In December of 2013, JEDEC had a meeting in Maui. Helen and I arrived a week before the meeting and stayed 4 days after the meeting. We had a great time and have a few photos to share with you.
Maui Tropical Plantation
The Maui Tropical Plantation is a tourist trap, but a very good one! On the plantation, they grow a variety of tropical plants. They have a 30-minute, $15 (in 2013) tram tour that takes through their many fields of growing plants. Here a few we saw:
This is a papaya tree. It was interesting to see how papayas are grown.
I've seen many banana trees before. There is nothing unusual about this tree.
I always thought avacados were grown on plants close to the ground. I didn't realize it is a tree.
Mangos are a Summer fruit. There were only a couple left on the trees in December.
An interesting sign on both Star fruit and Jack fruit.
Jack fruit is the largest fruit in the world. They can weigh up to 100 pounds.
Commercial macadamia nut farms were started in Hawaii in 1882. The macadamia nut is encased in an extremely hard shell, difficult to crack, requiring about 300 pounds of pressure per square inch. This is the main reason it took so long for the inner nutmeat to be discovered as a tasty food source. It wasn't until the mid-1970s the nut became popular as the price dropped due to the development of machinery which could efficiently release the seed from the shell.
Iao Valley
We took a short hike into the Iao valley. The trail was paved and led to a pointed rock, Iao Needle, which is over 1,200 feet high.
View from the Iao valley out to the sea. The parking area in the picture is where we parked our rental car.
Charles looking out of the valley. The picture on the right is what he saw.
The view from one of the upper levels in the valley looking out to sea.
Charles and Helen having their picture taken in front of the famous Iao Needle.
This is a side view of the Iao Needle. The Iao Needle was an important lookout point for the Mauians during the war with King Kamehameha I (c. 1758 - May 8, 1819). King Kamehameha was successful in his goal of uniting all of the Hawaiian islands in 1810.
Our Trek to the Top of Haleakala
We had a fantastic day driving to the top of the dormant volcano, Haleakala. The last eruption was in 1790 and it may erupt again.
On the way up the mountain, we were able to see many pretty views of the valley. This view is to the South-West and shows the valley between East and West Maui. On the left is the city of Kihei.
Charles is enjoying the view of the valley...
Helen is enjoying the view of the valley...
As we travelled further up the mountain, we met up with some clouds that were rolling in.
The clouds flowed over the road and became thicker the higher up we went.
The entrance to Haleakala National Park.
The obligatory pose in front of the main sign marking the National Park.
A panoramic view at the top of the mountain. Click on the picture to open it in a new window. Then click on it again (in the new window) to get a larger view. Then you may scroll left and right.
Helen and Charles enjoying the view of the crater as the clouds are rolling in. Since it was noon, we ate our lunch watching the clouds fill the crater.
By the time we finished lunch, most of the crater was obscured, however, one of the peaks was just popping through the clouds.
After lunch, we hiked down into the clouds, but we didn't go very far.
Haleakala is 10,000 feet high at the upper parking lot. We then climbed up to the observation deck which is at 10,023 feet (3055 meters) above sea level.
One interesting fact is Haleakala is taller than Mount Everest, if measuring from the sea floor, which is 19,680 feet (5998 meters) underwater. The total height of the mountain from the base (underwater) to the top is 29,703 feet (9053 meters). This is 675 feet (205 meters) taller than Mount Everest!
The Silversword plant is only found at the upper elevations of Haleakala. It is not found anywhere else in the world.
The plant has a furry type of covering over the branches to hold any moisture present in this dry climate.
The plant continues to grow for 5 decades without producing any seeds.
At around 50 years old, the plant begins using all of its stored energy to produce a flowering stalk.
The flowering stalk contains seeds, to continue the species. After flowering, the plant dies.
The Nene, also known as the Hawaiian Goose, (Branta sandvicensis) is a species of goose endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The official bird of the state of Hawaii, the Nene is exclusively found in the wild on the islands of Maui, Kauai and Hawaii.
The Nene evolved from the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), which most likely arrived on the Hawaiian islands about 500,000 years ago, shortly after the island of Hawaii was formed.
Flowers on Haleakalea.
More pretty flowers on Haleakalea.
Helen's 3rd Cousin
We were very lucky to have a chance to meet Helen's 3rd cousin, Matt and his girlfriend, Jade. Matt works at the Kihei Surfside Condomiums as the director of maintenance. Jade was working at the Grand Wailea in customer relations. Fortunately for us, Jade was able to upgrade our room to one with a really pretty view of both the ocean AND Haleakala mountain. It was also near an elevator, which was very helpful as I had a lot of equipment to haul down to the JEDEC meeting room everyday. THANK YOU Jade!!!
Left to right: Charles, Helen, Matt and Jade
Grand Wailea
The December, 2013, JEDEC meeting was held at the Grand Wailea resort on Maui. The resort is very upscale and is a favorite for tourists to Maui.
The entrance to the Grand Wailea at night. The lighted trees sure look neat when driving up to the entrance.
The best amenity of the resort is the 2,000-foot-long, 25,700-total-square-foot, 770,000-gallon pool that consists of nine pools on six different levels. The pools are connected by a river that carries swimmers along whitewater rapids and gentle currents. Wailea Canyon includes four jungle pools, four intertwining slides, a whitewater rapids slide, a Tarzan pool with rope swing, a sand beach, six waterfalls, caves, three Jacuzzis, an infant pool, the world's first water elevator, the Lava slide, Ana Puka slide and a swim-up bar. See Grand Wailea Water Canyon for more information.
The exit for the slide can be seen on the left. Once you arrive in this pool, you can take the water elevator on the right up to the highest pool. From there, you can go from pool to pool down to the lazy river.
The water elevator was originally built for the handicapped child of the resort's owner. The cost was around $1 million dollars and is the world's first.
A small segment of the lazy river.
At the end of the lazy river, you have a choice of going to the sand beach (in one of the pools) at the end of the lazy river or...
...going to a pool with an island in the middle with a lot of warm water jets shooting into it (like a jacuzzi) or returning to the water elevator.
Along the beach, there is a pathway connecting several hotels together, including the Grand Wailea. The walk was very picturesque.
A pretty view from the sidewalk along the ocean.
On the way to Lahaina
On the way to Lahaina, we stopped to do some geocaching. The geocache was on the old road to Lahaina. While geocaching, we took these pictures.
This is the new road to Lahaina, which opened in 1951. This view is looking toward Lahaina.
This is the old road to Lahaina. It was built by prisoners in 1900. This view is also looking toward Lahaina.
The old road to Lahaina is on the left and the new road is on the right. The view is looking toward Kihei.
The chain link fencing is to keep the rocks from falling onto the new road to Lahaina.
A descriptive moving panoramic view from the old road to Lahaina.
Banyan Tree
The banyan tree on Front street in Lahaina was planted in 1873 by Sheriff William Owen Smith to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Christian missionary work in Lahaina. The tree was imported from India and was only 8 feet tall, with only one trunk.
Today, the tree is over 60 feet tall and has 16 major trunks in addition to the original core. It stretches over a 200 foot area and shades two-thirds of an acre. It is one of the largest Indian Banyan trees in the world.
This is a BIG tree!!!!
At night, the tree is decorated with lights.
Reef Dancer
The Reef Dance is a submarine shaped boat. It had glass windows under the water. Divers would find various sea life and bring them back to the boat for us to look at through the windows.
View of the ocean from the deck of the boat.
A diver brought a sand dollar to the boat for us to look at.
Coral on the bottom of the ocean.
Many sea turtles passed by the boat.
Road to Hana
We braved the treacherous "road to Hana" and beyond. The Hana Highway (HI-360) has 620 curves and 54 one lane bridges. The road winds through brushy ravines, bamboo forests, hamlets, fishing settlements, gourges and waterfalls. It is a scenic trip with many stops along the way.
We were very lucky to have been given the "Hana Audio Tour" by Mark and Janis who had braved the road a few days before the JEDEC meeting. Since they were not planning on doing the trip again, they gave us the CD.
If you are not lucky enough to have access to the CD, which many condos and time shares have available for guests, it can be purchased inexpensively at:
The Hana Bay Picnic Company
115 Hana Highway
after the Chevron Gas Station
(808) 579-8686
Once we arrived in Hana, we continued to the Haleakala National Park entrance at Kipahulu, which is about 30 minutes past Hana. From there, we continued on the backside of Haleakala on Hwy 31 to Hwy 37 back to Kahului. Rental cars are not allowed on this section of the road, but we chanced it anyway.
This is a view of the ocean on the North side of Maui at Ho'okipa Beach Park. This is a popular windsurfing area as the waves can be very high.
We stopped at Kaumahina State Wayside Park to do a little geocaching. While there, we purchased some great Macadamia nut brittle and some mango nut bread.
Also along the way to Hana was a lava tube cave. This cave was the remnants of an old lava tube. We hiked for about a quarter of a mile inside the cave.
This was a beautiful view on the way to Hana. We were lucky to find this break in the trees and were able to see the ocean.
Colorful lichen on a branch.
Once we arrived at the Kipahulu entrance to Haleakala National Park, we hiked up a trail to see some waterfalls.
At the end of the hike, we were rewarded by seeing these two waterfalls. We were able to hike along a treacherous cliff to the top of the lower of the two waterfalls.
Once we left the National Park, it started to get dark. We tried keeping up with some locals, but they were going 50 MPH on this narrow road. If you look closely, you'll see we were sharing the road with the cows in front of the car. At one point, we had to stop to wait for some other cows to move off of the road, which they were reluctant to do since the air temperature was dropping and the road was still warm.
Five Palms Restaurant
This is one of my favorite restaurants. It is very upscale, however, if you arrive before 6:00 PM, you can enjoy an early bird special. The Mixed green Salad, Choice of Oven Roasted Prime Rib, Macadamia Nut Crusted Fresh Island Fish, or Soy~Ginger Glazed Breast of Chicken + Lilikoi cheesecake for Dessert was excellent!
Helen & Charles enjoying the view while waiting for dinner to arrive.
As the sunset neared, the restaurant staff ran outside to take pictures. Being curious, we followed them to see what was up. We were rewarded with this magnificent sunset.
Pretty Pictures
Here are a couple of pictures that didn't fit anywhere, but we liked them...
Big Beach is one of the prettiest beaches on Maui. It is also the largest, undeveloped white sand beach on Maui.
This sunset was really pretty. It was taken during dinner with Mark and Janis on Sunday evening after we had set up the conference room for the JEDEC meeting. We were at Mulligans on the Blue which is in Wailea and is well known for its Irish food and music.
A number of people have asked us what it is like to go geocaching. In this video, we are looking for and finding a geocache. We hope you enjoy this humorous look at finding a geocache.
Conclusion
We had a terrific time on Maui. We would like to thank Matt and Jade for being wonderful hosts by giving us many suggestions on what to see and where to go snorkeling. We also enjoyed the two dinners we shared with them. We are looking forward to returning to Maui and meeting them again (possibly, December, 2016).
This was our least meal before heading to the airport to return home. Since we had an 11 PM flight, we drove to Lahaina to eat at the Lahaina Fish Company. It was hard to eat this wonderful meal, as we knew it would be our last for this trip to Maui.