NBWM14 Lahaina
Lahaina – Maui
The cruise ship stayed overnight in Maui. The next day, we took a tour bus into Lahaina (located on the “head” of the island of Maui map). Lahaina is a quaint town, filled with shops and restaurants.
We had an excellent tour guide on the bus. She told us that we were in for a treat today, because the sugar plant was burning the green leaves on the sugar cane. This is done monthly and typically only at nighttime, so that it doesn’t affect traffic. She said it has to be windy for the plant to burn the sugar cane leaves during the day, for the wind to blow the smoke away quickly, because of the flights that come in.
Along the way to Lahaina, the tour guide pointed out the chain link fence on the cliff walls. She said it’s the most effective way to keep lava rock in place, as they do get earthquakes.
I was curious about the discs on the poles. They can be yellow, white and green. Come to find out, they give off a WWII air raid siren type of sound. These are tsunami alarms. They set the alarms off once a month on the first of each month and people have to get away from the beach and to high ground. Our guide said that Hawaii is probably the most prepared place for tsunami threats.
We did some shopping in Lahaina and had lunch, but my gosh, it was hot! The Hawaiians are used to this type of heat and it was a rare thing to find a store with an air conditioner in it and the same thing for restaurants. Unfortunately, our bus wouldn’t pick us up until 3pm. I liked the town, but I would have been happier if we weren’t there for so long.We (Mom, Greg and me) found on the corner of one street, a stand with a bunch of colorful birds. The man said we could take pictures of the birds, but not of us next to the birds, because that’s what he does. He showed us a portfolio of his pictures and we decided to have pictures taken. It was fun, especially holding the bird.
It didn’t help that the Saints game started towards the end of the Lahaina tour. Greg and Rob were itching to get back on the ship to watch it in the Gold Rush sports bar. (Yes, they televised the football games on Pride of America.)
Before our bus arrived to take us back to the ship, we arrived at the Banyan tree. It shades more than two-thirds of an acre, measuring nearly one-fourth of a mile in circumference and reaching a height of 60 feet. It has aerial roots.
There is one main base to the tree, but then the branches get so long that the tree needs something to support it’s own branches. What does the tree do? It grows roots out of the BRANCHES. You can see the roots reaching down to the ground from branch limbs. It’s wild. Not only do the “new roots” support the tree, but it also delivers more nutrients to the tree too. It looks like a bunch of different trees, when in reality it’s only one.
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~Tabitha
~Tabitha