Day 158 - Ho'okipa and Lahaina




Haleakala, in front Maui's last working sugar mill

Today we had a nice day at the North coast: First we watched surfers at Ho'okipa beach for one hour. These guys must have been so skilled in surfing, because they were just next to huge lava stones. There were also some crosses along the cliff - obviously for deceased surfers. However, it must be a dream for every surfer to once surf at this beach.




The big waiting

 

Lunch today was fish. We went to Mama's Fish House which wasn't far away. For the first time, I experienced "valet parking", where you drive to a certain point, leave the car and give the keys to someone who parks the car for you. Gosh! The food was extremely tasty but too much, as usual. From inside we had a view of palms, the sea and a funny snowman made of sand. Inside the waitresses wore beautiful dresses and flowers behind their ears. And fortunately I was finished when our table's neighbors got served some oysters, I was aghast at this sight.




Mama's Fish House




Mama's Fish House Menu: You not only learn what
kind of fish you get, but also who caught it and where

Instead of doing a hike through the bamboo forest as planned (it had rained and the ground was slippery), after this delicious lunch we decided to drive to a whale watching place and afterwards to Lahaina on the west coast. In Lahaina we accidentally drove by the Hilo Hattie store where we wanted to shop for island wear anyway. It turned out to be a good day for the shop, and already now we're afraid of our suitcase's opinion about it...

At the harbor, a former whale boating harbor and site of Hawai'i's capital in the 18th/19th century, we had a big 'rainbow' shave ice in a café run by a Swiss. One of the famous sites of Lahaina is a centuries old, huge Banyan Tree, which was decorated with colourful Christmas lighting - that however wasn't turned on even after sunset. What a pity.

We booked the ferry to the neighbor island of Lana'i for the next day, picked a parrot feather from the street, walked along the Front Street (another famous tourist sight) and enjoyed a Caribbean-Hawaiian holiday atmosphere of which Lahaina is famous for - of course with a lot of colorful Christmas decoration. As a highlight of today a picture of us was taken by a (obviously) drunk lady :-) the other sides of "happy hour".



Front Street Lahaina