Aloha :)

Aloha Everyone, and greetings from the beautiful town of Kihei, on the island of Maui. I've been vacationing here since Tuesday night with my boyfriend, and we've been staying with a couple of friends of ours in a condo right across the street from the beach. I've never been to Hawaii before, and I'm very very glad that I was able to have a small getaway in this amazing place. We've been at the beach almost everyday, and got some great snorkeling in - Yesterday was the best snorkeling day, because we saw tons of little colorful fish, AND we saw a turtle, which was definitely on my to-do list. He was sooooooo cute! We watched him for a little bit while he chilled on the sand next to a rock with coral all over it. Awesome.

Earlier this week we went to this crazy bamboo forrest for a hike. We hiked the two miles to this huge damn with a waterfall that we jumped off of. It took me a little while to grow the balls to jump - I don't like heights, and granted this wasn't that high, but I'm a wuss. Finally I jumped and it was awesome but FREEZING! These bottom two pictures are from the bamboo forrest.

Yesterday we took a drive up to Lahaina, had lunch, and then continued driving to the north coast. One of the things that has really fascinated me about Maui is that both the weather and the climate and countryside can change so much depending on the time of day and where you are on the island. Kihei is on the western coast of the large half of the island, and its description would match what you'd immediately think of when imagining Hawaii. Lahaina is on the western coast of the smaller half of the island (northwest of Kihea), and it's a cool little town with shops and restaurants. After lunch we drove up the coast and around to the north, which honestly looked like Ireland - It was cloudy, and it's tall cliffs dropped off to a much more rough sea than what we found down in Kihei. Maui's weather changes throughout the day - it may be sunny in the morning, but could be super cloudy at night - Everything is full of surprises. That third picture was from our drive up north - Doesn't it look just like Jurassic Park!?!

That second picture is the beautiful sunset here in Kihei, and the top one of course was sent to my Mum for Mother's Day - Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies!!!

Anyways.... I'm flying home tonight to continue with Xmas work this week. Yes. I know you're all sick of us talking about Xmas in May, but it's gonna be awesome I promise. I arranged the carol "I Wonder as I Wander", but it's got a little surprise in it that I won't tell at the this time - You'll just have to buy the Xmas album to find out ;)

much love, Kath