Searching for Paradise? Get Real.

By Michele Bogue Appelgate

Does paradise really exist? Sometimes I wonder.

Looking through glossy magazines, we often see advertisements for gorgeous destinations to various tropical islands – fantasies of paradise. The are so bright and clear that you wonder if they are real. Could the water possibly be that blue or that clear? Could the white sand on that beach be that perfect?

The photo definitely depicts a heavenly destination, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a secluded beach surrounded by palm trees. There are no people in the photo  - not even a footprint from the person who had to take the photo.

It sounds too good to be true, don’t you think? Maybe it is.

I recently took a trip my second trip to Maui, which many people do consider paradise. My first trip to Maui was several years ago, right after college. To go back a second time was fortunate, in my opinion. I was looking forward to returning to the friendly island I so fondly remembered as paradise.

I remembered Maui as a peaceful island filled with aloha spirit, a beautiful culture, amazing tropical vegetation, waterfalls, amazing seafood and fresh pineapple that was better than any other I had enjoyed.

As time passes, we tend to forget any negative memories and savor only the favorable ones. I guess that’s a good thing. I mean, why dwell on less-than-lovely memories?

When I went to Maui the first time, I was with my parents. Naturally, my dad did all of the driving, and the paying. So that automatically put that vacation into the “paradise category.” The stress level is always less when someone else is in charge.

My parents and I went to Oahu first for a couple of days. Pearl Harbor was amazing, humbling and educational, to say the least. I learned a lot about the history of the Hawaiian Islands and people when we visited the Polynesian Cultural Center. But my favorite place was Maui. Maui was relaxing, calm and beautiful.

There we went to a traditional Hawaiian luau. We went swimming on a beautiful sand beach, saw rainbows every day.

My most recent trip to Maui was with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, her best friend and my 13-year-old daughter.

Are you sensing a different type of vacation? Yeah.

We stayed for one week at Napili Point Resort. Built in the 1970’s, it’s a low rise condominium complex surrounded by other low rise condos, homes and the sea. There is nothing to block your view of the skyline, the ocean or the West Maui mountains.

One thing my daughter and I were especially looking forward to was snorkeling. I had been snorkeling a couple of times, but never around corral reef. We rented the necessary equipment and were excited to snorkel right in front of our condo in Honokeana Bay.

Before the trip, I read customer reviews online that said the snorkeling was excellent and that in particular there were many sea turtles in their bay.

I was skeptical. There had to be a catch.

We walked down to the only place in the bay that looked like a good entrance. There were several people snorkeling out there already, so there must be a good place to scoot into the water. Since the islands all came from volcanoes, the edge of the land was very sharp and jagged. Crawling down to the water was done with much care. There was no soft sandy area for entering. The black rock was filled with tide pools. The waves were constantly crashing into the rocks as we tried to navigate our way.

My daughter looked down at the rocks and shouted, “Mom! Look! Sea urchins!”

Wow. That sounded neat, even though I couldn’t exactly remember what those were. “We learned about them in school last year,” she said with a long pause. “Don’t touch them. They’re poisonous.”

She dropped that bomb on me and continued walking along without even a little worry.

I stood there frozen with fear. I was too far out on the rocks to go back, but not close enough to the water to jump in. This was the catch. Sure, the snorkeling is awesome, if you live long enough to get in and out of the water.

We quickly found a low, flat area where we could safely sit down and get into the water.

By the time we got into the water, fixed our snorkel gear and started swimming, I was pretty stressed out. I was just starting to relax my breathing when I remembered there are sea turtles in this bay. Suddenly, I was too afraid to see a turtle. I didn’t want one popping up begin me unexpectedly.

This wasn’t feeling much like paradise to me.

We swam for a while that first day until we were comfortable with snorkeling. We saw a few pretty fish, but not many. It was late in the day already so we decided to come back and try it again the next day. Coming back the second time was so much easier. We went snorkeling almost daily during our vacation. Each time was more wonderful than the last. We were comfortable with the snorkeling gear and even figured out how to swim in the current and take underwater at the same time. We saw dozens of different types of fish and lots of huge sea turtles.

Even though that experience started out with some stress, it quickly became one of our favorite memories until it really did feel like paradise.

Since I had been to Maui before, I was elected by the group to be the designated driver of the rental car.

I was conscious of my health and wore sunscreen every time I went outside. Despite my best efforts, my white Scandinavian skin could only take so much of the July Hawaiian heat and sun. On the first day of driving the Chrysler Seabring convertible, I was fried.  If you get a sunburn on the first day of a 6 day vacation, it really limits your beach time.

There was another reason we chose a convertible.

There is a famous road in Maui that many travelers have talked about. Tourists from all over the world have survived the famous road to Hana (sounds like Hawn-uh). I use the word survived because it really is a dangerous ride. The trip itself is only around 35 miles each way, but it takes all day to go to Hana and come back down to sea level. The road takes you up steep, narrow, winding roads to the top of the island. The closer you get to the tiny town of Hana, the more narrow, curvy and life-threatening the road becomes.

I’m not exaggerating - really. There’s a good reason why someone designed and the t-shirts you see all over Maui that say, “I survived the road to Hana!”

The Hana Highway (HI-360) has 600 curves and 54 bridges.

As I drove around each tight curve in the road, my hands gripped a little tighter. I could never tell if I would be met by another car, so I took it rather slow. When other cars lined up behind me, my heart would race and I noticed I was taking very short and shallow breaths. I pulled over to the side whenever possible to allow them to pass me safely.

We were surrounded by beautiful rainforest. The vegetation was thick. The humidity was high. The air smelled like wet Earth. We went through several areas of light mist and sprinkles, which disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. Driving up the mountain, our car was so close to the right side of the road that we could stick our hands out and touch the volcanic walls and the moss that grew on them.  We even stopped to swing on some vines, just like Tarzan and Jane.

It really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I just didn’t remember the drive being so stressful.

We chose to rent a convertible so we could take in the full view on this gorgeous ride. Unfortunately for anyone who volunteers to be the driver on this crazy road, you cannot drive, negotiate tight curves on a cliff and expect to look out and enjoy the ocean view all at the same time.

That would be suicide. I was in no mood for suicide.

Plus, having five people in one convertible was a little tight. Since my daughter was the smallest, thinnest person in the group, she was automatically placed in the middle of the back seat.

Did I mention that she gets carsick easily?

The drive was not exactly what I had remembered from my previous trip to Maui.  I remembered stunning ocean views, black sand beaches, crashing waves, the rainforest, swinging from the vines that hung from the trees and the many amazing waterfalls.

Of course, those things were all still there.

The waterfalls were not as plentiful as Maui was experiencing a drought during our visit. But there were still a few to be enjoyed. I just couldn’t enjoy them the same way since I was trying my hardest to keep my passengers alive.

It wasn’t really feeling like paradise.

The day we drove to Hana was garbage day for the few local residents who – amazingly enough – live on the road to Hana. Since traditional garbage trucks are too large for this road, the garbage was being picked up by two men in a regular pick-up truck. They tossed them in the back of the truck and secured them with a large net to secure them.

I could tell they were locals from the moment I saw the white truck coming up the hill behind me. He was driving fast. He was ready to go. I, on the other hand, had white-knuckles and was driving with extreme caution.

After feeling them ride my bumper for about 15 minutes, I was able to pull off to a small, narrow shoulder on the road. Those don’t come up very often, so I was thankful to find one. They zoomed past quickly, knowing they were dealing with a tourist. The passenger, sitting in a relaxed, slouch with his right arm hanging out the window, extended his arm and gave me the traditional Hawaiian “hang loose” hand single, which is a quick shake with only the thumb and pinkie finer extended. He must have seen the terror on my face as I drove, so he flashed me a friendly island smile.

After taking a deep cleansing breath, I was able to smile back.

We did finally reach the adorable town of Hana. We stumbled across a real gem when we came into town – the Hotel Hana-Maui and Honua Spa. It wasn’t until I picked up a brochure that I learned how impressive this hotel was. It was rated in the top 3 “Ultimate Resorts for Seclusion” by Modern Bride Magazine. It was rated one of the top 25 hotels by Conde Nast Traveler. 

All I know is that we enjoyed sitting outside on a covered patio in a gorgeous restaurant while overlooking the ocean as we ate an amazing meal. The French toast was so wonderful that I took a photo of my daughter as she ate it. She had the type of expression on her face that told me immediately it was happiness on her taste buds. We gave it our rating as “The best French toast in the world,” named by the Appelgates.

Of course there is much more to Maui than the famous road to Hana.

We enjoyed shopping at Whaler’s Village, an upscale outdoor shopping center that is surrounded by hotels, golf courses, restaurants and other attractions. We enjoyed eating at local restaurants in a busy shopping district on Front Street. That’s where all the action is. From there, we took a leisurely dinner cruise one evening during our stay. We ate a wonderful meal while enjoying a beautiful view of the Maui coastline.

As we floated off the coast of Maui, our waiter told us that if we were taking this same cruise in February, rather than July, we would be surrounded by whales since that is the peak of mating season.

We also enjoyed the Maui Ocean Center.

Wow. That’s what I think I’ll do on my next trip back to Maui.

There really are so many things to do on the Hawaiian islands that you could come back ever year for a long time and still not have experienced it all.

Like all tourists, we took lots of , especially along the road to Hana. After the were developed, I looked through them and all stressful memories of that drive had disappeared (well almost).

When I shared the with friends, they said, “Wow. You went to paradise!”

I paused and thought about that comment and realized, yeah. I had been to paradise – twice.

More information on Hawaii: There’s simply too much to list so I would suggest you visit the most comprehensive web site about all Hawaiian island activities, accommodations, island hopping, golf, wedding and honeymoon planning, etc: www.gohawaii.com

With that said, here are some of the highlights I would mention:

Where we stayed:

Napili Point Resort: a condominium suite resort nestled above shimmering Honokeana Bay. Each suite is a separate residence, beautifully decorated. All have kitchens complete with ice makers, dish washers, disposals, dishes, utensils and cookware. You can enjoy snorkeling on site with sea turtles and coral reef. A nice sandy beach is just a 10-minute walk away. There are two swimming pools. http://napili.com/

Luau we attended:

Sunset Terrace: Drums of the Pacific. Features Drums of the Pacific show. An exciting luau and Polynesian show complete with authentic imu ceremony and the exotic flavors of a native luau.

Hyatt Regency Maui
200 Nohea Kai Dr
Lahaina, HI 96761
(800) 55H-YATT

Another popular luau:

Old Lahaina Luau – an award winning luau featuring traditional Hawaiian cuisine, open bar, authentic hula. 1251 Front St. Lahaina, HI  (800) 248-5828

Shopping:

Whaler’s Village is one of the most popular shopping areas on Maui. Surrounding by golf courses and high-end hotels, this outdoor shopping complex has everything you could possibly need, including some amazing restaurants. It is home to a variety of 75 fine shops and restaurants and a renowned whale museum, Whalers Village is located on beautiful Kaanapali Beach and has the distinction of being Maui's premier ocean front shopping destination. Free Hawaiian entertainment.

2435 Kaanapali Pkwy, H-6
Lahaina, HI 96761
(808) 661-4567

ABC Stores: You’ll see this store in many locations. A familiar name in Hawaii since 1949, with over 50 stores located on every major island in Hawaii, ABC Stores offers a wide selection of gift and souvenir items, beach accessories, apparel, wines/spirits, groceries, and cosmetics in one place. This is a great place to stop in and get quick things, especially items you forgot or lost during your travel, such as the toothbrush and toothpaste.