Times are not as they used to be. We are a crew of middle-aged traveller/tourists who like to believe we are as we were in our twenties. The Internet described our proposed hike as needing 'legs of steel' but, alas, our knees were made of pretzels or something equally unstable. We are a colony of hurtin' knees and feet. We set out on the Lahaina Pali Trail following the gradual incline along a desert-like landscape. The hot sun bore down on us as we walked along with a spring in our step until....we looked above with trepidation at the steepness ahead. In no time our pleasant gradient turned into a 400 meter vertical climb.

Given that my theme for 2015 is 'graceful pacing', instead of trying to keep up with the group, I listened to the wobbly shaking of my thighs and the scraping of bone on bone in my knees and declared, "I won't ever get down from here unless I turn back now!". After negotiating my escape, and Brenda kindly offering to accompany me knowing her knees and the strain of a steep downhill walk, the two brothers headed on upward while we made the slow and painful journey back to the start. Our hike took us 1.5 hours so we had 2.5 more hours to kill before Jim and Jack finished. With no hesitation, we drove off to find a cool drink, a swim at a beach and located the parking lot to pick up the boys once they were finished. A young man had descended down into the lot while we were waiting. When we asked him if he'd seen two men, he gave us a puzzled look and said, "two old guys?". I guess we are not as young as we feel!

Krista, our niece and Jack and Brenda's daughter, arrived from Vancouver tired and ready for a 5-day R&R interspersed with local activities. Interestingly, the pace quickened substantially from the day of her arrival until her departure. It's hard to believe that that was restful for her - although a 10:00pm bedtime on the eve of her 30th birthday was not likely the same as it would have been for her at home.

Fighting off a cold that was moving through the group of us, I didn't go to the 6-hour snorkelling cruise which turned out to be uneventful and allowed me to show up in fine form for the evening at the Old Lahaina Luau, a traditional hula and feast. What furn that was! The photos say it all.

During our planning of the this trip, my California brother who frequents the higher end of travel, insisted I go to the Grand Wailea (a Waldorf Astoria hotel) spa so Krista, Brenda and I spent our Sunday afternoon being exfoliated, massaged, bathed and pampered amongst the glitz of a truly extravagant hotel. Krista's massage therapist warned her to keep her eyes peeled for celebrities. It was a day of heaven for us girls!

Haleakala is the dormant volcano that hasn't blown since 1790. All the guide books and websites emphasize seeing the sunrise so we couldn't miss out on that. Up at 3:00am and out the door at 3:30, we drove for two hours winding our way up the 10,023 foot hulk in the pitch dark.

Do you know the goddess Pele? From Hawaiian mythology, the 'earth-eating woman', she is known for her power, passion, jealousy, and capriciousness. Well, she was in fine form that morning! The temperature was 1 degree Celsius with winds of 80 km/hour. With a large group of tourists, we waited for hours in the freezing weather as the clouds and fog swirled about us only to see minute glimpses of the sun rising. Instead of staying around for the hike we had planned, we booted on down to a warm delicious, breakfast at the Kula Lodge in the upcountry. Check out the hilarious videos of us trying to stay warm and navigating the winds!

Feeling slightly cheated having not actually seen anything but fog that morning, we decided to go up again during a clear day. We were delighted to see the amazing views into the crater and of Maui in every direction. The hike was challenging as we dipped into the edge of the crater later in the day when the light was less bright and more golden.

One of our favourite activities, which we did twice during this week, was to go to the 'Gazebo' (http://www.paradise-found-in-maui.com/ gazebo-restaurant.html) for breakfast. This wildly popular seaside, indoor/outdoor restaurant is so busy the lineup takes about an hour to get in for breakfast. We happily waited while watching for whales, chatting with others until we magically - both times - got a seaside table. You have not seen anyone eat a hearty breakfast until you have seen Jack eat his eggs and all the fixings followed by a serving of two huge pancakes smothered in butter and at least a cup of syrup. We were in awe.

Maui is famous for its sunsets and were infamous times for us. One day we planned to do the sunset but it appeared to be too cloudy so planned to postpone until the next day. However, as the sun began to drop, Krista exclaimed, "we have to catch this one!" Running madly around our condo grabbing cameras, wine, sweaters, we dove into the car and drove off like a herd of banchees. Arriving at the golf course, Krista ran off while the rest of us made our way to the rocky point on our own time. There was no time for wine or savouring the sunset as we had to return to the car while some remnants of daylight remained.

The next sunset was a gentle hike along the coastline through a field. Brenda and I had gone to a Nia class prior to setting out. I was feeling unsteady and ended up tripping on a root then moments later rolling my ankle, both times tumbling down like defective 'weeble wobble'. Thankfully I wasn't hurt but certainly that made the group slow down for me. Once we arrived at the chosen spot, Jack, Jim and Krista dashed off in opposite directions while Brenda and I watched whales breaching off the shore, the sun setting gloriously in front of us while we drank a lovely Pinot Grigio. And we made it safely back to the car as darkness dropped over us like a light blanket.

We truly are in paradise!

NOTE: To see all of Jim's Maui images in higher quality, visit his Flickr page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimneale/ sets/