Unique Maui Activities That You May Not Know About

Sisbehaving Adventure Time

As previously mentioned, my husband and I left Maui and spent a couple of days on Oahu. We flew back to Maui early in the morning and grabbed Peggy to head out for our sisbehaving adventure time.  My husband has grown accustomed to this and is fairly well versed in staying out of harm’s way. 

We knew that we wanted to check a few boxes that were off the beaten path, and the Nakalele Blowhole was first on that list.  Now, if you aren’t familiar with blowholes (yes, I’m going to giggle every single time I use the term blowhole), it’s a gamble whether it will be worth the trip. Sometimes it’s just a big hole in the ground and a snooze fest. But sometimes, it’s a super cool geological feature; we always take the risk and just go. 

Road to Nakalele

The road to Nakalele is super windy (windy, not windy, wait wait wait, no like it twists and turns a lot windy, not that there’s a huge tropical breeze), so Dramamine isn’t a bad idea.  The drive is gorgeous, right along Maui’s Northwestern coastline,  There are several lookout points, and they are all spectacular, don’t rush this drive, stop at the stops.  It’s about a 14 mile drive, but it will take you at least a half an hour if its not a busy tourist time on the road.  We recommend that you plan to take a lot longer and stop often. 

Kanounou point is beautiful.  There is also the Acid War Zone Trail (sounds lovely, doesn’t it!).

We find the Blowhole

We arrived at Nakalele, and it’s a bit of a hike down to the hole.  You can see everything if you just walk about 50 yards from the parking lot, or you can hike all the way down to the hole itself, the Blowhole.  Knowing my proclivity for falling, we opted to only hike about halfway down.  The Blowhole did not disappoint, it was super cool!  The tide comes in, Blowhole spouts up, repeat!  We LOVED IT!

And then we need food

Our intention was to hit up Miso Phat for lunch, but soon found out they don’t open until 3 (in Maui, don’t miss Miso Phat for amazing sushi). So we defaulted to Google and completely crushed our lunch when we found the Fish Market Maui. They have a lunch counter with fish tacos, burritos, and sandwiches, but they also have a fresh fish counter where they make fresh poke for take out.

I love poke.

And I love tacos.

So we may have over done it on the ordering, but it was so worth it. 

ssn – I was soooo disappointed to miss Miso Phat – it was my pick and I was unaware until I was editing our last post (Oh Hey, Kihei) that Patti & Pat went after I left. What a couple of blowholes!

Hotel time in Kaanapali

After an amazing fresh fish lunch we headed back to the hotel for some family pool time with the little munchkin and his parents. 

The hotel is showing a little bit of wear and tear, but the service was amazing.  The rooms were upgraded and the views were incredible.  We grabbed some cocktails and hit the pool.  There is not a lot of beach access in this area of Kaanapali, but swimming with an ocean view is a pretty awesome replacement, and a lot less sand in your crevices.

Sunset, Celestials, and a Whole lot of Whales

I was dying to do a sunset cruise, and found an amazing experience out of Ma’alaea with PacWhale Eco-Adventure:  Sunsets and Celestial Cruise. After catching an Uber with one of the most talkative drivers we’ve ever had, and being spectacularly entertained with his stories of his previous life as a drug mule, we found PacWhale by the Maui Aquarium.

After a safety briefing, and a quick stop in to Da Playground for their mystery shot of the day ($5 deal, but they won’t tell you what it is! But it was great!). Ok, so maybe we maybe had time for two shots.  Then we boarded a two level catamaran.

Cocktail Hour on the Pacific Ocean

The sunset cruise came complete with Mai Tais, beer, or non-alcoholic choices. We were greeted with pupus, a little evening BBQ on the boat, with sliders and finger foods.

And amazing views over the water as the sun started to set

We were there the first week of March, which is near the end of the peak whale watching season.  We were fortunate enough to see a whole lot of whales.

And they have experts available to answer whale questions and give fun whale facts.

After Dark the fun starts, in a (mostly) PG way

As soon as the sun went down, and the stars start coming out is when the second show begins.  The Sunsets and Celestial Cruise includes an after dark presentation by Astronomer Harriet Witt.  She combines astronomy, history and story telling in a captivating way. While looking up at the night sky, she explains the stellar navigation skills of the ancient Polynesians.  She also told some fantastic stories about sailors and their, how shall I put this, their own “personal guidance system”.

ssn – See, I already have to correct Patti. The sun doesn’t “go down”, the earth rolls back. Haha. This point was made repeatedly during our celestial talk. And the “personal guidance system” is quite literally, their testicles. Officially called “testicular navigation”. It’s a real thing, look it up! Again, cue the giggles…

The story telling was informative, but also fun and interesting.  This is definitely a sunset cruise that is not to be missed when in Maui.

ssn – Nerd time! There really was so much to learn, for instance, what we know as Orion’s Belt actually aligns with the equator so early navigators could measure their north & south position by it. And the North Star (Polaris) is not only the brightest but aligns closest to North Pole so as the Earth revolves, the star’s position does not appear to change relative to us. I don’t know about you but I was FASCINATED!!

The next day was our planned Day Drinking, so we headed home for some sleep after the cruise.

Read about our other Hawaiian adventures here:

• Maui Doors-off Helicopter Tour
• Iao Valley State Park
• Haleakala Sunrise and Kihei