Day 27 : Maui - The Trickster God

 

Yesterday (Feb 1st), we visited Maui - #3 in our four-island hop. The island was originally called Ihikapalaumaewa (not exactly rolling off the tongue) but was later named Maui. Legend has it that the discoverer of the islands, Hawai'iloa, named the island Maui after his son - who was named after the now infamous (thanks to Disney & Moana) trickster god, Maui. 

The island itself is, like its cousins, volcanic - created between 1.5 and 2 million years ago. There is currently one active volcano, Haleakala, although it hasn't erupted since 1790. Up until 350,000 years ago, there was one big Maui island, Maui Nui, growing steadily from west to east, consisting of 7 active volcanoes. The land then subsided, forming two islands, one consisting of the current-day islands Molokai and Lanai (plus the now-submerged Penguin Bank) and the second containing Maui and Kaho'olawe. If you look at Maui with a bit of imagination it is like a head (West Maui) on top of a bobble toy body (east Maui/Haleakala) with a valley in between. Give it 15,000 years, and it will become two islands. Double the tourism!!

Allison and I split up for the day and took different excursions. She went whale watching on a Zodiac RIB boat. One of Allison's talents is being the "whale whisperer." She can spot sealife way before anyone else can, and it was true today. Quite often, the tour guide/boat captain will offer her a job if she ever needs one as the mammal detector. The boat was surrounded by whales, all conveniently just too far away for that fabulous shot with an iPhone, but she still grabbed a couple of spectacular whale tail photos. 

I took a 4-mile hike through the Maui rainforest with 9 other brave souls and our amazing guide, Marko. Not only was he a walking encyclopedia of facts about flora and fauna, he also knew where all the waterfalls were and gave us a couple of challenging rockface climbs. A fun day. The water in the waterfall pools is freezing cold (it felt the same as Greenland), but you have to swim (or jump) if you want to get round the back of the waterfalls and hang out on the ledges that seem to exist behind each waterfall. 

There is not much wildlife other than birds. A few feral pigs, mongoose and that's about it. However, you're surrounded by fruit and flowers. There is a small purple flower, which, when eaten, is the equivalent of 1/1000 of a Xanax. I tried it, and it tasted like .. a flower. We also sampled apple bananas, which look like baby bananas, and are incredibly sweet. We also passed by papaya, cocoa beans, coffee beans, and way more than I can ever remember.

The story that did stick with me is this.  Ohi'a and Lehua were young lovers. Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, had a romantic interest in Ohi'a, who rebuffed her. In a fit of jealous rage, she turned him into a tree - the Ohi'a tree. Pele refused to undo her evil deed, so the other gods turned Lehua into a bright red blossom on the Ohi'a tree so that the could always be together. Local lore says if you pick one of the blossoms, it will rain - as Lehua's tears at being separated from her lover.

Today we're visiting Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. Except we didn't. Big adventures at 6:15am this morning. More on that later!!