March 7th: Swim at a Waterfall

Now this! This! Is something I have always wanted to do and what better place to swim at a waterfall than Hawai’i, particularly Maui.

It was an incredible day with tons of waterfalls as we drove along the Road to Hana. If you have never been and ever find yourself in Maui, I highly recommend taking a day and driving this road. If you have rented your own car, download the app: Shaka Guide App. It tells you great places to see, eat, explore, skip and has some tidbits of history and plays local music. I loved it!

The road itself is a very narrow, curvy and sometimes one lane trek through Maui’s rainforest. Here’s a very quick glance at the road itself:

Road to Hana

Stops along the road are amazing. Even just pull offs to catch a glimpse of the ocean or waterfalls in the distance.

View of falls

We came across this waterfall and it is where I decided to take my swim!

It was amazing! and freezing cold.

We saw some pretty amazing other sites along the way. The Black Sand Beach with lava tubes:

Black Sand Beach

Inside Lava Tube in Black Sand Beach

Ate some amazing fish and chips in the Nahiku Marketplace.

Nahiku Marketplace: Island Chef

Fish & Chips from Island Chef

Had ice cream made with coconut milk from Coconut Glen’s.

Coconut Glen’s

Coffee Toffee ice cream from Coconut Glen’s

There were some other amazing waterfalls too!

Overall, an amazing day- made even more amazing because I got to swim at a waterfall!

March 6th: Swim in the Ocean

This week has been absolutely amazing. Plus, it is exciting I am getting back into my 365 things. Hopefully, the motivation will carry through when I get home and I can get some stuff done! The hardest thing is going to be making a new list for 2021 because I have truly been knocking off some awesome things this week.

Today, I swam in the ocean. I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, so salt water is nothing new to me. But it has been quite a while since I got in the water and today for me back in the salt water, SNORKELING EVEN!

We took a tour boat with Pride of Maui out to the volcanic crater Molokini.

The ride out to Molokini.

It was a beautiful boat ride. They feed you breakfast and even make short stops for whale watching (of it is in season, which, it is right now). It is hard to see in this video but it you look closely there is a whale breaching the surface in the background.

Humpback Whale breaching the surface.

As we got closer and closer to the crater it became more amazing.

Molokini.
We have arrived!

And there is where I went swimming in the ocean. I took a disposable, underwater camera, so sometime soon I will get those developed and post them, but for now just imagine the great swimming at this luxurious, middle of the ocean spot!

The ride back was crazy. Saw some beautiful sites like this view of western Maui-

Maui from the ocean.

We also saw lots more whales! They feed you lunch, stop at another spot called “Turtle Town”, which I snorkeled are but didn’t see many turtles… and then it’s open bar back to the island. I highly recommend this trip if you are in Maui, even if you don’t snorkel!

The wind picked up immensely on the ride back so glad we did the early trip! But today, swimming in the ocean was an amazing experience! One I will not soon forget.