Today I shifted digs over to west Maui to the Maui Westin (Resort and Spa). This is serious resort territory along this piece of coast. I'm here for 4 days. I had a couple of jars of Newcastle Ale on tap; that must be for English tourists. I steered clear of expensive restaurants tonight and got a SubWay and watched Thor on Pay per View. It is great weather at the moment, quite hot even though it's winter.

Today's drive up to the Haleakala Crater was a real treat! It is the centre piece of the Haleakala National Park. The observation area above the visitor's centre is a shade over 10,000 feet over sea level. The volcano's summit would have been much higher before many years of rainfall and erosion have reduced it to its present height. The ecosystem at the top is like nothing anywhere else on the island. It is barren, brown and cold and the vegetation is sparse and...

I checked out a couple of nature refuges today. One was the Kealia Coastal Boardwalk near Maalaea based on a wetland area behind the coastal dunes. The other was the Kanaha Pond Wildlife Sanctuary which is a great pond and wetland right on the edge of the CBD in Kahului. Impromptu whale watching is more fun however. There really are lots of humpbacks around here at the moment. A popular lookout is Papawai Point, also near Maalaea. I kept watch here for a while a...

Today I headed right up the west side of Maui, to the northern section past Kapalua. Up this far the road is narrow and windy, so I saved my photos for the return trip where I could more easily pull into the various scenic lookouts. It is rugged and beautiful and hundreds of folk are picnicking and snorkeling at the numerous coves along the west coast, which is comparatively sheltered from the trade winds which dominate Hawaii's weather. This section of coast is ...

This morning I walked down to the beach near me - boy was it hot and steamy. It cooled off later when I drove up to the Iao Valley State Park on the western side of Maui. The interior of the Park is not readily accessible as it is mostly steep mountainside, but the scenery from the visitor area is rugged and breathtaking. It is by far the highest and wettest part of Maui. After that I cruised down into Kahalui which has the island's main business district. I...