Today we moved from Oahu to Maui. Since we visited Diamond Head a day early, we had an open morning before our trip to Maui. Our flight gave us a chance to see the beauty of Hawaii from a different perspective. At the start of our flight, we had the opportunity to see a rainbow.
As we departed from Oahu, we saw how Diamond Head towers over Honolulu.
We also got a peek at Hanauma Bay. We missed it on our tour because they had closed the parking before we arrived in the afternoon.
Our approach to Maui showed us how clouds tend to gather around the mountains. It is interesting to see how the clouds identify different temperature layers in the atmosphere.
A closer view of the mountains on Maui demonstrates the rugged nature of this island.
As we prepared to land, we saw some wind turbines built on the ridges of the mountains. The turbulence we felt as we landed indicated the turbines are probably well located for generating electricity from the wind.
Our afternoon flight to Maui left us just enough time to get to the west side of the island before sunset. We had picked a very popular beach for viewing the sunset. We stopped to pick up food at a local restaurant. We got a hint about a great remote place to see the sunset that was different than the beach we had chosen. We were very disappointed when the beach we had chosen had no parking available when we arrived.
We quickly determined that the beach the server had recommended was too far away to reach before sunset. We drove south toward it anyway, thinking our plans were spoiled. We saw a very small sign that said beach. It pointed down a small road. We followed the sign. It was beautiful, and there were very few people there. This was our scenery as we sat on rocks and ate the delicious food we had picked up for dinner.
We finished dinner just in time to enjoy a gorgeous sunset at the beach. Over the next thirty minutes, we watched the sun set slowly in the west over Makena Landing. These pictures capture the variations in the sun, the sky and colors as the sun went down.
To the east, the moon was low in the sky as the sun set. It looks like these photos of the moon were taken hours apart. Actually, the difference in the pictures is the zoom. The blue sky is taken at a normal zoom. The black sky was taken minutes later at full zoom. The effect of the zoom was amazing.
After the sun was fully set, we captured this boat at anchor waiting for the next day so it could go out to sea.
We still had a 45 minute drive to our hotel. We decided to leave this idyllic scene so that we could drive to the hotel at least part way with some sunlight to help us find our way. It was quite dark by the time we arrived at our hotel. It was a great first day on Maui.