Joe Velie

Maui Trip – June 2006

by Joe Velie

We arrived in Maui at 6:00 pm local time on Monday, June 22^nd to a beautiful in-flight view of the island. This was my first time to Maui or any other Hawaiian island, so try to understand my excitement and anticipation of such a heavenly place.

the ocean view from our room

A beach-front view at the Embassy Resort was our home away from home. To say it was a temptation to get up every morning and throw on my dive gear would be an understatement!! I did indulge in four shore dives, two of which were done directly in front of our resort. I was amazing to observe the abundant fish life and to get within petting distance of several large sea turtles! Thanks to Melissa at MDC Sports I had along my fish ID cards and I believe I spotted almost every fish on those cards.

My main goal on this trip was to spend as much time as possible with my wife and with my two daughters who are so quickly growing up. My intended boat dive just didn’t happen

On Tuesday, Randy and I decided to do a beach dive in Kapalua Bay. Before we were able to dive, it was brought to our attention that the local dive shops in Maui did not carry tanks with DIN valves. Of course I didn’t bring my yoke adapter because I thought that this being such a popular dive destination they would be setup for both types of tank valves. Vacation suggestion number one: Never assume your dive destination has DIN valves.

Vacation suggestion number two: Never forget to pack your compass. So before we got our feet wet I had to purchase a DIN adapter and a compass. After all, my wife wouldn’t want me getting lost at sea, even if I was only diving in thirty feet of water. Finally after getting my equipment squared away I enjoyed my first Maui dive! The viz was around eighty feet, the reefs were gorgeous, the fish life was totally awesome and it was such a treat after diving Minnesota for so long.

My second dive of this trip was at Black Rock. This dive site is located in front of the Sheraton Hotel and Whalers Village and is part of the Kaanapali Resort area.

We all headed to the beach for this dive and I headed into the ocean on my underwater excursion. The viz on this dive had to be over a hundred feet. The current was flowing against me at the start of this dive, so I swam up around the point and then allowed the current to carry me back. I spotted my first turtle on this dive and waited about ten minutes for it to leave its hiding spot under the rock ledge so I could see him swim around. I also spotted my one and only eel. After about an hour I drifted back down to where my family was relaxing and climbed out. The experience was topped off with Sheryl serving some fresh Hawaiian pineapple. Diving doesn’t get better than this!

By the way, these were my first dives using my Halcyon Eclipse single-tank diving system and it was a wonderful experience. I will never go back to using a standard buoyancy compensator.

Before leaving for our family vacation to Maui, I contemplated whether or not to bring along my new X-Scooter. I’d been told that there would be so much to see and do on the island that it might not be worth the time and effort of bringing it along. The advice was correct, and as it turned out my most exciting adventure was not diving, but rather hiking through a bamboo jungle to reach a hidden waterfall supposedly at the end of the pathway.

The Road to Hana provided one of the most fantastic adventures of my life! We traveled our first trip to Hanna making stops at Twin Falls, Black Sand Beach, Hana Beach and then continued the traverse around the back of the island using the unpaved roads. It was so cool riding in the Jeep with the top down enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

One of the scenic views on the Road to Hana

The second trip to Hana was made with the intent of my friends getting pictures of the painted trees and the numerous waterfalls. But halfway to Hana we noticed a line of cars parked along the side of a bamboo forest.

Pathway through bamboo forest

We were told that at the end of the pathway was a large waterfall. We simply couldn’t resist. The "pathway" was several miles long through thick bamboo jungle, across creek beds, through mud holes, climbing ropes up steep cliffs and crossing several other smaller falls along the way. These smaller falls provided me with a much needed swim break to cool off.

cooling off on the way to the hidden falls

At the end of the trail I came to small gorge and had to swim about a hundred yards to reach the rock cliff that would take me up to the "big daddy" of waterfalls. Since I’d come this far I had to get a picture of the waterfall. I slipped in the water holding my backpack over my head and swam across the gorge. If that gorge were two feet longer my backpack and camera would have been soaked because I was wasted by the time I grabbed the rock wall at the other side.

I count myself a pretty good swimmer, but I know now what a drowning swimmer feels like when they reach the limit of their strength and start sinking. I made the short climb up the rock wall and took the picture. (After watching me struggle to make it across the water with my paraphernalia, Randy and Beau decided not to try it with their $2000 camera units.) Thankfully, up on the rock wall I could see an outcropping of rock about one-third of the way back across the gorge which would give me a place to rest on the swim back.

The painted trees on road to Hana

Even after using the small outcrop to rest, I was very thankful another guy was in the water and assisted me in keeping my backpack out of the water the last twenty feet. Man... I love this kind of stuff where your adrenaline is pumping and fear is nipping at the edges.

Here is the bummer.... I was the only one in our group to actually get a picture of the big falls and then lost my camera somewhere later on our return road trip. Grrrrrrr!

I needed at least one more week in Maui... although I was blessed to do a little diving, relax in the sun, browse Front Street in the evening, take the road trip to Hana, meet Tony Curtis in the art gallery and do a little eating and shopping in Walilea, I just ran out of time and didn’t make the Haleakala Crater. In my humble opinion, if you are planning a trip to Maui, bring your dive gear but don’t plan your trip around diving.

*I still have some air fills left on my card if anyone is planning a trip to Maui!