Molokai trip

Molokai Princess arriving at Lahaina Harbor

Lahaina in the morning light

Departing Maui

Molokai Princess from the Bow

Our ship Captain literally had a peg leg

Kaunakakai Harbor

Kalaupapa Peninsula

South shore of Molokai and an ancient fishpond

Halawa Bay

Halawa Falls

Halawa Bay

Halawa Valley

Aloha All,

This entry is another dandy from Paul about his recent trip to Molokai:

When I first visited Hawaii in 1985 at the tender age of 15 with my parents and grandmother, we spent the week in Waikiki.  I had been a huge Magnum PI fan so I was already sold on the intrigue of Hawaii.  One day as we were walking around Waikiki, I saw a cheap touristy towel for sale in one of the hundreds of shops.  The towel was a graphic of all the main Hawaiian Islands and I was further intrigued by the names of them like Maui and Moloka’i etc.  I asked Dad if there was any chance we could fly over to one of the other islands but it wasn’t in our plans so I had to be content to just imagine what these other smaller islands like Moloka’i were like.

Several years later, Lisa and I and our parents got the opportunity to go to Maui to get married on the beach.  It was from this beach that we had a pretty good view of Moloka’i off in the distance across the Pailolo Channel.  We got married in the first week and spent the rest of our time relaxing on the beach looking over at Moloka’i.  Despite being so close, I just never found the time to make the 2 hours boat ride over to Moloka’i.

Once we moved to O’ahu to live and work 7 years later, I became determined to finally take a day trip over to Moloka’i to experience a very different Hawaii.  That is the purpose of this blog…to describe my day trip to the ‘Friendly Isle’.

I had originally just wanted to take a quick flight over there from O’ahu in a small turbo prop plane on Hawaiian Airlines.  Due to a couple recent small plane accidents, Lisa wasn’t crazy about me flying over there.  Earlier this year a small commercial prop plane crashed in the waters off of the Kalaupapa Peninsula and a state health official died in the ocean so Lisa’s concern was certainly merited.  My plan then became to fly over to Maui in a proper jet and stay the night and then take the State’s only passenger ferry over to Moloka’i and tour the island and then come back to Maui the same night and fly back to O’ahu that same night.  Lisa decided to stay put in O’ahu as going across that rough channel in an old boat was not her idea of a great time.

The ferry to Moloka’i leaves Maui very early in on Saturday morning so I flew to Maui from Honolulu on Friday evening after work.  I spent the night in a cheap but clean hostel in Lahaina which was perfect because that is where the ferry departs from.  I hadn’t spent a night in a hostel in many years so that was an interesting and fun experience.  I ended up having the whole dorm to myself so it worked out great.

I got up super early and walked down to the harbor in the rain and boarded the Moloka’i Princess for the 2 trip across the channel.  The boat was large but showing her age a lot.  The trip started out rainy but ended up being sunny and a very smooth ride.  Even the Captain (who actually had a prosthetic leg) commented to me about how calm it was and how it is often super rough. 

I was met at the Kaunakakai Harbor in Moloka’i by the Alamo car rental shuttle van that drove me to the airport in the middle of the island to pick up my rental for the day.  Good thing I had reserved a vehicle weeks in advance because they mentioned how there aren’t many rental cars on the island and they were all booked up that day.

My first visit was to a state park on the north shore to an over look that has incredible views of the Kalaupapa Peninsula and the world’s highest sea cliffs.  This piece of land is home to an old leper colony with a rich and very sad history.  There are tours a person can take by first riding donkey’s down a steep trail….I opted out as I wanted to see as much of the island as possible and spending hours trekking down the steep sea cliffs would eat up that precious time. 

My next visit was to the far eastern tip of the island down a shoreline highway that features a lot of great small beaches and many ancient Hawaiian fishponds.  Once I made it to the end, I came to a place called Halawa Bay that featured a very high water fall and a winding river that emptied out into the ocean.   I have visited all but one of the main islands and seen a lot of what Hawaii has to offer and this quiet and secluded bay may be the most untouched and pristine slices of paradise I’ve come across. 

So with only a few hours left before my ferry leave to go back to Maui I wanted to drive clear across to the western tip of the island.  While it was would have been great to have Lisa and Natalie with me to enjoy this incredible adventure, it was during this drive that I was lucky to be alone because I drove like a rocket ship to make it across the island in time.  Obviously not a lot of cops on this island handing out speeding tickets and only a handful of other cars even on the road.  I joked later that I should send Moloka’i some money for the tickets I should have gotten.

I made it to the other side of the island were the landscape became much more like a place great for raising cattle as Moloka’i had been known for over the years. It featured rolling green hills and lots of moisture.  I could even make out the shadow of O’ahu off in the distance through the light haze of rain.

I then dropped off the car at the airport and made it back to the ferry and prepared for a much rougher trip across the deep channel.  After 2 more hours passed and smelling a lot of diesel fuel fumes and some serious pitching and rolling I was very ready to get off the boat.  Luckily I didn’t vomit or witness any puking as I had read on trip advisor.

I got off the boat and drove my rental back to Kahului and caught the 10pm flight.  It is interesting to take these inter-island flights because you really see how locals in this state live.  A lot of people live in O’ahu but have family other islands.  Maui has a Krispy Kreme store but O’ahu doesn’t for some reason so it is common to see locals with huge bags of donuts when they fly back from Maui.  I regretted not also doing this but it is a lesson learned.

So with a bucket list item completed, I considered my little adventure a success and will have fond memories of that quaint sleepy island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

 

 Much Aloha,

Thompson Ohana