Category Archives: 8 Miscellaneous

When is the best time of year to come to Maui?

Posted on by Chris Murray

There is no best time of year to come to Maui, but different times of year have different opportunities, costs, and somewhat different weather. Let your preferences be your guide.

One of the great attractions on Maui is whale watching. The whales start arriving in late October and November and are present in their thousands sometime in December. The most spectacular displays are usually in January, February and March. You can see impressive sights from shore, and even more amazing views on a whale watching cruise.

Whale calendar with dates

High Low SeasonThe HIGH season runs from a few days before Christmas until spring vacations for schools and universities. Most accommodations, including ours, are more expensive during high season. An even higher premium is charged for the days around Christmas.

The spring and fall tend to be quieter times. There is more room on the beaches, in restaurants, and at tourist destinations. There are more families with children in the summer.

Avg Rain and Temp on MauiThe average high and low temperatures near sea level vary by less than 10 degrees over the course of the year, but the extremes in summer are hotter than those in winter. You’ll see local school kids waiting at the bus stop bundled up for the “winter” weather when morning temperatures are in the 60s. Water temperatures change even less: the average low water temperature is in February and March at 74 degrees Fahrenheit; the average high (in August/September/October) is 79/80 degrees.

Rainfall is a different matter – both by time of year and location. Every month the average number of days of rainfall is less on the south coast of Maui (Kihei, Wailea, Makena) than in the northwest by Kaanapali and Kapalua.

Maui Vista Building 2 gets a new coat of paint

Posted on by Chris Murray
Painting Building 2 - Spring 2013

Painting Building 2 – Spring 2013

Friends and guests who have enjoyed our Maui Vista condo will be pleased to know that Building 2 is getting a new coat of paint. Yes, that’s our unit (Maui Vista 2418) with the painter at the top of the tall ladder.

Remember how there’s no helmet law for motorcycles in Hawaii and how people ride around in the back of pickup trucks sitting on lawn chairs? Well, apparently, there’s no safety enforcement for people working on tall ladders either. Most of the time, the painters get from one unit to another by climbing over the railing, straddling the wall between lanais, and climbing over the railing in the adjacent unit – no safety harness required.

Last year Building 1 was repainted. Next year it’s Building 3’s turn. Everything is looking fresh.

Maui Brewing Has BIG plans for Kihei

Posted on by Chris Murray
Entrance to the Research and Technology Park

The new brewery and pub will be here – at the Research and Technology Park mauka (uphill from) the Piilani Highway at Lipoa.

Maui Brewing, whose brew pub is located in Kahana, several miles north of Kaanapali, has announced plans to build a new and much larger brewery and brew pub at the Kihei Research and Technology park off the Piilani Highway. Located on a five acre site, the brewery will be about 33,000 square feet and the brew pub another 8,000 square feet. It’s staff is expected to eventually double in size to about 130. Once the new brewery is finished, Maui Brewing will vacate their current leased space in Lahaina and do all their brewing in Kihei. Don’t worry – the Kahana brew pub will continue to quench the thirst of west Maui locals and tourists.

We, at Maui Vista 2418, are pretty darn excited about having Maui Brewing in Kihei. Unfortunately, with the site about 2.5 miles from Maui Vista, it’s probably too far to walk for lunch. Also, since new construction takes time, it will be well into 2014 before the new pub is open. So, in the meantime, I guess we’ll keep driving to Kahana because they truly have the best beers, ciders and root beer on Maui.

For more on Maui Brewing, click here.

Flowers of Maui – Stop and Smell the Plumeria

Posted on by Chris Murray

Our friends and neighbors from the mainland, Denis and Janet, visited us on Maui last fall and Janet kept snapping picture after picture after picture. I really thought she was going overboard. Then she shared her photo album with us. Wow! This collection of flower pictures is a small sample of the beautiful images she took. Good eye, Janet. (Click on any image to enlarge it and start slide show.)

Art, Culture and Chocolate – An Evening with Dale Zarrella

Posted on by Chris Murray

Every Wednesday evening Maui artist (and Maui Vista neighbor) Dale Zarrella gives a free guided tour of his sculptures at the Makena Beach and Golf Resort (formerly the Maui Prince Hotel). Not only do you get art and entertainment, Zarrella brings home-made chocolates shaped like little turtles. You can’t go wrong. Check with the resort to confirm dates and times.

Zarrella has four major works on display at the resort – two in the lobby and two in the restaurant downstairs. The two sculptures in the lobby are from Zarrella’s mermaid series: Mermaid Dream and Ka’ikehohonu (also known as 110 Turtles). Mermaid Dream began as a 3,000 pound Rain Shower tree root from which Zarrella removed 2,000 pounds of wood to reveal the mermaid. See Zarrella’s website (http://dalezarrella.com/) for a series of pictures on the making of this, and other, works.

Mermaid Dream

Ka’ikehohonu – 110 Turtles

Maui catching the sun (photo from Dale Zarrella website)

A life size bronze of the demi-god Maui holding the net by which he captured the sun can be found in the downstairs restaurant is. The net, we’re told, was woven from the hair of his sister Pele, the goddess of fire. I guess that must be why the net didn’t catch fire. (Click here for the story of Maui slowing the sun.)

The final piece of Zarrella’s work shows the bust and face of a woman emerging from a tree. The upside down stump turns the roots of the tree into wild hair blowing upward by the wind.

During the talk, Zarrella said the wood for this piece was found on Oprah’s Hana ranch while he was horse backing riding with some paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy)  friends of his.

See our other posts on Dale Zarrella:

Maui Artist Dale Zarrella at Work

Dale Zarrella’s Damien Taking Shape

Dale Zarrella and Helper Carve a Vision in Sand

 

Emergence

Mode of Transportation – PortaPotty Surfers

Posted on by Chris Murray

Maybe the nice man will give these ladies a ride

The wind was up, the paddle boarders down – stranded on Charley Young Beach a half mile from Maui Wave Riders where they’d rented their boards.

Gotta get back. What to do?

Hey, here’s a man with a truck. Maybe he can give the ladies a ride. (Hmm, why’s he wearing plastic gloves?)

Looks like he’s going their way! “Rainbow Rentals – Service is Our #1 Priority.” I wonder if that’s what the boss had in mind. Thank you Rainbow Rentals!

This is SO Maui (well, maybe not Wailea, Kaanapali or Kapalua – but definitely Kihei).

POST NOTE: Our neighbor reported she saw the truck going up the road and the ladies were waving to people as if they were on a beauty pagent float!

(Photos courtesy of Sandi Rethage. Thanks Sandi!)

Rowena’s Farmers Market is No Ka Oi (The best!)

Posted on by Chris Murray

Rowena is located about a 12 minute walk from Maui Vista 2418 just north of Foodland in the Aloha Open Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Rowena

It is not unusual to see the farmers stopping by with boxes of dragon fruit, wing beans and many varieties of avocados. Another family operates it during the rest of the week, but we find Rowena has the best local selection at the best prices. Rowena stands by her word. A customer told her an avocado he bought a few days ago was bad, so she gave him another avocado. She said, “It’s hard to see inside and I am sorry.”

Whether you’re looking for locally grown shitaki mushrooms or tender butter lettuce (at half the price in the grocery store), you’ll want to get there early (she opens at 7) because it can get elbow to elbow in the afternoon and the best things are gone.

Dale Zarrella’s Damien taking shape

Posted on by Chris Murray

We’ve written about Maui artist Dale Zarrella in this blog before. (See Maui Artist Dale Zarrella at Work, Frank Lloyd Wright and the King Kamehameha Golf Club, and Dale Zarrella and Helper Create a Vision in Sand.) His koa wood sculpture of Father (now Saint) Damien is entering the polishing phase. Saint Damien, “the Apostle of the Lepers” was canonized in 2009 for his work in the 19th century caring for those quarantined in the leper colony on the peninsula of Kaluapapa on the Island of Moloka’i.

If you look closely at the picture below, Damien has his hand on the shoulder of a young child. Next to Damien’s shoes you can see the child’s toes sticking out beneath the robes that hide his leprosy ravaged body.

Zarrella often works with large blocks of monkeypod but chose the the harder koa wood for Damien because “he was a tough old bird.”

Dale Zarrella’s Saint Damien – September 2012

As we’ve noted before, Zarrella works outdoors overlooking the sea at the north end of Charley Young Beach. He began this piece with a plaster study, about one-quarter life size. A bronze cast from the study now resides in the Vatican Museum in Rome. This life sized sculpture is destined for the Damien Museum in Honolulu.

Haleakala – The Night Sky

Posted on by Chris Murray

The Milky Way above Mount Haleakala. Photo by Wally Pacholka as seen in mauimagazine.net

It’s said that a large percentage of the American population has never seen the Milky Way – especially young people. It’s just too bright at night in the urban/suburban areas where they live. Of all the generations of mankind that have ever lived, this is a recent, and somewhat sad, phenonmenon.

Fotunately, this is not a problem on Maui. Go anywhere on the island on a clear night where there are no bright lights shining in your eyes and, in the summer,  you can see the milky river of light of the Sagittarius arm of our spiral galaxy slicing across the sky or, in winter, the somewhat dimmer Perseus arm. (In the northern hemisphere in summer, we look toward the center of our galaxy; in winter in the opposite direction toward deep space. That’s why the Milky Way looks brighter in summer.)

In the photo above (which I wish I could say I took), Jupiter shines brightly below the arc of the galaxy disk. This is a time elapse photograph, so the Milky Way won’t look as bright to the naked eye; but it still will impress.

The best (and coldest) views of the stars on Maui are from the top of Mount Haleakala. There are serious research telescopes on top of the mountian – not like the world-class telescopes of Mauna Kea on the Big Island, but impressive nontheless. You can’t look through the big scopes, but you can look with your naked eye or, if you have them, binoculars or a small telescope. Even small binoculars will reveal a wonder of stars and (if you know where to look or are just plain lucky) other wonders of the night sky. Even people with very ordinary night vision can see the Andromeda Galaxy with their naked eye,  2.5 million light years away! With binoculars, other galaxies, ghostly nebula,  the moons of Jupiter, and brilliant star clusters await those with patience and a little knowledge or luck.

If you’re out on a clear dark night on Maui, stop somewhere dark and look up. You won’t be disappointed.

See our other posts on Haleakala titled Haleakala – The House of the Sun, Haleakala – Come Prepared, and Haleakala – Into the Crater.

Haleakala – The House of the Sun

Posted on by Chris Murray

The photo to the right is of a print by Dietrich Varez which hangs on the living room wall of our Maui Vista 2418 condo. It depicts the story of Maui slowing the sun.

Legend has it that Hina, the mother of the demi-god Maui, made kapa cloth from the bark of local trees.  But when she dyed the cloth in the morning the kapa would still be damp in the evening.  “The sun moves too quickly across the sky,” she cried.

In those days, from their Big Island home near Rainbow Falls not far from modern day Hilo, it was clear that the sun rested at night in the crater of Mount Haleakala for part of the year. So, upon hearing his mother’s lament, Maui took his canoe and traveled across the water and, while the sun was resting, climbed the 10,000 foot mountain and looked down on the sleeping sun.

As the sun stretched to begin its day, Maui lassoed it with a rope of twisted coconut fiber and held on tight. Maui demanded the sun move more slowly so his mother could dry her kapa cloth. Bargaining with Maui, the sun promised to slow its journey for half the year and move at its accustomed pace the other half.

Maui released the sun and returned to tell his mother the good news. Delighted, she made a new cape for her son and, thanks to the sun’s slower pace, it dried that very afternoon. Ever since, the warm days of Hawaiian summers have lingered several hours longer than the days we call winter in colder climates.

Thank you Maui!