Maui Day 5: Haleakala Sunrise & Kapalua
We had another big day with amazing photos from Maui, which still don’t do justice to the beauty of their source but maybe your imagination can fill in the blanks… Read on for the sunrise at the Haleakalā Crater, 3 amazing eateries, and fabulous snorkeling at Kapalua Bay Beach.
Photographing a sunrise is such an honor in welcoming a new day. Among all the gorgeous sunrises, Haleakala Crater is quite special. This Hawaiian sunrise is above the clouds from the summit overlooking a volcanic crater. Most of the payoff is from anticipation in the dark, windy, and cold atmosphere. In the hour before the big reveal, we saw the wonders of the stars, moon, clouds, and a rainbow of colors all make their way in a beautiful dance. The moon glowed red next to a giant red star, and as the two objects rose higher in the sky a deep blue slowly lightened from bottom to top. A crack in the universe revealed as a split of light unleashed from the horizon, and then more rays bathed our faces with a warm kiss. It’s never going to be as awesome in writing as seeing it with your own eyes and experiencing it all around you, but I very much enjoyed it.
It was really a fluke we did this because I happened to check if there were any tickets left while we were at the National Park on our way to hike the Bamboo Forest yesterday. They were all sold out before for sunrise reservations, but I was able to get one at that moment! I took it as fate and Jeremy agreed we had to do it now.
Leaving Wailea at 2:30am was painful especially for Jeremy who was still tired from driving the Hana Highway yesterday, but having a parking spot ready when we reached the summit allowed us to get a nice front row view of the sunrise. I brought my winter jacket and my big hoodie which worked out because Jeremy got cold and shared a layer of my jacket. Can you tell I hate being cold? My husband wondered if it was worth it, but he said that when the sky was changing and everything was happening he got it. We explored the park a little before heading out, we had plans to go to a beach further away and wanted to eat somewhere special!
Kapalua Bay Beach
Jeremy actually read about this beach for snorkeling and decided we were going to drive the hour to get there. This was one of our favorite snorkeling experiences and beaches in Maui! I’m guessing it’s pretty popular because the hardest part was finding parking!
It had a ton more fish than Molokini and almost as much visibility. We were still just ankle deep in water, and there were already brightly colored fish at our feet hovering over the sand near the shore! Even little kids can enjoy this spot on a nice calm day. It looked like it was going to rain and the waves were moderate, but it was still an amazing swim as you’ll see in the photos below!
One of the coolest experiences of the trip was accidentally getting this close to a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle! They are endangered and need lots of respect and space, so I did swim away as Jer recorded the encounter. Such beautiful and peaceful creatures!
Let’s play “Spot the Fish”! Jeremy seems to gravitate toward spotted fishes and loves to search for eels! You’ll find an eel, a turtle, and some good camouflage going on.
Yummy Eats in Maui!
Breakfast at 808 Grindz Cafe in Lahaina
This place lives up to the hype—straight up ono-licious breakfast at affordable prices for Maui. There was a line of people outside but the wait was only about 15 minutes once we got our names on the waitlist. A family of very happy locals left as we were waiting (always a good sign). Seriously though, the food… WOW I have dreams about how fluffy and buttery these macadamia nut pancakes are, and the sweet sauce on it was almost like a layer of evaporated or condensed milk—so good!! I can eat a good amount for my favorite meal of breakfast, but these pancakes were bigger than I expected and I couldn’t finish a full stack of 3! Especially since I had a side of Kalua-Pork hash which was crunchy yet moist on the inside, super flavorful, and just the right amount of savory to offset my enormous pancakes. Jeremy raved about how delicious his meal was, including the spam! If we were staying closer to Lahaina, watch out! I would be eating here every day since there were many other items and flavors of pancakes I wanted to try.
Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice
Don’t get me started on how creamy and delicious these delights are. From ICE??! Yeah, it doesn’t make sense but just go with it, because if you close your eyes it tastes like. Mango/coconut/insert-actual-food-here is melting in your mouth. Addicting.
Koiso
Koiso was consistently rated among the best sushi on Maui and was near Wailea where we stayed, but there’s only 15 seats and reservations only! Living in a different time zone, I’d have to wait until 9pm to call when they open, so you can guess how often that happened. So we ended up with no sushi… until! I told you Jeremy is just drawn to good places to eat, right? He happened to take us to Maui Fish & Chips yesterday (also insanely good!) which was seriously kitty corner from Koiso! I decided to call them and just see if there were any last minute cancellations for the next couple of days since they were about to open. Wouldn’t you know, someone did happen to cancel right before my call, and we were able to get in the next evening!
I loved the quiet and relaxed atmosphere, the sushi clocks on the walls, and of course the very methodical sushi master expertly cutting fish and grilling eel behind the counter. He had several cuts of fresh fish and seafood that we enjoyed watching him work his magic, which was quick and perfected. We sat sandwiches between a legit Japanese older couple taking their mom out, and a young couple who had just come from the beach. Jer said it was the best octopus he had ever had, which is why he ordered another round before we left!
