In July, Justin and I were so fortunate to travel to Maui for 12 incredible days for our honeymoon! This was only possible because of an incredible gift from dear family friends and a gift from Justin’s parents. It was a once in a lifetime experience. There was so much to see and do there, and we explored so much of the island. We stayed in Wailea for the first half of our trip, and then we headed to Lahaina for the second half. Every place we visited was incredible; there are so many different things to see and explore in Maui, and the geography changes so drastically from one area to the next. It was truly awe-inspiring seeing the views, the beaches, the mountains, and exploring the forests. Every single day was truly an adventure – and I had to keep reminding myself that this was real! I have a lot of favorites; we saw so many cool things, and I wanted to remember as much as I could from our great trip. Enjoy a mini trek to Maui!
We went zip lining at Piiholo Ranch – it was SO much fun! This was one of our favorite days in Maui – and it was our only rainy day! Check out the rainbow next to Justin :)
We went horseback riding through the mountains at sunset (so fun!)
This was driving along the Kahekili Highway (mostly the two lane portion; we went around a curve and ended up on the single lane portion, going down a mountainside with no guard rail. That was terrifying! There was no where to turn around (it was literally one lane, along a cliff!) so we backed up the road to the two lane portion (only about a half a mile, but a very scary half of a mile!). We loved driving along this part of the highway though. Just be aware – there are a lot of stray and loose dogs and people driving really fast.
Our rental convertible (it was fun!).
Oh, the coconut french toast. I had coconut french toast for breakfast four of the days we were in Maui… it was SO good. We had it at Leoda’s Kitchen and at Mala in Wailea – both were so good!
OK, if you are ever in Maui, you absolutely have to stop at Leoda’s Kitchen and get a coconut cream pie. We were OBSESSED. We ate more of these than I care to admit (and we even flew two of them home!). Seriously… Leoda’s Kitchen – pretty much everything was delicious (even their homemade caramels… so good!), but this pie was the best pie I have ever had!
He was actually just standing like that, so I had to take a picture.
We woke up at 3:30-something in the morning to drive from Lahaina to the Haleakala Crater. Best tip: do this at the start of your trip (when waking up at 3:00 am feels normal) and leave from Wailea, not Lahaina! We did this toward the end of our trip, and waking up at 3:00 felt like, well, waking up at 3:30 am! We drove to the crater (it took about two hours from Lahaina) and saw the sunrise. It was such an incredible experience!! The views are astounding; it is so beautiful. It was also SO incredibly cold and at 10,000 ft elevation, we got very lightheaded very fast! We both had headaches before we even got out of the car. It is very weird being that high up, but it was an incredible experience. We were actually above the clouds!
These are plants native only to Maui (I thought that was pretty cool)
The clouds were below us!
Then we traveled the Hana Highway
We made a stop in a cute little town off of the Hana Highway (apparently they have great banana bread here; we didn’t try it, but Justin got a shaved ice and I met some cute dogs).
We pulled off to explore this waterfall off the Hana Highway. It was a scary climb down (and if I were to do it again, I wouldn’t!), but it was a beautiful waterfall. I couldn’t change my lens once I got down there (because of all the water splashing) but the wide angle lens really shows you how close we were to the falls!
Then we continued on to the black sand beaches at Wai’anapanapa State Park. It was so cool to see the black sand beaches. It was REALLY hot, and the black sand only intensified that!
After the black sand beach, we cooled off at Coconut Glen’s (good ice cream, with a coconut spoon!), then we continued on to Paia Town, where Justin enjoyed some beers and I have an outstanding pineapple mojito. (We LOVED Paia Town! We traveled there four times; I would love to stay there for a portion of my trip next time!).
When we first arrived at the Marriott in Wailea, Justin’s parents surprised us by having snacks, wine, Hawaii chocolates, and a pretty plant sent as a welcome gift! It was so sweet and so thoughtful!
We loved this small beach outside of Paia Town. There were tons of surfers here, which was cool to watch (although, both days we stopped there, there were very few waves). But we did see this cute sea lion/seal (I still can’t tell them apart). It was sunning on the rocks, and it rolled around every few minutes. This was very cool to see!
This was the Olivine Pools. They were cool to see (although a little treacherous; some people got really close to the edge and every once in a while, huge waves would wash up).
There were a lot of stray dogs and cats in Maui. We bought this dog (and the others we had seen in this same spot) two bowls for water and a huge bag of dog food (plus some lunch meat); we got cat food and cat bowls for the cats. I hope it helped them. We also hung around and pet this sweet dog for a while; she was very nervous but so nice.
We went to a luau as a gift from my sister! It was a lot of fun!
We had too much great food during the trip.
And one of our favorite adventures was snorkeling! We took a boat trip to Molokini and saw so many fish and sea turtles! It was so fun!
It was tough to go back home after visiting Maui; it is truly an amazing place!
