Day-12 –Whale watching

After getting dropped off in Lahaina from when we returned from our visit to Haleakalā we take our whale watch trip.  Here shortly after leaving the marina we get this view of the marina, town and mountains.

We see some whales in the distance where another boat is and head in that direction.  Still some distance away I take pictures, you know, just in case they decide to disappear when we get there.

Getting closer all the time, I see three whales come up to breath and blow water into the air.  Since this is my real first whale watch, I am excited.

As we get closer this whale does a fluke dive, bringing its tail out of the water for a deeper dive.

Oh wow!  This whale has one of its pectoral fins in the air and at the same time half of its tail fluke.  Shortly after this picture it slapped the pectoral fin on the water.  The result is a very big splash.

We are getting closer to the whales, but we have to keep a distance of at least 200 yards.  Here two whales, one behind the other, have come up for a blow and are on their way back down.

A tail is displayed during a fluke dive. 

Here two whales are exhibiting different behaviors.  One is doing a regular swim dive and the other seems to have its head up spying on the small boat near it.

Another fluke dive and it probably will not be the last.

These two whales are getting close to us and are performing synchronized swimming.

The whales have changed directions and they are coming directly towards us.  The captain has turned the engines off and we are just floating.  This whale is doing a fluke dive to go under us.

These two whales are very close to the boat; exciting.

The whales went under the boat and came up on the other side right in front of this smaller boat. 

This whale was just skimming along the top of the water.  It did this for about 3-5 minutes.  Strange, since this behavior seems to happen when they sleep.

A whale with its pectoral fin raised high above the water, just before it brought it down for a big slap on the water.

One of the whales is either doing a spy hop or a head slap, don’t know which and who cares, this is great!

This whale kept its tail up above water for about a minute.  I assume it was doing a head stand under the water.

I got this whale just before it did a tail slap.

This whale is lying on its side with half of its tail fluke out of the water and a pectoral fin also out.  Shortly after this picture the whale slapped the fin onto the water.  We could hear it from the boat.

Not long after the above whale, I was watching a pod of 5 or 6 whales and this one did a spy hop or a short breech.  In either case it was great to see it and get the picture.

A whale doing a dive with its tail up out of the water.  This one was close to us.

While I was watching other whales, this whale breeched right next to this small boat.  Someone called “breech”, but by the time I turned I only got the huge splash.  Look at the size of the splash compared to the boat.  Oh well, that is why people come out often to get the picture they want.  As usual I was looking in the wrong direction at the right time.

Oh my!  This whale just threw its tail out of the water and slammed it into the water.  I think this is called a peduncle slap where the whale throws its tail out of the water.  Look way in the background you can see two other blows from whales.

A sideways dive by this whale is unusual, at least from what I’ve seen up until now.

Our time is up and as we leave the whales behind I get one last shot of three whales in the distance, one starting a fluke up dive. 

We get back to the marina and tie up to the dock.  As we are leaving the boat I notice these two crafts.  The yellow one we’ve seen earlier, but the white one really looks like a submarine.  The sub does go under water and there are large windows across from seats to allow viewing.  We grab the next shuttle back to the shopping area next to the hotel where our day ends.  

I shot a few short videos while on the whale watching cruise.  It is a little shaky because of the rocking and rolling from the waves, but you'll get the idea of the cruise.  You can either click on the small video window or click on the "Whale Watching" link, both will work.

Whale Watching

 





Tomorrow we fly home and have a noon flight.

Day-12 – Haleakala National Park

We are going to the Visitor Center at the top of Mt. Haleakalā.  Our departure time is around 7:30 am which means we will not be there for the sunrise.  Carmen is not coming today and has decided to go shopping instead.  Anyway on our way I was able to get this sunrise over the mountain.

We are looking into the valley towards the Iao Needle where we were the other day when we first got here. 

We are on our way up Haleakalā Crater Road and as we switch back and forth, we are able to see the west Maui Mountains.  The mountain here is Pu’u Kukui at 5788 feet and the town at the bottom I think is Waikapu. 

About half way up the mountain this owl was flying over the field.  I was luck to be able to get a quick picture of it as we started to turn away. 

We get to the Visitor’s Center and stop for a break, partly because of Park regulations.  Here there are some of the silversword, a rare plant.  This one is not flowering and I find out that none of the silversword was in bloom although some of the plants had bloomed.

There is also this flower which I think is a variety of poppy.

At a little over 7,000 feet and almost near the summit we can see all of the west side of the island and Pu’u Kukui. 

At the observation center we have this view.  Looking east into the crater it looks like a different world.  It is easy to see why NASA would use this location to train astronauts.

From the parking lot and observation center there is a trail leading up to this peak.  Pā Ka’oao can be reached by the trail and so I decided to hike up.

While I was walking up, I see this spider.  I wander how it is doing at 9800 feet?

One of the hiking trails through the crater that can be hiked if you have the time.  Many of the people I’ve seen on the trail have full back packs with tents and sleeping bags.  They must be planning on staying for several days.

Looking north from the overlook you can see the variations of lava and the ground lava sand that cascades along the wall.

Before heading back down the trail I get a picture of myself overlooking the crater.

We are beginning to get more clouds coming in from the east and I must say it looks pretty dramatic.

Looking east southeast over the crater rim, you can see the two mountains on the island of Hawaii – Mauna Kea, on the left, and Mauna Loa, on the right.

We are very close to the observatories on the top of Haleakalā another 250 feet and we are there. 

Here is one of the silversword plants near the parking lot.  As you can see, the plant recently flowered and the stalk is still with the plant.  Too bad we missed the flower, I hear it is really nice.

Heading back down the mountain, it is getting cloudier the further we go.  Here the cloud fog is just in the trees.  Looks like the beginning of a horror movie.

One last picture before we are off the mountain. The valley below looks fairly flat from this height.  Our hotel is around the left side of the mountain.

We drive into Makawao and drop the tour guide off to get donuts on a stick.  While she is getting the donuts we continue through town and turn around at the Maui Veterans Cemetery.  Along the way we pass this nice horse pasture.

Along the coast road to our hotel we pass several beaches and they all look inviting, to bad we don’t have time for a swim.

When we get to Lahaina those that are going on the whale watch cruise gets off, this is our stop.  For those that want to spend the afternoon in town also get off.  I head over to the town center and from the second floor of the museum I get a picture of the 2nd largest Banyan tree in the world – the 1st is in India.

While I walk around town killing time, I see this guy with several Macaws.  This one is a Blue Brazilian Macaw and is very pretty.

There were two other birds on stoops and they seem to be wrestling with each other.  One has the other in a head-lock.  Should I count to three for the pin?

I look north along the coast and see these building built over the water.  What a great place to sit on the deck and have a drink.  I wonder if you could even build like this now.

The bus drivers from a couple of islands have mentioned a flowering tree where the color of the flower changes during the day.  The flower changes colors, one color in the morning, another in the afternoon and finally an orange color in the evening before wilting.  I think this is that flower.

I

t’s getting close to the time that I will get on the boat for the whale watch.  Then I come across Captain Bob (yes, I’m calling him Bob) begging me to come in for a drink.  Too bad I don’t have the time; a nice cold grog would do in this heat.

This is the dock where we will meet our catamaran for our whale watch.

While we are waiting to go out, this “yellow submarine” was coming into the marina.  The name is Reefdancer, so I figure it is a glass bottom type of boat and allow people to view the fish on reefs without snorkeling.

We take off for our whale watch, but I’m not going to have those pictures in this posting.  Instead I will post the whale pictures in a separate whale watch posting, since there are quite a few pictures.  Here though is the sunset behind a catamaran that we have this evening.

The sun is half-way set behind Lanai and you can see the streaks of sunrays under the clouds – spectacular.

The sun is now completely down beyond the horizon.  The clouds in the distance behind the island have the golden lining seldom seen.  From the beach of our hotel we have this fantastic view. 

Tomorrow we leave to return to the mainland and home, so tonight we have to do some needed packing.