Maui 2008 - Day 2

On Monday, (September 29, 2008) our plan was to see the sunrise on top of the Haleakala crater, a now inactive volcano. The crater is located in Haleakala National Park, a 28,655 acre park of which 19,270 acres are wilderness. We had to get up early to see the 06:09 AM sunrise. We got up at 3:00 AM and left Kahana at 3:40 AM. The road is very windy and may require the consumption of Dramamine or Bonine the night before. On the way there, we noticed some sugar cane fields on fire on the way to the crater. They appeared to be controlled burns. We arrived at the summit and parked our car at 05:40 AM. There were a number of cars (50+) and a few buses in the summit parking lot. Just before dawn, the period between dark and sunrise, we saw a lot of stars. The sky was very clear. I setup the camcorder and started to record the sunrise. We also took a lot of pictures.







Unfortunately, some people decided it was a good idea to take very young children to the summit. These two children cried and whined for the attention of their ignorant parents the entire time. Anyways, the sunrise was beautiful. You must do it once. I don't need to do it again. I have photos!

As we came down the mountain, we went zip-lining Skyline Eco Adventures. This was fun. If you decide to do this, you must book early! They are very popular and fill up fast. The ziplines zig zag down a long gorge at the base of Haleakala. The last zip line is over 600 ft long! As you approach each zipline, the guides give you a basic history of an endangered bird, one for each zipline. This was interesting. It was good to know that some of the zipline fee is given towards the conservation of endangered animals.

We stopped for a late breakfast at the Kula Lodge restaurant. The food was excellent. I had the malted belgian waffles and Jennifer had the standard breakfast with Portuguese sausage. The food was great and the view from our time was very nice.



After we ate, we went back to the hotel and got some much needed rest. Later that evening, we went on a sunset sailing cruise on board the Paragon, a sailing catamaran. Were were served mai tai's and beer. The food consisted of a fruit platter, fried egg rolls, and chicken breast strips. The sunset was beautiful and the water wasn't too choppy.