The following day we took the opportunity to visit Hawaii’s 6th largest island, Lanai. The ferry ride from Maui takes about 45 minutes and costs $60 for the round trip fare.
Lanai was once known as the Pineapple island having the world’s largest pineapple plantation at one time. Dole had purchased the island in 1922 and setup operations. The last commercial pineapple harvested there was in 1992. The island has since been bought by a private owner that owns about 97% of the island, but don’t worry you can still visit. If you’ve got the money you can stay at the Four Seasons, which has both an ocean beach resort or a mountainside one based on your preference. Oh, you don’t have Four Seasons money, then like us, do a day trip or overnight backpack.
We had heard one of the best things to do on the island was to rent a jeep and go off-roading. So, we rented a jeep for the day. There are 3 main off-road trails. But again, due to all the recent rains the only one open to us was the shortest trail to Shipwreck beach. The rainy months for Lanai are January and February, but this year that seemed to stretch also well into March. (We were told that usually in the summer all the roads are open.) That was quite a bummer, but we made the best of it and headed on out to Shipwreck Beach.
There is a short hiking trail that will lead you to a view of the shipwreck. The boat is a former fuel tanker from WWII that the Navy wanted to sink. The ship failed to cooperate and beached itself on the reef.
You can also see some petroglyphs on a few of the rocks along this trail.
We walked along the shoreline for a bit as well and managed to entice a crab out of his hidey hole.
We then went back up to the “city” and turned off for the Munro trail. This trail is currently a hiking only trail, so, we walked the trail for a bit. This area gets quite a bit of rain and the trail was really muddy. So, after picking up a good pound of mud on our shoes we turned around to head drive down to the beach.
The beach on Lanai is beautiful. In spite of Lanai City being rainy and cold that day, Hulopoe beach was sunny and warm. Guess that’s what 1,600 feet in elevation change will do for you. We enjoyed our picnic lunch that we had brought with us and were then ready to check out the snorkeling. We had a good time snorkeling, although my camera was up to it’s freezing up tricks again. (Still managed to get a few underwater shots.) The water wasn’t as clear as it was in Molokini, but still good. There are tide pools along the left side of the beach that were fun to check out as well. One of the tide pools is even deep enough to take a dip in, if you decide that the ocean is a little too intense. There were a couple of locals that were showing off a sea cucumber and a sea urchin which were really interesting looking. I think the one girl was just trying to freak out her older sister and kept insisting that she touch the sea cucumber.
Then it was time to fill up our jeep, at the one and only gas station in town, and head back to the ferry. The winds pick up in the afternoons, which makes the ferry back a rough ride. I’ve been on some rollercoasters that were tamer.
The next day we were on our way back to the mainland. Since all the flights back to Albuquerque seemed to involve some overnight stay, we decided to take advantage and spend a day in San Diego.
We went and walked around the Gaslamp Quarter area and found a nice spot for breakfast, the Gaslamp Café and Lounge. The carne mechada was really good.
Then we headed over to the old town area of San Diego and decided to do the Trolley Tour. This is a hop on, hop off tour. Seems a little pricey, but does make all the tourist stops and then you don’t have to worry about finding and/or paying for parking.
We hopped off at the Embarcadero stop and went to tour the Maritime Museum. There they have some old sailing ships as well as a couple of submarines. We saw some school groups while we were there. They have kids act as a crew and learn various aspects of being a crew member on one of these tall sailing vessels. Apparently, one of the highly sought after field trips includes an overnight stay on one of the ships.
