Hazy Haleakala - Maui

We've been back home now for a few weeks. Actually... almost a month already! I've already been back at work for 3 weeks.

But what a trip has it been! we've had a wonderful time, met lovely people, and made amazing memories.

Sunrise at the top carpark

Some of these memories were from our trip to the Haleakala Crater on Maui, Hawaii. When we decided we would stop on Hawaii on our trip home, we looked into places would like to visit.
The sunrise Haleakala Crater is on most lists, and came onto ours as well.
We spend three days on Maui, and checking the weather forecasts we decided to give the sunrise a shot in the 2nd day. That was expected to be the day with the clearest skies.

Walking into the crater

We set our alarm for 3am. Sunrise was at 6:15am, and we had to drive to the top of the volcano before that. From where we stayed (at Lahaina) that is a 1,5 to 2-hour drive.
But in the dark, at Hawaii's winding roads, you have to take some delays into account. There was quite some traffic during the drive, but it was a lovely clear night. We saw millions of stars in the sky above, and villages glowing below.
We arrived at the top at 5am, just in time to get the last parking space at the top car park, and decided to nap for another half hour in the car.

Catching the sunlight in the crater

By the time we woke up half an hour later, we were surrounded by fog. We walked to the top, shivering in the cold wind, and watched the clouds roll in over the top.
Just as we had given up on seeing the sun, the clouds parted and we saw it rise.
After that we went back to the car, drove down to the top visitor centre, and ate our sandwiches.

Clouds in the crater 

It was about 8am by now, so we had the whole day ahead of us. What to with all that time?
we wanted to do a hike in the crater, but unfortunately I wasn't feeling too well (I had had a bad cold for a few days). And every sign we saw warned of the dangers of walking at this altitude when you're not fit...

Taking a break

But even from the visitor centre it looked stunning. We decided to take it slow, walk down for an hour or so, and then slowly go up again.
And we did not regret that, it was absolutely stunning! I never knew that just earth, dirt and rocks could be so beautiful.
Every turn we took, showed a new amazing vista. We took it slow, and enjoyed every minute of it.

As the clouds rolled in to the crater at the far end.

When we walked back up we felt how steep it was. It was a lot harder than going down. Of course that had nothing to do with our fitness, it was just the altitude!
Or at least that's the excuse the signs gave us.
As we walked up, the clouds rolled into the crater. By the time we reached the ridge again, it was really foggy. We drove down through the clouds on our way back.

So many shades of grey and red

Of fire and water - Hawaii

We started this trip with a one-way ticket to Cairns, Australia. We had a rough idea what we wanted to do and when, but like to keep our option open. So about halfway we figured, that since we'd fly home a week before Christmas, we might want to book something asap, so we wouldn't end up with very expensive tickets.

We looked at several routes. The most straightforward thing, would be to have a stopover in Asia, and then home from there. But that didn't feel right. What about going in the other direction? After all, New Zealand is so far away, there's no 'detour', and it would be cool to finally do that round-the-world thing. 

As it happened Air NewZealand had a special: to Hawaii. Now that sounded like a plan, and here we are!

City of refuge, Kona

Now to be honest, Hawaii didn't blow us away. That might have something to do with these three things:

• High expectations.
  There's nothing like high expectations to quickly turn any experience into a deception.
• The weather.
  We simply ran out of luck with that one. As we arrived we'd hoped that it would clear up, but it didn't. It had been raining in Hilo for 10 consecutive days, and the storm was forcast to linger over the island for another week. Roads were closed due to snowfall and flash floods, tours cancelled and the Hawaiian weather even made it onto the news back home in Europe.
• Feeling poorly.
  That does change your experience. Flying in, I was coming down with a cold, that lasted a full week. Nauseous, head aches, runny nose, sore throat, overall lethargy, the works. We still did some stuff, but things like going on a proper walk, were just too much for me. We went out every day, but I wasn't enjoying it as much as I know I would have otherwise.

Having said that, we did do some pretty amazing stuf! Like what? Here's some of our highlights.

On day 2 we drove up an active volcano, Kilauea, and watched the lava in the crater splatter and blow. We were told that we were lucky, since quite often the lava isn't visible at all, because its normal level is a lot lower. That night after dinner we went back to the crater and saw the lava in the dark of night which was even more spectacular. Especially because it was a lot quieter that during the day, and we could actually hear the spatter and howling going on. Talk about force of nature...

Kilauea crater

From Kilauea lava still continues to flow down to the sea, the island grows when it solidifies in the water. The hike to the ocean entry point takes approximately 2 hours on way: too much. But we did see the massive steam plume from a distance. Usually there are boats to the entry point, but those didn't go out because of the high winds. We decided to do a short petroglyph walk instead, and that was pretty special too. 

Big steam vent where lava flows into the sea

Now day 3 was definitely a highlight: we had booked a manta ray dive. This was really the reason we went to Big Island. Luckily I only had a sore through and some mild headaches that day, so I could make it (or maybe I just suppressed the rested since it came back with a vengeance the next few days). We headed out of the marina at 3pm, and saw some dolphins on the boat ride to the dive spot. We started with an easy afternoon dive, on which we saw some cool stuff: moray eels, garden eels, a Pacific barracuda, a small turtle, some big crowns of thorns, both yellow and grey trumpetfish, black long-nosed angle fish, very weird lizard fish, and a massive Neptune's cockle. 

Trumpet fish

After 65minutes we surfaced, it was a really nice dive, though not spectacular. Saying that, I think we must consider ourselfs spoiled. Read that final line of the last paragraph again. Seeing all that, and then labelling a dive nothing spectacular. Hmmmm... We might need to abstain from diving until we've got our perspective back. 

But first, it was time for supper. The crew had layed out different wraps and cookies, which we ate while watching the sunset. When it got dark we got a briefing for the main event: the manta night dive. During the briefing we saw the first big manta shadow under the water's surface, the exitement rippled through the crowd.

Lizard fish

The general plane of this dive is that you plunge in, swim to a designated sandy spot, and wait at the bottom for whatever shows up, while pointin your torch over your head. We got a few extra kilos of weight in our BCDs, so we would easily stay put, because the swell had come up even more. To attract the mantas, there would be lights from the surface down, and the bottom up. The mantas feed on zooplankton, and those zooplankton gather in light beams, thus making an easy meal for an intelligent manta.

Me with torch

There were 4 groups of 4 divers, each with their own guide. We were in the second group to descent, and gathered at a spot at about 10m deep. We each had a small torch, but the guides had places bottom and surface lights near our spot, and boy, those lights sure were bright. It kind of felt like a circus arena. But within seconds we saw our first manta ray. What a sight! She flew over our head into the beam, summer salting on her way back for a second helping. We could look right into her open mouth, seeing the gills on the insides. Spectacular.

We huddled together trying to stay stable in the swell. That was tricky. Our guides had told us to pick up one of the boulders strewn around if we had trouble. I flinched at the thought of picking up a rock, bare-handed even, but couldn't think of another option, so I did it anyway.

With my new found stability I could really enjoy the show in front of me. Thousands of silver fish swam in vertical shoals around us. A manta with a wingspan of 2.5-3meters flew into the light, and disappeared again into darkness like a ghost. During feeding it came so close that it actually brushed our heads. I sometimes simply forgot to breath.

Manta ray up close

After about 50minutes our dive guide decided our time was up, and we needed to go back to the boat. Getting up the first thing I saw was a rock fish, right next to where we had been sitting. These are highly venomous, and one of the reasons you do not pick up rocks! 

Another reason are the sea urchins that I suddenly noticed all around. We swam towards the boat, watching some nocturnal fish hunting. On the boat we had a nice hot shower and instant cocoa with biscotti. But who cares about that, we just saw a manta ray up close, feeding, for almost an hour!

Another great experience was going up the Haleakala Volcano on Maui. Seeing the sunrise from the summit is supposed to be spectacular, so on our list. We spent 3 nights on Maui, and had looked online for the best day to do this. Day 6 looked promising. We got up at 3am to make the 2hour drive from Lahaina to the summit, some 3000meters higher. As we drove up the volcano, it was a lovely clear night. The stars were very visible in the sky, and the towns below glowed in the dark. 

We were just in time for one of the last spots at the parking lot, when we arrived at 5am. It was close to freezing when we stepped out, so we decided to have a nap in the car for the hour we had to wait. As we woke again at 6am the clouds were drifting in... So unfortunately no clear sky sunrise for us, but it turned out to be impressive nonetheless. 

Haleakala sunrise

After an hour or so, we went back to the car and had breakfast. We had planned to do a hike down the crater today, but I really didn't feel very fit. But didn't want to miss out either. We figured we would just slowly start to descent, take many breaks, and after an hour or so would start walking up again. It was only 8am and we had the rest of the day to do this. That turned out to be a very good plan. What a magnificent landscape...

The track was easy, but reasonably steep. And every turn revealed different perspectives and more colours. 

After slowly making our way up again, we drove back down around noon. And that's when my problems began... My ears simply would not equalise. When this happens while diving, I go up again, but we could hardly stay on the volcano. We did stop for a while, and after some time I was able to 'pop' them. But it hurt. And I heard sound I've never heard before, that was unnerving. 

I've always had pressure-sensitive ears, and I figure I must've put them through a bit too much. These last 6 days: 4 flights, 2 scuba dives and 3 drives up over 2500m. And all while having a cold. To make matters worse, my next flight is in two days. A trip to the pharmacy provided a fairly aggressive nose spray, let's hope that does the trick.

Keanae peninsula on the road to Hana

On day 7, our last day on Hawaii, we (more accurately Rodie) drove the road to Hana. A narrow, winding road with many one-lane bridges. Though not nearly as narrow as the road on the north east coast we drove on day 5. The views were really nice, the waterfalls pretty and the greenery spectacular at places. Honestly I did not think it was all that it's hyped to be. But Rodie really liked it, and we usually like the same type of things, so I blame my stuffy head for that. In retrospect I maybe should've stayed in bed. But then again, I'm not in Hawaii that often, so wanted to do as much as I could. 

Day 8, we're flying to San Francisco, fingers crossed that the ears make it in one peace too!

Oh and we've lost our cord to get photos from my camera and upload them, so this post will be edited sometime in the near future with more photos...

Katz's - New York

When we went to New York, of course we had a couple of places we really wanted to visit. So like good and proper tourists we went to Central Park, took the Staten Island Ferry and walked the Brooklyn Bridge.

And when we had dinner with fiends (locals), they told us that when we really wanted to be in New York, we HAD to go to Katz's deli and eat a pastrami sandwich, so we did.

Katz's is a retro deli in Manhattens Lower East Side. In this area there are many kosher and kosher style delis. Katz's is a kosher style deli  and considered one of the best, and according to wikipedia: Each week, Katz's serves 10,000 pounds of pastrami 5,000 pounds corned beef, 2,000 pounds of  salami and 12,000 hot dogs.

the diner is covered with signs and photos

We expected that it would be a pretty touristy, since Katz's is featured in several movies, including the most famous scene from 'When Harry met Sally'.... yes, the one in which Meg Ryan is faking it!

And of course the exact table from this movie as a sign above it, but on the whole, the diner felt pretty authentic.

Pickles and salamis waiting to be sold

Lots of locals were eating in and ordering take away. We decided of course on eating in, considering the size of the portions we dicided on sharing a pastrami sandwich.
Served on rye bread, with  musterd and pickles on the side.

Our order

Whale shark watching - Isla Holbox

We decided in 2007 that we should change our 'routine' of going to Asia each year, and 'try' another continent. To be very blunt, on of the main reasons of going to Asia was financial: Asia is cheap for westeners...
We simply coudn't affort South America at the time.. or Australia.. And since we live in Europe that wasn't our first choice either. After some deliberating we chose to go to Mexico.

Watching pelicans over dinner

Of course when you go to Mexico, there's plenty to see. One of the things that caught our attention in our travel guide was the possibility to watch whale sharks... woah! That sounds pretty amazing, right?

Now... the place to to this was a tiny island off the coast of Yucatan penisula called Isla Holbox.  Motorised vehicles are not allowed on the island, and the main source of income is tourists, who visit to go on whale shark watching tours. So that's where we went!
 

Isla Holbox, with a storm hoovering over it

We booked a tour, and early morning we left the island. Of course, since the whale sharks can be anywhere... we wondered how our guides would find them?

The islanders work together tracking the whale sharks. Fast boats leave the island at the break of dawn and spread out over the gulf of Mexico to scout the waters. An hour or so later the tourist boats leave the island and head in the most likely direction. As soon as the scouts spot one or more whale sharks they radio the tourist boats where to go to.

Feeding whale shark

Now... even though it's name sounds quite dangerous,  whale sharks feed mainly on plankton. But they are BIG! The biggest fish that swim this earth to be exact.... 
(Official reports say up to 13 m long, though locals say they grow even longer.)
So.. at our first enounter we were amazed by it's size, and then our guide told us this was 'just a baby'  at 8 meters length. Okay.

Look at the size of it! (Only mouth and dorsal fin are visible)

A few minutes later we found a grown specimen and we were alowed to go into the water. 
We were happily surprised at how well the rules were abided: Only 2 people were allowed in the water at the same time and even though there were 2 boats near this shark, the captains coordinated this quite well. Before you went in you were very strictly instructed not to touch the shark.

It was a truely amazing experience. The shark lookled like it was barely moving, but swam so fast! It was hard to keep up for it for more than a minute (and we are pretty agile swimmers)
The way it fed, the size of its open mouth...  Even though I know it eats just plankton, I could easily fit in that mouth! And since a lot of water goes through it, there is an actual currunt pulling you towards it.

So you may wonder... why only crappy phots of this amazing animal?
Well.... if a have to make a choice I choose actually experiencing over documenting. As was the case here. So a made a few photos, but most of it is only a memory.  I can only say: I you ever have the opportunity, make some of your own memories!

A pod of pelicans near the island