Molokini - The Crater Island

Scuba Diving Course

Highway to Hana

Maui Tropical Plantation

Iao Valley
 
 
 
 
 

Minttu is helping Captain John by driving the boat.

Minttu offered herself to drive to boat and Captain John was delighted to have such a young co-pilot. She navigated towards the distant island for almost 15 minutes.

Molokini looks almost like the letter C. A Hawaii story tells about how the island was formed:
"Many sunsets ago, the powerful fire goddess Pele fell in love with a handsome Prince. Unfortunately, a lovely mo'o, or gecko, also had eyes for the Prince. An angry Pele settled the dispute by cutting the lizard in half and turning her to stone. The head of Pele's rival is said to be a cinder cone near Makena Beach and the tail forms Molokini, a sunken crater just off the coast of Maui."

Once we arrived to the island a diver went down to fix the boat. After that almost everybody went snorkeling. The water was very clear  - the visibility was probably over 100 feet. However, the fishes were still asleep since most of them were down near the bottom. Only when the crew started grilling our lunch and some oil and some pieces of food dropped down there was a lot of fishes fighting for the food.

The surf was quite heavy especially near the rocks so you had to be careful not to get too close. Taking good underwater pictures turned out to be quite difficult partly due to surf partly due to fishes that moved too fast. After snorkeling for 1,5 hours we had lunch and started to go back. Just before leaving we saw a giant stingray next to the boat. Once again there were a lot of whales around us

On the way back to Maalea we stopped by Turtle Town. This is an shallow area where there are a lot of sea turtles. Since they must breathe every few hours you see them coming up and diving again. Some of the turtles were quite large - diameter was approximately 60cm - 100 cm.

The morning trip was getting close to the end and we landed to Maalea harbor. 

Minttu posing with Pookie