told that a lot of
dive stores do their checkout dives here.
 Molokini Crater: I'm sure you know about
this boat dive. 120' + visibility. A ton of fish, some big ones, and some
octopus. Tangs, triggers, Ono, Jack fish, Trumpet fish, Parrot fish, Morish Idols,
Angel Fish, Butterfly fish, etc. Our dive guide from Dive and Sea (Scotty) found one
and brought it out of it's cave for us to pet. The coral was pretty boring. I
think there are probably better dive sites at Molokini.
You could hear the whales on almost every dive. We had a very good experience with
Dive and Sea. I think it's about the only 6 pack left in Maui. I've heard the
back side is a cool dive, and there are places where sharks hang out.
Some other dive site I can't remember Along the South
shore: We saw the usual fish and coral. We also saw a
sea turtle which played with us for a while.
Marty's Reef: We used kayaks to access
this site. We launched them at the Makena beach. Our guide was Jim Spear, a retired police officer from the
mainland. I met him on
 the net. Give him an e-mail if your coming to
Maui. He knows the reefs like the back of his hand. He is a really nice guy
who I'm sure would be happy to take you out for a kayak dive. This was a great dive
if your looking for a ton of fish in a small area. There was the usual assortment
of fish including a huge school
 of yellow snappers and a
gigantic lobster.
Five Graves: Great site with
impressive coral heads, turtles, and fish. It was rough when we went so it wasn't as
good as it could have been. I guess there is a black tipped reef shark that lives in
one of the caves. There was a large variety of fish life, and lot's of it. If
you go South around the bend, there are quite a few turtles.
 Black Rock: A
great snorkeling spot with just about as much of a variety
of fish as molokini. We actually saw about a 300lb monk seal here. I think
that's pretty rare though. I've heard of a few tiger shark attacks, but I
guess that's pretty rare. You can dive here, but it's more suited for
snorkeling. Nothing is over 35' deep.
 Scenic Point: It's a bit of a tough walk
down to the beach, but there were quite a few fish and the visibility was great. I
enjoyed the snorkeling. Bringing dive gear down
the hill might be a bit difficult. I wanted to, but Cherie didn't sound too
thrilled at the idea.
Ji and Brad went diving in Lanai, and they said it was pretty good. Many boats go
there out of Lahina. They were able to see some dolphins while diving. That
would have been a site.
  I've heard that
Honolua Bay, Napili Beach, and Kapulua Bay have very good snorkeling too,
but the swells were too big when we were there.
If your looking for shore dives you have to get the The Diver's
Guide to Maui. It's the ultimate book on Maui diving. The directions
in the book are a bit dated, but the diving information is excellent. I guess Maui
dive shop has a free publication with a lot of the same information. You definitely
should get one of the two before you go.
 Outside of diving and snorkeling, we took a drive up North past Kapalua. There is
some amazing scenery up that way. We also whale watched from the shore. It's
amazing how many whales are around Maui if you hit it during peak whale season. Lahina is
a fun town with many shops and bars. There's not much in the way of night life, but
it's as good as you make it. We had a lot of fun. Kimo's was our favorite
bar. We actually saw some porcupine puffer fish in the water while hanging out at Kimo's.
 We went hiking around Iao state park. We hiked up the river for a while.
It's all very lush, and there are a lot of nice pictures
to be taken. We wanted to go to a place where there are bridges that you can jump
off into the river, but we heard it was closed due to an accident.
This is the trip that I invented my famous SNR's Tuna
recipe, and also the Maui cocktail (POG and vodka).
We had a lot of fun in Maui. The diving was good, and the weather was
perfect.
More Pictures
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The swells died down a bit, and we were eventually able to ride the waves. |
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This was one of the bulls we saw that were loose on the road up the north shore past Kapalua. On the right is a mustang. |
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This shot was taken while on our hike in Iao park. We hiked about 45 minutes up the river. |
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Taken from the lawn in front of the Hula Grill in Kaanapali. Absolutely the best service I've ever had. The food was pretty good too. |
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The cliff I'm sitting on is actually about 120ft high. |
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North Coast, Maui |
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Pet pig in a dive shop |
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North Coast, Maui |
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Just North of Kapalua |
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Water would spray up through this hole when the big swells came in. |
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Another north coast picture |
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Ioa Park |
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