Sisters Birthday trip to Hawaii!! PART ONE - Maui

Hey Steemers! My sister and I spent 10 days in Hawaii to celebrate our birthdays, 5 of those days was on the beautiful island of Maui... this is what we got up too whilst we were there...

RELAXING
We stayed at the beachfront Royal Lahaina resort so of course we did lots of relaxing! Either on our exclusive 800m section of Kaanapali beach or by one of three outdoor pools...

Our private beach

One of the pools with a very convienient beach shack for snacks and drinks

Taking advantage of the bottomless Mimosa's available at breakfast, you know to help us relax ;)

SNORKELLING AT MOLOKINI
Molokini is a partially submerged, crescent shaped volcano crater that is a popular snorkelling and diving spot, we caught our boat from Lahaina harbour.

Lahaina harbour

Our boat

We have breakfast on board and enjoy the leisurely cruise out to the crater. Water is really blue and super clear and we can see all the way to the bottom even from the top deck of the boat! When we arrive it is no different, quickly jump in to explore the under water depths of a volcano crater! See lots of colourful fish and interesting underwater scenery but my cheap knockoff underwater camera dies on location so all I have is my mental snaps!

Snorkellers in the water

Other boats anchored in the crater

Spend about an hour in the water before it's time to get back on board and head to the next snorkel spot. After a head count it turns out we are one person short. Despite being told to stay close to our boat (to avoid getting mixed up with other boat snorkellers) the missing person is located about 3 boats away on the other side of the crater! Now with everyone on board we head to the next spot which is known to be frequented by turtles.

No luck spotting any turtles but still enjoy this 2nd spot which is a bit closer to the shore. We don't spend as long here because our time got taken away whilst we looked for our missing snorkeller who at this spot smartly stayed on board! Even with the close proximity to the shore it still has deep drop offs and it's fun to explore the unknown world of under the sea.

Now it's time to head back to the harbour so our snorkelling adventures are done for the day.

As we pull into the harbour snap this pic which is a nice welcome back to land!

MYTHS OF MAUI LUAU
No trip to Hawaii is complete without a Luau dinner and show... and it just so happened that our hotel was the home to the Myths of Maui!

A Luau for the uninitiated is a traditional Hawaiian buffet feast and show set by the ocean. We are greeted with a shell/flower lei and watch the sunset before the tradition of recovering the food from the underground hungis.

Waiting for the sun to set

After the food is brought in it's time to eat! Cocktails, beer, wine and soft drinks are included so it's pretty good value for money. Once we are all full the show starts. It tells a story about a local family and includes song, dance and music. We had a great night and best thing is we don't have too far to walk to get back to our hotel room!

(We ate all the food!!)

SURVIVING THE ROAD TO HANA
The road to Hana is a long stretch of highway that is famous for it's narrow winding roads, blind turns and distracting views.

Just one of the distracting views

This road takes us all the way around to the other side of the island. The plus sides- we see waterfalls, blank volcanic ash beaches aswell as some of the prettiest countryside imaginable! The down sides- hanging on for dear life in the back of our tourbus, as we creep past slowly on one way dirt roads on the side of cliffs!. and having to deal with the most annoying Jack Black wannabe tour guide for 15 hours!

One of the many stops along the way

One of the many waterfalls

We hadn't seen another car for at least an hour by the time we reached here!

Clouds rolling over the mountains

After a big and long day finally arrive back at the hotel where we enjoy a much needed vino and can brag about the fact that we survived one of the world's most dangerous roads!

COOL CAT CAFE
This retro diner style cafe claims to have the best burger on Maui... and they could very well be right! We both enjoyed our burgers here and they were def one of the best I have ever had!... and coming from a burger fiend like myself that's a pretty big deal!

So that pretty much sums up PART ONE- Maui of my Sisters Birthday trip to Hawaii!!....stay tuned for PART TWO - OAHU!!

Thanks for stopping by, here's another Maui sunset just because :)