For once in maui, we actually had something planned. Today we are going on a Whale Watching session! by the Pacific Whale Foundation. We had to drive up to Lahaina. Of course this was totally my idea cos, this was my freaking fyp ok! I've been seeing photos of humpback whales' tails for the entire year.. so now time to see the Real thing! Well they guarantee sightings, or you get another trip on them til you see them.
on the way north, along the west coast towards lahaina
we were kinda just on time, and by the time we found parking i think we were late. But it din occur to us and we happily sauntered into the gift shop where we were supposed to register.. The attendant there hurriedly told us to join the rest who were across the street and ready to leave! Wow, it was a big group indeed. We almost didn't make it.. felt pretty irritated about it.
I had chosen this tour because they say they give some education about whales.. and have a hydrophone to let you hear the whales communicating. We did see a few whales.
What happens is you look in the horizon and first you see spouts of water coming up!! That's from their blowhole. They will spew water a few times. So you slowly wait, and after a while, they will dive a couple of times, such that you see their fin. And lastly, you will see their beautiful tail appearing above the surface, a fountain of sea water cascading down the tip, and then it will dive to the bottom, not to be seen for at least 10 minutes. I think we mostly saw them in pairs.
Then they would switch off the engines so that you can hear the hydrophones clearly. Er, I don't remember hearing anything distinctive.
You're gonna be disappointed seeing my photo haha, most of them were just water i couldn't see a thing, i don't know what i was taking man. I guess my zoom is just not powerful enough. This following one really tests your eyesight. Sadly it's the only one that I can even see any whale action in, the rest of the photos are discarded. See if you can spot the whale, hahaha.
I had chosen this tour because they say they give some education about whales.. and have a hydrophone to let you hear the whales communicating. We did see a few whales.
What happens is you look in the horizon and first you see spouts of water coming up!! That's from their blowhole. They will spew water a few times. So you slowly wait, and after a while, they will dive a couple of times, such that you see their fin. And lastly, you will see their beautiful tail appearing above the surface, a fountain of sea water cascading down the tip, and then it will dive to the bottom, not to be seen for at least 10 minutes. I think we mostly saw them in pairs.
Then they would switch off the engines so that you can hear the hydrophones clearly. Er, I don't remember hearing anything distinctive.
You're gonna be disappointed seeing my photo haha, most of them were just water i couldn't see a thing, i don't know what i was taking man. I guess my zoom is just not powerful enough. This following one really tests your eyesight. Sadly it's the only one that I can even see any whale action in, the rest of the photos are discarded. See if you can spot the whale, hahaha.
I was really disappointed that they didn't breach, i.e. jump out of the water and land on their side.. yeah.. so we only saw tails. We could actually identify whether they were different sightings from the pigmentation on their tails. Argh, this is reminding me too much of my fyp.
For the benefit of you who don't get what we saw.. here's what it should look like, although we didn't get to see them so close up.
So.. humpback whales actually can be sighted in rather shallow waters. They migrate from Alaska to Hawaii during the winter to escape from the cold. Then they sleep like crazy in Hawaii. They don't eat at all here. It's like, Alaska is the dining room, and Hawaii is their bedroom. They have never been filmed mating. That's all I can remember from the whole trip, haha.
The seas were rather rocky and we were pretty sea sick but luckily we didn't puke. Just kinda rested on the way back.. Haha. Chao keng. Since we were already on the more northern part of Maui, we traveled a little higher to reach the Kanaapali beach! This beach was named America's Best Beach in 2003. It's a rather small stretch, and bordered by a few higher end hotels. You gotta really watch out for the 'Public Access' sign and go by a narrow lane to reach it.
There were quite a few people surfing there, but since we still had our snorkeling gear, we went snorkeling even though it seemed like it was more of a surfing beach?
For the benefit of you who don't get what we saw.. here's what it should look like, although we didn't get to see them so close up.
courtesy of the internet
So.. humpback whales actually can be sighted in rather shallow waters. They migrate from Alaska to Hawaii during the winter to escape from the cold. Then they sleep like crazy in Hawaii. They don't eat at all here. It's like, Alaska is the dining room, and Hawaii is their bedroom. They have never been filmed mating. That's all I can remember from the whole trip, haha.
The seas were rather rocky and we were pretty sea sick but luckily we didn't puke. Just kinda rested on the way back.. Haha. Chao keng. Since we were already on the more northern part of Maui, we traveled a little higher to reach the Kanaapali beach! This beach was named America's Best Beach in 2003. It's a rather small stretch, and bordered by a few higher end hotels. You gotta really watch out for the 'Public Access' sign and go by a narrow lane to reach it.
There were quite a few people surfing there, but since we still had our snorkeling gear, we went snorkeling even though it seemed like it was more of a surfing beach?
There was a grand total of.. 1 fish. wth. Maybe that's why everyone is surfing?? We felt damn sian so we decided to go search for food instead. stupid best beach, waste our time! The surroundings was really nice though.. I liked the crowd and the atmosphere.
We found a chinese cafe really near the beach.. There was a Taiwanese lady with a Chinese husband I think.. she was really friendly and she recommended me the spicy Beef noodle. pb took some pork chop noodle.
We found a chinese cafe really near the beach.. There was a Taiwanese lady with a Chinese husband I think.. she was really friendly and she recommended me the spicy Beef noodle. pb took some pork chop noodle.
my spicy beef noodle was SO DAMN GOOD. I want summore.
Back at Kaanapali beach after lunch. Best beach leh, cannot let go of it so easily. I was too lazy so I bummed on the beach instead. Actually it's also because there were quite a lot of rocks at the shore and I hated it. Don't know how those kids can play there.. so dangerous. See pb with his hot pink float. Hee..
Because we still had our snorkeling gear, after a while we decided to go search for more snorkelable beaches back south. We followed the map that the Boss Frog people gave us, it showed clearly which beaches were good for Boogieboarding/novice or advance surfers/snorkeling. I think we went to one of the Kamaole beaches.
Because we still had our snorkeling gear, after a while we decided to go search for more snorkelable beaches back south. We followed the map that the Boss Frog people gave us, it showed clearly which beaches were good for Boogieboarding/novice or advance surfers/snorkeling. I think we went to one of the Kamaole beaches.
I was very amused by the way they put the reflectors on TREES! See the yellow plates on those trees? Really very kampung. Notice the sea is on our right, cos we are traveling South along the West coast of Maui. In fact for our whole trip we only took this road, either north or south of the west coast.
i dont like these things. apparently the red pencil urchin is not dangerous and can be picked up but the black one is a no no.
This is the state fish! and it is called the humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Why they make the names so difficult to remember, I don't know. It literally means "fish who comes out of the water and sounds like a pig".. or some people say it's cos the fish has a snout like a pig.
I was floating so near these things but I still risked my life for a good shot of these prickly things, before frantically trying to swim away... The things I do for this blog...
one more pencil urchin, and a pbsaurus
humuhumunukunukuapua'a again!
After a slightly more fish-filled snorkel, we got back to wash up before emerging for dinner.. Today's dinner was at an Italian restaurant called Bada Bing, right next to Pupu Lounge.
Freshly baked seafood pizza and my macadamia nut mahi mahi pasta which made my cough a lot worse.. Boo. The seafood pizza was not like anything we had had before.. It was filled with fresh fresh seafood.. Loved it! Neither was the macadamia nut mahimahi pasta an ordinary linguini.. macadamia nut leh!
It was yummy yummy. They had these bread balls fried in olive oil.. Kinda oily but we were so hungry they tasted great! Had to dapao the pizza for the next day though.
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