Looking a whale in the eyes.

Sorry for the delay! We bought a domain name for our blog now so it took about a week and a half to get it all set up. Our blog is now located at www.frozenkona.com - Yay! We are quite excited having our own website! :) OK- now on to the good stuff..

Maui No Ka Oi...
A few friends told us that saying who are from Maui.... "Maui is the best", and we tend to agree.
The Big Island is what made Mark and I truly fall in love with Hawaii and Maui had a lot of what we loved about Big Island. Beautiful cloud topped mountains, crystal clear blue ocean waters, and upcountry farms with panoramic views of the entire island are just a few things that had us in awe. Maui unlike the big island seemed to have more shopping, dining and late night options that stayed open past 8pm, but with all the other aspects of what had us fall in love with Kona as well. Our Maui trip was very short lived.. we arrived Thursday afternoon and left the island on the last flight out Sunday evening, but boy did we do a lot.

The highlight of the trip for everyone was hands down our close whale encounter. Our hour and a half cruise started on a very small catamaran boat.  Even though in the spring Maui has one of the highest concentrations of humpback whales in the world, we all had very realistic expectations of our cruise, hoping to see maybe a few in the distance splashing and maybe even a breech or two. As the cruise started we saw numerous humpback whales the distance breeching, slapping their fin and tail on the surface of the water and genuinely enjoying our cruise on a beautiful Maui day. But the real treat happened about half way into our cruise. A juvenile whale came directly up to our boat and played near and under our boat for nearly 45 minutes. She swam under our boat, was slapping her fin and tail right near us, and seemed genuinely curious about the boat and all of us aboard it. I have such a love and passion for marine animals and the moment that I was able to literally look a whale in her eyes from an arms reach away was something that I will never forget in my life. The entire experience felt so rare and special the whole time but even more so when another passenger said that he had been on over 100 whale watching cruises and had never been as close as we were. We heard her songs, got sprayed when she emptied her blowhole, and even saw scars on her back from an attack by an orcha. I have always seen the pictures online of these giant animals next to these small boats thinking those onboard the boat were crazy to be so close considering all the whale has to do is breach and the entire boat would be gone. That was totally us. But not even for a second were we afraid or fearful of the whale (naive maybe) because these creatures are so aware of their whereabouts and their entire environment. She was such a sweet, amazing whale and made our entire trip and left us with the most amazing lasting memories. We've posted a bunch of photos and videos of how close she really was. (Note: none of the pictures or videos needed any zoom what so ever). After about 15 minutes of sitting near her another whale came just as close to us for about five minutes. It was an out of body experience.

(^The video above and below are so worth watching. Best to watch them from a desktop computer. Amazing moments).

The Chinese New Year was observed on Thursday February 19th when we were on Maui. We didn't celebrate the day of but did get to celebrate Sunday morning. We attended a fabulous brunch at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel. There was the most amazing selection of brunch foods, fresh juices and even a chocolate fondue fountain. But that wasn't even the best part. Mid way through our brunch we were greeted with a parade of drums, lion dancers, fireworks and live music. Mark found us red envelopes that you filled with money/wishes to which you put in the lions mouth. They are lucky envelopes that are supposed to bring wealth and luck. Our lion dancers were playful so sometimes they teased you and in my case tried to eat my head (see video below). The costumes themselves are a show.. they are so colorful, shiny and just beyond beautiful. After performing for some time as the show was finishing up the lions spit out lettuce towards the crowd. The chinese word for lettuce sounds similar to 'get rich'. What a cool once in a lifetime opportunity that experience was for all of us!

That morning after being stuffed to the brim with a fabulous brunch we decided to take on the road to Hana. For me the thought of it was slightly terrifiying with its 620 turns, narrow roads and one lane bridges. But the reward seemed to out weigh the negatives so we did it (actually my mom drove for us, haha). I downloaded a really neat app on my iphone that was able to pinpoint your whereabouts and give you interesting information about the nearby surroundings including; waterfalls, amazing views, and great beaches. It was insane to be driving along the side of a cliff and on one side having an amazing elevated view of mountains and the crystal clear waters and out the other window there's a flowing waterfall visible from the roadway.Everything about it seemed so magical. The deeper you got into the road the more of a different world it felt like. To be it felt like what I always dreamed Hawaii was.. so secluded, beautiful and pure. Clint Eastwood and George Harrison are two people who even have homes here-it's no wonder why they love it. The road to Hana is one of those things I've always wanted to do in my life so it's pretty cool to check another thing off my life's bucket list!

Black sand beach

Three bears falls (Upper Waikani Falls)
When the water stream is light you see the three bears; papa, momma, and baby bear-where when the water is flowing heavy it becomes on giang bear for instance.

We got a late start on the adventure driving down Hana Highway- so we decided at about 3:30pm to turn around and head back before it got to dark. But first we had to stop at the Keanae arboretum for mark to see a bamboo forest. The two of us just arrived to the forest and a adorable hurt dog ran up to us. Keep in mind that we are literally in the middle of nowhere with the closest town being miles away. We can tell the dog is domesticated and she has a huge gash on her forehead that is bleeding and overall looks really bad. We don't think much of it as she runs away from us a few minutes later. As we were walking out we noticed my mom was waiting by the entrance and that sweet doggie was hovering around her. We were contemplating for about twenty seconds if we should take her or not then she let out a huge cry. So without question we brought her across the street and let her in the back of our rental car (Shh! The rental car company doesn't know teheh)! So here's the situation.. we are about half way down one of the craziest/dangerous roads in the world with sharp curves, turns, twists.. all while driving on the edge of many cliffs. Not only is that hard enough normally but now we are in a rush to get this puppy to the humane society before they close. To make a long story short we make it just in time! As we pull in all the workers are leaving, luckily they stayed a little longer and got the girl back to her owners! :) Oh the life of animal lovers!

Mark arrived on Friday evening to meet my mom and I but before he arrived we did a lot.
We visited ocean vodka distillery, surfing goat dairy and my favorite, Tedeschi Winery. The vineyard was located about an hour away from town in upcountry Maui. Imagine the most beautiful farm with rolling hills, crystal clear ocean and oh yeah... pineapple wine! Ah, heaven! :p They had near a dozen different kinds of wines which they let you sample in their sampling room. It was a great little spot and for sure worth visiting. We bought a bottle of pineapple wine to share with Mark when he arrived later that evening. It tastes just as good as it sounds.

One of my favorite parts of Maui was the Lahaina town. It  had a small town vibe with a ton of cute little shops lining Front street. Many shops contained souviners, restaurants, ice cream and coffee shops and a ton of shopping. The town seemed so proud of it's humpback whale vistors, which was awesome. The town itself reminded us of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin or even the Wisconsin Dells except with a little more history and of course the beautiful Pacific Ocean right off Front Street. One of my favorite parts was the banyan tree Park. It houses the oldest banyan tree on all of Maui (over 150 years old). Mark was also able to purchase a Hard Rock Cafe Maui glass to add to his collection of the different Hard Rock Cafes he's visited from all over the world.

Big Beach-my favorite!

Overall verdict:
Maui was amazing. The slower pace of life, amazing scenery, friendly people, and crystal clear waters all made our trip a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was so fun being able to share it with my mom as well.  



 XOXO, Jen & Mark