Gettin' leid in Maui. (nobody's heard that joke before... :D )

This morning we got up before sunrise and drove about 45 minutes to the dock where we hopped on to the Maui Diamond, our dive boat for the day.  Our boat captain was funny, and must be really into diving because he had a dive flag painted on each of his big toes.  :)

We were informed right away that we would not be able to dive the Molokini crater because the water around it was too choppy.  I was pretty disappointed, but I guess I’ll have to come back to Maui sometime in the summer when the water is calmer.  Instead we dove a little shipwreck.  It was pretty creepy, as the water around it was kind of cloudy, not good visibility.  Surrounding the shipwreck were hundreds of old tires that somebody had put there in an effort to start a new coral reef.  A few bits of coral had taken the bait, and there were some colorful fish flitting in and out of the tires.  Our dive master looked into the tires for octopus, as they like to hide there, but he didn’t find any.

A rainbow on the way to the dive site.

Diving the creepy shipwreck. That's me in the corner.

Tires to encourage coral growth, or just excused pollution?

Coral growing on the boat.

An Ornate Butterflyfish on some coral.

Our second dive was right along the shore of Maui in a shallow reef with lots of coral.  We got to swim with a sea turtle that was about the size of a dinner platter, and later our dive master found a HUGE turtle the size of a dinner TABLE hiding in a hole in the reef!   We also got to see white-mouthed eels hanging out of the coral reef; they didn’t hide when we approached them like eels usually do, and we finally got to see an elusive octopus hiding around a lump of coral.  The dive master found a whole exoskeleton of a sea urchin in the reef , handed it to me, and wrote on his board that I could keep it.  :)  Let’s see if I can get that back home in one piece through four flights…

A school of Hawaiian Dascyllus fish. As they darted through the water
they made a noise that sounded like "brrr"like rolling your tongue!

A Moorish Idol fish in the coral.

A sea turtle swims by!

It swam right above me; it wasn't shy at all!

It swims away.

Me SCUBAing over a large shelf of coral. 

Coral off the coast of Maui.

Gavin got a video of the sea turtle!

Since we had gotten up really early and were tired from diving, next on our agenda was to take a short nap.  This turned into a LONG nap, and when we woke up it was time to get ready for our evening luau!

We left in plenty of time to get back to Lahaina, but there was a brush fire close to the highway that caused an HOUR delay! The fire was no longer close to the road when we got there, but the delay was caused by “gawker effect;” everybody driving by was watching helicopters carrying big buckets of water from the ocean and bringing it up to dump on the fire.

When we arrived at the Old Lahaina Luau, we were given fresh flower leis made of orchids; I had been excited about the prospect of a real lei all day!  When we were seated, the rest of our table mates informed us that we hadn’t missed much; no food had been served and the show hadn’t started yet.  The only thing we missed was watching the pig be unearthed from the underground oven.  Shortly after we arrived, dinner was served.  Gavin and I had picked seats right in front of the stage, sitting on cushions on the ground in traditional Hawaiian style, and we were also the first to get to go through the all-you-can-eat buffet.  We got to try various Hawaiian dishes that seemed warmed over; the only thing that seemed fresh was the pig they had just unearthed, and that was DELICIOUS!  The buffet also included unlimited watered-down alcoholic beverages.  :)

I was really excited about the lei.  :)

     Gavin and I at the luau. We just got leid. No, that joke never gets old...

The hula show started after dinner, and it was a bit cheesy but fun.  The male and female dancers changed costumes almost every number, wrapping and draping themselves in various leaves, flowers, reeds, and grasses.  I don’t know anything about hula to know how authentic it was, but this is supposed to be the most authentic luau on Maui.

Hula at sunset.

First hula dance of the main show. 

A hula dancer.

Yes, there were guys dancing, too. 

More hula. 

After the luau we headed back to the condo to pack.   Tomorrow we leave Maui for Kauai.