Lahaina, HI

Thurs Dec 31st New Years Eve & last full day

Today was New Years Eve and our last full day in Maui. Whilst feeling ready to go home and get on with new events for the coming year I am sad to be leaving Hawaii. I could live in this place…an issue I always ponder when in a new country and or city. There aren’t too many that get this ‘tick’ but Maui could pass muster.

The boys were picked up at 6.25 am for their Haleakala Crater downhill bike ride and Ali and I filled in the time with a trip back down to Lahaina Harbour. We caught the 10 am courtesy bus down to the harbour and strolled up and down Front Street which, as its name suggests, run along the water front of Lahaina. The area is made up primarily of art galleries and sun-glass and jewelry shops. They are housed in historic buildings dating back to the whaling period though and so the whole street exudes charm. We were a bit overcome by the shop and art gallery staff though and after the third comment about my necklace and ‘where ya all live’ we realized these were obvious sales push strategies. We missed the last few galleries as we became quite exhausted fending off these sales methods.

The Cool Cat cafe had been recommended for the burgers and we had a voucher for a free root beer float so we finished up our excursion by taking lunch there. Ali and I shared a burger but this was so huge, how could one person finish one of these? We couldn’t fit in our free float!

The courtesy bus delivered us home just after 1 pm and we got text confirmation that Mark and Tom had survived the bike ride and were having lunch in Paia before their trip home. Ali and I headed to the beach / pool for our last dose of Hawaiian sun.

We had our New Years Eve and final Hawaiian dinner at Dukes. This was a fun evening with another dose of Hula Pie.

Our flight leaves at 8.50 am and so we will have an early start to a long day of travel.