We woke up to beautiful weather on Monday for our full day of sight-seeing, driving to different areas of the island to look at the water, landmarks and scenery.
Teri decided to take me to Wailea-Makena, an area of South Maui that has a beach with black sand, which gets its color from the lava rock. The area is located in the middle of nowhere. The reason why I say this, is because we went down a road that wasn’t meant for traffic and was labeled “rough road” on a map.
Since Teri had been there before, I trusted her to continue driving to the end of the island road, which actually ended up being hundreds of acres of lava rock. There wasn’t any grass growing except on the mountains in the far background, just black lava as far as the eye could see.
We ended up in a natural reserve area of Maui known as La Perouse Bay, where a memorial monument was placed in 1994 for the French Admiral Jean-Francois Galaup, who first landed there in 1786.
From there, we traveled to Keawalai Church in Makena, that was founded in 1832. The historic church is made of wood, coral and single stones, and was open to view. The services are held in both English and Hawaiian and parishioners are asked to take their shoes off before they enter the church for worship.
There was also an old cemetery with less than 50 graves on the church grounds dating back to the late 1800s. I’ve always enjoyed exploring old cemeteries and this one was full of history and culture. The graves were under a grove of plumeria trees, which looked to be a beautiful final resting place for loved ones.
One of the graves contained the remains of an ancient Hawaiian woman who was discovered about two feet down from an alter-like structure in December 1974, at the Wailea Resort by an archeological team.
Her bones were found inside a 7-foot canoe and she was believed to be between 35- and 40-years-old. Because of three combs that were found in her hair, it was concluded that she lived in Hawaii before historic times. The church reburied her at the cemetery in 1975 with a simple ceremony performed by the church’s pastor.
On the way back to the resort, I had my first sighting of the infamous Maui Jesus. Maui Jesus, whose birth name is actually Patrick, has been in the area for about 12 years. He can usually be seen riding a bicycle or walking with a large white cross alongside the highway. He loves to speak with anyone about Jesus Christ and shares his testimony with anyone willing to hear his story. We ended up seeing him a few more times before leaving the island.
After a late lunch, we headed back to the resort, relaxed and got ready for Tuesday morning’s event, which was a whale watching tour. I’d been on one tour before in California with Teri years ago, but never saw a single whale.
The other highlight of the day was jumping in the ocean for about two hours to cool off. Teri is a great swimmer and was able to handle the tide. I, on the other hand, sat near the shore and laughed like a 10-year-old kid as the water hit me, knocked me down, and then rolled me back to the shoreline as I tried to get back up with my florescent white sea legs without drowning.
Thank God no one knew me there.
