West Maui and the Whales: Travis Narrates

G'day! Or better: Aloha!

Hawaii remains exciting. I'll tell you what we've experienced in the last two days alone...! Phew.

The day before yesterday we drove around West Maui. We had wonderful views and in some places it almost looked like Kauai, so much green on the high mountains with the deep valleys in between!

The road was often quite narrow and only one vehicle could fit on it. Then it was always really exciting when someone came towards you. Especially if it was an excavator!

And of course we didn't just sit in the car, we kept stopping at worthwhile places. We looked at something there and went for a bit of hiking.

We found lots of beautiful things in a gallery. My oldest couldn't really say no to that.

As always, I had a front seat on the short hike:

And our views were each more beautiful than the other.

There was a rather sad dedication on the bench. And at the same time it's somehow nice that the girl is remembered in such a wonderful place. It's interesting what goes through your head at times like this.

As we drove further, we also passed a beach where there were crazy waves. From a distance they looked as if they were as tall as a house. And imagine, there were a few people who actually swam around with boards. At the highest point of the wave they jumped onto the board and were then able to basically ride the wave. That's what it's called surfing, my oldest said. And sometimes they could drive through a tunnel that the wave made. And you wouldn't believe it: they actually came out the other end (most of the time).

Later we came through a town called Lahaina. There was a terrible fire there some time ago and more than 100 people died. Large parts of the town burned down. On the tour you largely avoid the town, but you do pass some places where there was a lot of fire. They built walls as privacy screens. And in one place there were lots of pictures drawn by children.

Everywhere on Maui you come across the topic and there seems to be a lot of solidarity. My oldest said it's called solidarity.

Where we were staying (in Kihei), there was some pretty bad flooding that night because it was raining and storming so much.

We had no water for almost a day, but luckily we were otherwise not affected.

Yesterday we went on the boat: whale watching!

We saw so many whales. Humpback whales. They come to the waters between December and April to mate and have their young.

Maybe there was something going on! When such animals weighing over 40 tons are in action... Wooaaaahhh!

I can't tell you how impressive these powerful animals were. And we also saw a baby whale practicing rising out of the water. They call it “breaching”. The children learn everything by watching and imitating. They then move back to Alaska or the North Pacific with their mom. They learn how to find food and come back to Hawaii with their mother the next season. There they then part ways.

By the way, they are not called humpback whales because they have a hump, but because they do one before diving and then only the dorsal fin and the curved back are visible out of the water.

Today, before we continue on to the Big Island, we listened to a lecture at the Visitor Center of the "Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary" and looked at the exhibition. The Vsitor Center is right next to our accommodation. We learned a lot more there.

There was also the skeleton of a “Hawaiian Monk Seal” to admire.

Now we're heading to the Big Island. I'm so excited: Volvano National Park, night diving with manta rays...

What else is to come?

See you soon and greetings from Travis the Buddy Bear