Run for the Whales and the Road to Hana

On Saturday the Pacific Whale Foundation held the "Run for the Whales" which is a fund raising event to help support research and provide opposition to the Japanese who are still trying to get approval to commercially hunt the Humpback Whales. Jude and I both signed up for the 5k event with her planning to walk and me planning to run. I think she surprised herself by running most of the event. I surprised myself too as I managed to finish 3rd in my age group and was presented with a medal. What a team!



On the next day we took the long "Road to Hana" which is a really popular day trip in Maui. The slow, winding road through a lush paradise driving for miles along the cliffs. As we found out, it's not the destination but the journey that really made the trip. Can make out the two little white cars on the road along the cliff in the picture below?

We passed over about 50 one lane bridges and stopped at more waterfalls than I can remember. This one is huge at about 150 feet high, although in the blog picture below it's really hard to tell that there is a person standing in front of the falls.

We also hiked about 3 kilometers up a steep trail, through eucalyptus and bamboo forests and past massive banyan trees.

The next day, I somehow managed to convince Jude to try an introductory SCUBA dive, although for some unknown reason she seemed to warm up to the idea much more after she met the Dive Instructor, Patrick.

She did great and overcame her fear of sharks (due to watching the movie "Jaws" too many times) and became comfortable under the water and was able stay under for quite awhile, following Patrick around like a little puppy.

I am including this short video of a Spotted Moray Eel just for Li as I know how much she loves eels! If you listen closely you can hear the whales calling to one another!

That night we stopped to watch the sunset and saw a father and daughter fishing while standing on the edge of some shoreline fish pools that were built about a hundred years ago.

That's about it for Hawaii. On Saturday we fly to the land down under to begin the second phase of our adventure. We leave Maui with mixed emotions as we have had such a fabulous time here. But we know it's only a farewell not a goodbye as we will return one day!