Wednesday 23rd April

We'd pretty much packed and stored all our belongings at the house that were not needed for Maui (another one of the Hawaiian Islands). Packed up the bits and headed for the airport, dropping of the rental car we made for the terminal before taking a short flight with Hawaiian airlines.

Arriving in Maui we picked up our new rental car a CONVERTABLE. We couldn't check into the hotel that we'd booked as it was too early for that so we had a look down the west coast of Maui, through some craft markets and what not, bought a few bits to send home and had a McDonalds (terrible). After finally being allowed to check in at the hotel we (later on not straight after the McD's) got some Thai food and went to watch a movie 'forgetting Sarah Marshall' which was set in Hawaii and hilarious.

Thursday 24th April

Making full use of the convertible we had a practice run for the road to Hana and drove around the northwest topside of the island. It was crazy with big cliffy type drop offs, bendy roads and left over's from the previous volcano's on the island now dormant. You can see the bright red dirt/soil everywhere that makes Hawaii so fertile and ideal for growing all kinds of stuff, the dramatic and jaggeddy cliffs and rock faces that join to the ocean from the old lava flows and giant boulders that the volcanoes spewed out.

Once again there was more fresh pineapple involved and shops, natural sights like blowholes and crystal clear bays for snorkelling. We eventually arrived at Lahaina an old whaling town, you can see the pictures of the Banyan tree which was planted in 1873 and now is over an acre wide and 60ft high. We booked our whale watching trip for the next day and our luau for the same evening and spent some of the afternoon on the beach.

Friday 25th April

After a quick breakfast we made our way back to Lahaina and boarded our boat for the whale watching tour with the pacific whale foundation. We headed off to try and find some pacific humpback whales who come to the warm waters of Hawaii to breed each year. It was coming to the end of the season so there weren't that many whales around but the skipper was confident, during the winter months you can sit on the shore and see the whales jumping and popping their heads up and what other crazy stuff they get up to. Anyways 5 minutes out the harbour we spotted our first whale a big female that spotted loads off water and then jumped/breached clear off the water. Soon we discovered that she had a calf with her and the little one soon decided to have a go!!! There was lots of fin slapping and tails popping up. Over the next couple of hours we seen and watched 2 more groups and other mother and calf and an escort group which is a mother/calf with a male who's hoping to be next year's dad. Off in the distance you could see loads of whales jumping and popping their heads up, but the highlight was the male in the escort group breached about 100yrds away from the boat!

Back on dry land and absolutely gobsmacked we went and got some dinner at paradise burger had a look around a few of the shops and got our free bits from the whale foundation shop. We had a sun bathe and went and got changed for our luau!!!!!!!! We booked into the old Lahaina luau as it's a traditional Hawaiian experience compared to the Polynesian ones (the main difference is that there is no fire dancers). It was amazing with the buffet food the poke was great (fresh raw tuna with soy sauce and onions), the entertainment and free cocktails unfourtanlty wolfie was driving so Corinne made up for it and was a little drunk.

Saturday 26th April

THE ROAD TO HANA - with the convertible roof down we hit the fabled road to Hana and its mighty 600+turns and bends. There are lots of really cool stops along the way including waterfalls which wolfie went for a swim in one Corinne was a little bit worried so didn't!!!! Was worried there might have been eels in the bottom. A black sand beach complete with Lava tubes (see pictures), loads of plants and wildlife like the family of mongooses. Finally to mention the amazing and very dramatic views which were breathtaking and the pictures just don't do justice. We arrived at Hana just before dark and had a bite to eat and headed back to do it in the dark which was even scarier and we ended up with seasickness (just kidding).

Sunday 27th April

After a couple of crazy and busy days we took the time to do a little bit of nothing, we went to play a little mini-golf which ended at one game each and it was so hot we cooled down on the bumper boats complete with waterfalls and water cannons on the front of the boats, needless to say we ended up drenched but it was all good fun. We arranged to meet the couple from Oahu that night at a local beach party and after arriving at the beach walked over the cliff and found out it was a nudist beach full of hippies rolling around in the sand and hugging and rubbing each other (there was even a guy surfing naked am now mentally scarred for life). We left them to it unable to locate the friends and sunbathed on the adjoining beach. It was soon back to bed though as we had a very early start.