A little Info about the USA - Hawaii

Hawaii became the 50^th state after it was conquered by the US. Hawaii has a few islands with only a few native Polynesians left. Nowadays most people are from other states in the US and also other Asians living there, so there are many people of mixed races. There is very beautiful scenery and it is a very relaxing place for vacation.

Since Steve’s friends recommended we go to Maui (one of the islands in Hawaii), we stayed eight nights Oct 10-17, 2007 at Ka’anapali Beach Hotel in Maui, US$180+ per night for a double bed room. We booked our hotel room package which included car rental, so when we arrived at the Maui airport, we went to the car rental center and paid for car rental tax US$36.50. We got a car and map so we could reach our hotel.

Ka’anapali beach is beautiful; we strolled and swam at a small bay with fishes and coral, and watched the sunsets… Have you ever seen a moonset? One night at around 6pm, the crescent moon was in the sky before the sunset. We were watching the crescent moon slowly going down until it was gone in the direction of sunset. Is it moonset? In the sky without moonlight all of the stars are twinkling beautifully…

We joined four tour packages:

1. Two hours (4-6pm) by small aircraft to see the scenery of Maui and an active volcano on the “Big Island” (the biggest island in Hawaii) from the air, US$395.68 per person. The tumultuous flight almost made Steve airsick – he had the airsick bag ready in his hand…
2. Six hours (7am-1pm) cruise to snorkel and see coral and fishes at Molokini, an eroded tuff cone shaped like a crescent, and to Turtle Town, US$98.45 per person. Turtle Town not only has fishes and coral, but also has a few huge sea turtles swimming together with us…
3. Eleven hours (7.30am-7pm) by van, US$114.57 per person, to the town of Hana to see the coast of Maui, the rainforest, waterfalls, black sand beach, mongooses (which eat snakes and rats), and the Ohe’o pools in Kipahulu. Perhaps the scenery was too beautiful – no one fell asleep or had motion sickness even though the road has 600 curves in 30 miles…
4. Eight hours (7.30am-4pm) by van,US$93.73 per person, to see the rare native plant Silversword, a plant with silver leaves and flowering at 10,023 feet on the Haleakala volcano summit. We also saw a rare bird, the nene (Hawaiian goose). Then on to the Iao Valley to see the Iao Needle…

We drove our rental car to the aquarium (ticket: US$23 per adult), shopping malls and the coastal towns of Lahaina, Kihei, Wailea and Makena. We saw different water activities at the different beaches…

The last morning, we were swimming behind the hotel in the bay again. I could swim at the deep area and I like to see fishes and coral…suddenly, a large guy swam beside me, just a couple of inches away. I was surprised and didn’t know what it was. After it swam a little farther away from me I saw it thru my goggles in the water…it was a sea turtle. I didn’t see any sea turtles when I swam there two days earlier. Its head came to the surface and it looked at me a little while; then it swam back to the deeper area and disappeared. Steve thought it came to say goodbye to us.

夏威夷由几个小岛组成，被美国佔领后成为第50州。它还有一些土族，不过已有很多其它美国州人及其它亚洲人到那里生活，所以已有很多混血人。这里风景优美，是个非常休闲的旅游地。

经 Steve 的朋友介绍去 Maui（夏威夷的其中一个岛），我们选择有包括租汽车的旅店房配套，每晚US$180+双人房，10-17/10/2007八晚都住在 Maui 的 Kaanapali Beach Hotel。我们抵达Maui机场，到租气车中心，须付US$36.50租车税。选了一辆车及拿地图驾到我们的旅店。

Kaanapali沙滩很美，又可在细沙上漫步、在海湾游泳看鱼及珊瑚、看日落…你看过月落吗？有一晚，傍晚六点左右太阳还没下山，眉月已出现，八点左右我们看着它慢慢从日落的方向落下不见了，是不是月落呢？月光不见时，满天星星开始灿烂闪烁…

我们参加四个旅游配套:

1. 两小时（4-6pm）乘小型飞机，每人US$395.68，空中观看 Maui 的风景及“Big Island”（夏威夷最大的岛）的活火山。摇摇晃晃的飞行令 Steve 差点须要吐袋…
2. 六小时（71m-1pm）乘船，每人US$98.45，到眉月形的死火山 Molokini浮潜看珊瑚、鱼…及到 Turtle Town浮潜，不仅有鱼、珊瑚，還有一些很大隻的海龟和我们一起游泳…
3. 十一小时（7.30am-7pm）乘旅行巴士，每人US$114.57，到Hana Town，观看 Maui 的海岸、雨林、瀑布、黑沙滩、吃蛇鼠的 mongoose， Kipahulu 的 Ohe’o 池。可能是美丽的风景令人陶醉，600个弯弯曲曲的30哩山路却没令人晕睡…
4. 八小時（7.30am-4pm）乘旅行巴士，每人US$93.73，上到10,023尺的 Haleakala 火山顶峰，稀有的花草，如银叶开花的Silversword。看到稀有的乌类 nene（Hawaiian鹅）。及到 Iao Valley的Needle 石…

我们自行驾车去水族馆，购物市场及Lahaina、Kihei、Wailea、Makena 的海岸。不一样的沙滩有不一样的水上活动…

最后一天早上，我们又到旅店的海湾游泳，我习泳所以游到较深的地方，我很喜观看鱼及珊瑚…突然一件大物体游近我只几寸的距离，我惊吓不知是何物，等牠游开一点之后，在水中从泳镜看到牠…原来是海龟。前天到此游泳时都没见这里有海龟。牠到水面抬起头看了我一会，又游向深处不见踪影了。Steve说牠是来向我们说再见的。