4th July

Dear travel diary

Sunday, July 4th, 2021

I didn't sleep well again last night and woke up at 5:00 a.m. Since we have our car today, we wanted to leave early and ordered an Uber to the airport.

Once again at the airport, we were able to choose our car and drove to the town of Kula, which is in the middle of Maui. Unfortunately, there was nothing to see there, so we drove through Makawao and to Paia to the hostel. We had to register for tomorrow's tour at 1:00 p.m., so we returned for lunch right away. Shortly after 1:00 p.m., we were able to register and continue with our program.

We continued to Makena Beach, located on the west coast. A long and wide beach with high waves breaking near the shore. Twice these waves came so unexpectedly that I could only dive into them and resurface with a lot of sand in my bikini.

In the early evening, we struggled to put on warm clothes, which was not easy due to the salt and sweat. Nevertheless, we somehow managed and made a short picnic shopping stop at Haleakala.

The drive to the volcano gradually felt like Switzerland. The green meadows, fir trees, cows, and winding roads reminded us of a mountain pass. The cows, like ours, in the middle of the road with their calves.

Once we reached the top, we enjoyed our sandwiches with vegetables and dips. You could hear us eating this bread. Every now and then someone shouted with joy because it was finally real bread again.

However, shortly after 7:00 p.m., we had to leave the food behind in the car and sprint outside because the sun was slowly saying goodbye to us. We caught it as desired and then returned to the warm car to continue eating and marvel at the colors and stars. Although it was once again a beautiful sunset, the one on Mauna Kea was more impressive.

The descent was also beautiful as the stars became stronger and stronger. We also saw the lights of the cities and occasional fireworks.

After refueling, we returned the car and took an Uber back to the hostel. After a shower, I went straight to bed because I was completely exhausted.

Monday, July 5th, 2021

When I woke up again shortly after 6:00 a.m., I put the nearest thing over my head to gain more darkness and be able to sleep a few more minutes. Eventually, I dozed off again until shortly before 8:00 a.m. and then got up for breakfast.

At 10:00 a.m., the tour with Jaret started again. Fortunately, there were only nine of us with him today, which made it much more comfortable and easier. Our first stop was once again at Foodland, and then we continued to D.T. Fleming Beach.

Suddenly, the water was dangerously close to my towel and I had to move further back. It was also very windy, creating sand dunes on my towel. The water was correspondingly restless and filled with towering waves. Like yesterday, I had to dive underwater several times today to avoid being thrown onto the shore. When I had enough of the sand everywhere, I went to the restroom to clean the sand out of every crevice.

More or less clean, we had our lunch at a picnic table. We then drove to the Nakalele Blowhole along a red coast. This partly reminded me of southern England. The descent to this hole proved to be somewhat difficult with our flip-flops, and we felt like the biggest tourists (which we actually are). This geyser sprayed tons of water, and suddenly we were also wet because a huge wave crept up from behind.

Fortunately, we didn't get very wet, and it dried well on the way back to the bus. Still on this road, we made a stop at Honolua Bay. Here, however, we only took a walk through a fairytale, Avatar-like scenery. Beautiful large trees with green plants hanging down.

The last point of interest were the "Dragons Teeth". These teeth were formed by the relatively thin lava and the incoming waves. The lava suddenly cooled down, creating these jagged edges. Some people also jumped off the cliff into the water and tried to get out without injuries.

We continued to Lahaina, where we could pass the time again until we drove to another beach for the sunset. By chance, we were able to watch a junior surf contest and were amazed at the tricks the young ones were already doing.

The sunset on the long stretch of beach along the road was cozy. With the black stones, driftwood, and trees next to it, it looked like a picture book.

For dinner, we only had some salad with toast as we weren't very hungry.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2021

Today we were allowed to "sleep in," which for me meant until 7:00 a.m. I couldn't sleep any longer and sat in the courtyard, which was already busy.

Around 9:00 a.m., we were able to prepare pancakes with the remaining batter, one of the last ones. Then we lay around lazily and enjoyed doing nothing.

When it got too hot, we moved our chill-out spot indoors to the couch until Domi came out of the room in his sports attire. So I also put on mine and did some sports with him for almost an hour until everything hurt.

After my quick shower, we all did the laundry together, and the lying around continued. With the first load, I folded everything neatly, and when the second load came out of the dryer, we had to throw it in again as it was still slightly damp.

In the meantime, the girls wanted to go down to the town, so we left Domi behind. He kindly folded the second load and then joined us. Today we decided to eat in a restaurant and chose a pizzeria. They have real Italian pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven.

After an ice cream tasting, we walked back up to the hostel and jumped into the hot tub for a moment.