Day 2: North west Maui: Dragon's Teeth, Blowhole, & Hairpins

Day 2 - Tuesday, August 31 - We awoke this morning at 4am. I guess that's what happens when you go to bed at 7 the night before. Instead of fight it we decided to take advantage and check out the sunrise. Little did we realize we're staying on the completely opposite side of the island to see the sunrise.  By 6:15am we were out of the hotel and onto the beach for our first adventure.

With Maui Revealed in hand we headed down the beautiful beach path toward Black Rock. It's a lava formation that is believed, by the Hawaiians, to be the jumping off point for spirits. The area is about a mile from our hotel and a beautiful walk. Along the way we saw large pieces of coral washed up on the beach, a lobster, and a few inviting hammocks! As you can see from the pictures, we couldn't get too close to Black Rock due to the signs that warned of "possible death." Although we learned, by the end of the day, they're warnings and not the law we opted on the side of common sense here.

We then headed back to the hotel to pick up our car. By 7:45 we were on the road to Dragon's Teeth aka Makalua-puna Point. The site is again a result of lava. But this one, instead of the large boulders like Black Rock, is made up of jagged rocks that have been formed to look dragon's teeth by the awesome power of the wind and sea. We had to walk along a beautiful golf course to get this spot where the lava is literally cut razor thin and it was so worth it. Little did we know it was nothing compared to what we were about to see.

Heading further north along the western side of Maui we stopped at a stunning overview of this bay. There were tons of snorkelers even at 8am.  On our way to the Nakalele Blowhole we stopped and bought the best pineapple we've ever eaten from a "fruit stand" along the side of the road. Between the two of us we ate the entire pineapple "corn on the cob style" in about 5 minutes. It was delicious!

The blowhole was nothing like what I've ever seen before. After a challenging walk down a very steep and rocky cliff we got our reward. An freak of nature that is, in my opinion, a must see in Hawaii.  I can only best explain it by saying that a lava platform has a manhole size hole in it.  Strong waves push water into under the lava platform and the force pushes water up the hole. The blowhole can shoot water 70 feet into the air. It was truly amazing and the topography around the area looked like the moon. I never imaged the wind and water had so much power!

Olivine Pools from above

Bob in the Olivine Pools

It was then on to Olivine Pools which proved not only a challenge to find, but our biggest challenge to get to. Down a very steep mountain side we were rewarded with one of the most unique places I've ever been. Several lava pools, protected mostly by large lava boulders and created by the ocean water that got past them, this was definitely worth seeing. While most were shallow one was at least 20 feet deep.

We then took what proved to be a nail-biting drive around the rest of north Maui. With hairpin curves every few feet and single lane road for most of the 15 mile trip it was worth the homemade banana bread and coconut candy we picked up Julie's shack along the way.

After a long morning of driving we returned to the hotel to get ready for a dinner show at Warren and Annabelle's. This one-man magic and comedy show was absolutely hysterical and I would have paid double what we spent to see the two hour show.  The close up magician was simply unbelievable pulling two bowling balls from a hat that he'd just put on a guy's head to linking and then unlinking three solid wedding bands belonging to three men in the audience all while doing it just inches from us. We were in the front row and he had us laughing and stunned for two straight hours.