Maui

Continuing from the northwest towards the southeast - now it was Maui's turn. Here, we had another main goal - we wanted to hike through the crater of the Haleakala volcano (approx. 19 km, 900 meters downhill, but only 400 uphill). This tour was definitely not feasible with short kids' legs in 2006, but it has since become a firm part of our bucket list.

First, we spent a day on the volcano to leisurely take in all the views and viewpoints and to study the conditions - the hike actually begins with parking your car at the end and then hitchhiking back to the start. We are somewhat skeptical about how that will go, but at least there is a nice pull-out for willing drivers.
The next day, it turns out to be quite simple - the fifth car stops and picks us up, so we can begin our hike at 8 a.m. at an altitude of 3000 meters. We enjoy it very much, even though the exit from the crater (the 400 meters uphill) occurs in clouds, rain, and without visibility.

Otherwise, Maui has a certain resemblance to a slanted number 8 - we drive the upper loop one day ('Lahaina loop'), and the next day the lower one ('Road to Hana'), with the latter being illegally driven as a full loop ... actually, a section of the southern arc cannot really be called a road, but the main driver enjoys such things too, and the landscape rewards you with some particularly beautiful sections.

Before Maui lies - in the form of the small island of Molokini - one of the best snorkeling spots in Hawaii (according to travel guides/internet), which we unfortunately missed in 2006. We are now also making an excursion here, but the corals and fish life can be described as somewhat sparse ... we cannot understand the praises from our information sources - we have seen many better snorkeling areas since then.