We docked overnight in Kahului Harbour, Maui so the sleep was nice and calm! We booked a shore excursion for today so got up early to meet the coach at 8.20am. The excursion was to Molikini Crater; a tiny crescent shaped island 3 miles off the south coast of Maui. We took a short coach ride to Ma’alaea Harbour; the driver sang to us and later played his ukulele, you wouldn’t get that in England! When we arrived we boarded a catamaran and sailed towards Molikini. 5 minutes after we left we saw 2 hump back whales (a mum and calf) splashing around in the water about 50 metres away from us, I had never seen a whale before so was quite excited!
We arrived at Molikini 30 minutes later and used the slide to get in the water quickly. The water was quite cold but there were lots of fish and it was really pretty. It is actually illegal to step onto the island but it is a very popular spot for snorkling. We got back on the boat and sailed towards Maui then stopped 200 metres from the beach for more snorkling. We saw turtles (see video below), an octopus and lots of colourful fish. Paul was practicing his free diving and whilst under the water he could hear the hump back whales singing to each other, then on the way back we saw 6 more whales!
