Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

North Maui Part 1 - Hawaii ...................... (Click here for Page 2)
Gap Year Travel Journal

(22nd June - 10th August) Maui, Hawaii
Having flown from Tahiti to LA, we caught a flight the next day out to Hawaii. Now, for those of you who haven't been here, Hawaii is actually a chain of islands that includes Maui, Oahu, Kauai and Hawaii (Big Island). We flew direct into Maui and were glad it was still daylight as we flew from the south to the north of the island, up through the flat valley in between the two mountains - fantastic views. A really short runway though so lots of hard braking once we did land! We spent the whole 7 weeks in a rental cottage in Paia, a small town on the north shore of the island (the windward side of course!). Paia looks a bit hicksville - country and western style shop fronts and red dust (off the sugar plantation fields) all over everything. But this town has most things you need - plenty of coffee shops, surf shops, touristy shops and restaurants. And it's near the main windsurfing beaches, most importantly. Our cottage was fab - absolutely perfect for us.
A one bedroomed house built on stilts with a big lanai (terrace) with distant views of the sea. Very modern, with all the gadgets and conveniences we could have wished for. We'd truly found our pot of gold at the end of a rainbow because many was the time we drove home from the beach to see a stunning rainbow right over Paia which seemed to end at our cottage!
We soon settled into a routine of getting down to the beach by 11am and spending the afternoon with Mike doing his radical windsurfing moves on the water and Jo putting in some awesome moves on the sun lounger. She found a beach just around the corner from the main windsurfing beach that was a little bit more sheltered from the wind and spent many an idyllic hour gazing across at the West Maui Mountains and all the lush greenery of the Iao Valley (more on that later). Sometimes in the early morning we drove down to the south of the island (half hour away) to explore the beaches and do some snorkeling before coming back up for windsurfing in the afternoon. We celebrated Mike's birthday while in Maui and, as a special treat, we went to the best restaurant on the island - Mama's Fish House - set on it's own little beach. We had front row seats with a view to die for and the food was amazing. The photo shows Jo sipping on a virgin cocktail while Mike opted for the Mai Tai which had quite a kick! Here is a piccie of one of our pet geckos that lived with us in the cottage. This is Gordon - the daddy. There's also Gordetta, the mummy, and baby Gordini. Every night when we turned off the lights to go to bed, one of them would call out with their distinctive clicking call - as if saying goodnight to us! (Sorry guys - think all that sun has turned Jo's braincell to mush!)
The island has many characters and these change as you drive around. It is a much bigger island than the small French Polynesian islands we'd just come from. We'll break Maui down into the different parts of the island to make it easier to understand.

Video of our home for 7 weeks