ThursdayJust like everyone on their first morning in Hawaii, we woke up super early due to jetlag. We had to be up early anyways though, as check in at the heliport was at 8:00am. After waking up and packing up for the day, we went down to the dining room for some breakfast. It’s moments like those that keeping Kosher is a bit of a slap in the face
. The food at the buffet looked and smelled incredible, but we had to stick to fruit, cereal and freshly squeezed juice. It was good though, and can’t complain about free breakfast.
Outdoor seating area of dining room overlooking pool:
After breakfast we got into the car and made the 25-minute drive to the heliport. We checked in (our tour was of West Maui and Molokai), were shown a brief security video, our daughter was given baby headphones and before we knew it, we were ready to take off! Although I originally requested for us to be seated in the front, when we got there we were told that you couldn’t sit in the front with a lap infant so we were seated in the back. It was still spacious and the views were still spectacular. The side windows were pretty big (we were on the EcoStar) and our pilot made sure to make a 360-degree turn whenever we were in a particularly beautiful area so that everyone got a chance to see the view directly. He was also super friendly and was constantly making conversation with us and told us about what we were flying over. I’ll stop blabbing though and instead of describing what we saw (which wouldn’t do it justice), here are some pictures:
Blue Hawaiian's Building:
EcoStar:
Bunch of pictures from up in the air (don't remember where exactly each picture was taken):
Although it was pricey, I’m extremely happy that I bit the bullet and spent on the helicopter tour. It was really an incredible experience and I strongly recommend it as an activity when you visit Maui. Having experienced it, I think it would have been a HUGE mistake to skip it. And for anyone that is going to Hawaii with a baby and is concerned about how their kid is going to behave on the helicopter, just like Blue Hawaiian told me would happen, my daughter fell asleep within a few minutes of takeoff and woke up when we landed.
After finishing up our helicopter tour, we drove to Iao Valley to walk through the Iao Valley State Park (I guess you can call it a small/easy hike?). It’s only about a 20-minute hike and had some really nice views of the valley and the Iao Needle. Depending on the path that you take to get to the top of the hike, you pass a really nice stream that some people went into (we didn’t).
Iao Needle:
Valley:
Stream (don't have a better picture):
Once we were done with Iao Valley, after taking a short break in the car to eat lunch, we started our drive towards the Nakalele Blowhole. Though apparently (according to the concierge at the Andaz) some people drive through West Maui to get there and then once there, turn back and drive through West Maui to get back (skipping out the one-lane drive along the northern tip of the island) because it’s “faster,” we took the one-lane highway route because there was no rush and more importantly, it would be a crime to miss out on those views. If I remember correctly, the drive from Iao Valley to the blowhole took a bit over an hour, though we stopped several times to get out of the car and take pictures. It’s definitely not the simplest drive, and with all the sharp turns you need to take it slow, but most of the people driving there are super patient and considerate so it’s nothing to be scared of. You just have to watch out for the locals who zip around the bends in their big pickup trucks.
Some of the views during the drive to the blowhole:
At one stop, after taking a few pictures and turning back to go to my car, this seemed like a scene right out of Breaking Bad (Heisenberg's car, though different color
):
After a beautiful drive, we eventually got to the blowhole. As many others have written, it’s a bit of a trek down to the blowhole so we watched it from the top for a bit and then I went down myself to get some more pictures because the trip down didn’t look like a smart thing to do with a baby. I don’t know what the highest it ever goes is, but it was spraying pretty strong when we were there so it was definitely cool to see. The views of the cost from down near the blowhole are also really nice.
The famous warning:
NOT the waterpark:
After getting some nice pictures we got back in the car and continued driving along the coast. About 10 minutes past the blowhole (I think), there was a guy selling pineapple and coconuts on the side of the road so we stopped and got one coconut and one pineapple for a total of $20. Rip off, I know, but it was fun so we just did it. YOLO, right?
They gotta make the cupholders in the Chrysler 300 bigger:
We thought about doing a small hike somewhere along the way but the concierge told us that most of them in that area would be too difficult to do while carrying a baby in a baby carrier. Either way, our daughter fell asleep shortly after we left the blowhole and we didn’t want to wake her up so we just drove back along the western coast to the hotel. In total, we basically drive the entire western portion of the island.
On the way back up to our room, I stopped by the concierge to pick up a GoPro from them to use when I went scuba diving the next morning. It’s free for any guest and is officially one of their listed benefits of the resort fee (which you don’t pay for when on a points booking). I haven’t really seen anyone make any mention of it anywhere but I personally thought it was a great feature and I wish more hotels offered it. I love using a GoPro while scuba diving or snorkeling but I’m not really ready to bite the bullet and buy one so it was nice to be able to borrow one from the hotel at no charge.
Once we got back up to our room, we popped dinner in the toaster oven. For this trip, instead of buying dairy meals too, DW made them and froze them a few days before our trip. For Thursday night we had fettuccini alfredo and baked ziti and both were great! I think we’re going to do this for future trips too as it was obviously a much cheaper option and it didn’t take DW that long to do.
While dinner was heating up, I went down to the gym for a bit. The gym at the Andaz is really nice. It has everything that you may need along with a fridge of cold towels.
After dinner, we were pretty exhausted from a fun-filled first day in Maui and my scuba trip was set to leave the dock at 7am so we called it a night.
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