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

South West Maui - Hawaii
Round The World Trip Journal

(22nd June - 10th August) South West Maui, Hawaii
The south-western end of the island is also dry and arid but this is where you find most of the money on the island. Wailea is where the wealthy people come on holiday (Paris Hilton came here when she came out of prison - we didn't see her thankfully!) and there are loads of beautiful resorts here to cater to them. You know you've entered Wailea because the roads become tree lined with beautifully manicured verges, gardens, golf courses and lots of brightly coloured bougainvillea and other exotic plants - a very different feel to the rest of the island. And the shops reflect that too - Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, etc, etc. There is a stunning mile and a half long beach path that winds its way along three lovely beaches in front of the fancy resorts and condos - great to see how the other half live. But in Hawaii, all the beaches are public so anyone can use these gorgeous beaches - you don't have to stay here. We also went down farther south past Wailea to La Perouse Bay and walked across the lava fields to an isolated beach with great views of the black lava rocks, turquoise sea, golden sand and green palm trees. Our favourite colour combinations!
We discovered some beautiful snorkeling spots down this way at Ahihi cove, Makena Beach, Maluaka Beach and Five Graves. The best were undoubtedly Maluaka Beach and Five Graves, because we swam with turtles. Mike had been desperately searching for them and here we found them in abundance - we were swimming with between 6 and 12 of them at any one time. They are green turtles and are quite big. It's quite an experience to see them bobbing around in the waves and tumbling over each other and quite hilarious at times. Jo was quite intimidated to start with but gradually inched closer and closer - they are honestly more interested in eating the weed off the rocks than eating her!