May Maui Update

May 10, 2020 life on Maui

It’s been a month since my last update post, so here goes. Hawaii has weathered the Covid-19 storm pretty well. On Friday we had our first day with no new cases in all of Hawaii. At least none that were tested positive.

In total for all Hawaiian islands they’ve had 629 reported cases with 17 deaths (total population of 1.4 million).

Maui County itself with a population of 167,000 (including Molokai and Lanai) has registered 116 cases with 6 deaths. Interestingly island-wide the majority of cases are reported to have been returning residents. The majority of Maui’s cases centered around a public health snafu at Maui’s only hospital (Maui Memorial).

the near empty beach fronting the Grand Wailea Resort

The State is slowly easing up on restrictions. Last weekend golf courses and county beach parks reopened (for exercise only, no sports or gatherings). This week retail and shopping malls are allowed to resume business operations (under strict guidelines of course).

The stay at home order and mandatory 14 day quarantine for all arrivals (including inter-island travel) continues through May 31, with the Senate committee in charge announcing that the quarantine will likely be extended.

Everyone is required to wear face masks when leaving their home (except to exercise). Lying on the beach/parks and congregating is not permitted at this time.

What does the mandatory 14 day quarantine involve?

When travelers arrive at the airport, they are met by the national guard or other authorities, checked for symptoms, and have to agree to the terms of the mandatory 14 day quarantine. There is an app they have to download prior to arrival and they are checked on multiple times a day (I’m told). See here for more information.

Basically, you can travel directly to the place you are staying at and then may not leave the room/condo for any reason unless to seek medical help. No shopping, no walking, no beach, simply 14 days of binge-TV-watching, reading, browsing the internet. Not exactly the vacation you planned.

Yes, the State has been enforcing and going after reported offenders. They’ve been getting a warning and then given the option of jail time to serve the remainder of their quarantine or returning to the mainland. There is talk of increasing fines.

What will happen next?

I would love to have a crystal ball as to how soon Hawaii State will reopen for business and visitors. Truthfully, this has hit Hawaii hard. For decades everyone has known that our economy needs to expand and not be so tourism-centered. With many hotels and resorts closed, all the associated businesses are either closed or operating on skeleton staffing. Affected businesses include hotels, resorts, condo owners, restaurants, activities providers, farmers, grocery stores, cleaners, maintenance people, rental car operators, Uber/Lyft drivers etc. State-wide unemployment numbers are at approximately 35% and the unemployment office has been hopelessly overwhelmed with all the applications.

all five resorts along the Wailea Beach walk are shuttered (Fairmont, Four Seasons, Grand Wailea, Marriott, Andaz)

The State cannot afford to maintain its current lock-down mode in the long run and is looking at ways to re-open for business responsibly. However, state-wide there are only 340 ICU beds ad 560 ventilators with the vast majority of those on Oahu. Besides allowing residents to once again move freely, Hawaii has been averaging 10 million visitors/year with Maui itself welcoming 3 million visitors in 2019. An influx in Covid-19 cases is a serious concern for our healthcare system.

The State is talking about marketing Hawaii as one of the safest places for your vacation. Now they just need to come up with a workable plan to reasonably keep it safe while allowing visitors to return and kick-start the economy again.

How are we impacted?

my hunny and I along the Wailea beach walk

Our five condos sit empty. Late March, April and May guests have been cancelled, rescheduled or given a credit for a future stay. The majority of June have cancelled as well with a few still waiting to see what may happen. If you have a booking at one of our condos, please reach out to me directly.

Sig has been working on some maintenance projects at both our Sugar Beach and Maui Kamaole condos. We are checking all our condos regularly to ensure there are no surprises. Of course we continue to pay our HOA fees, insurance, property taxes, advertising fees, maintenance and cleaning.

Our cleaners are maintaining the condos with regular cleans to keep them in top shape for when we are able to welcome guests to the condos again. When our wonderful long-time cleaner Cindy retired last year, we switched to Ed and his team who have stepped into Cindy’s footsteps and continue to do an excellent job cleaning, as evidenced by our guest’s review comments. Ed and his team are on top of their game and are currently working on new protocols and procedures to properly sanitize condos between guests once we are allowed to reopen.

It’s a whole new world these days and we are thankful for all of you in these strange times. We look forward to welcoming you and your family back to Maui sometime soon! In the mean time, aloha and a hui hou no (Aloha and see you soon)!

early morning at the Cove in South Kihei

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Happy Mother’s Day!

May 10, 2020 life on Maui

Wishing all you moms out there a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend! What are your plans? I would really like to have brunch at my favorite restaurant (Gannon’s), however they are closed and not offering take-out at this time. I guess the kids will make me a nice brunch/dinner instead. We’ve ordered flowers sent to both our moms back in Canada – that part hasn’t changed, except that I forgot to mail Mother’s Day cards. Sorry!

Normally this would be Seabury Hall Craft Fair weekend. If you haven’t been – do plan on being here for Mother’s Day next year. This is hands down the island’s most beautiful craft fair, taking place at the upcountry private school with bicoastal views, white tents and purple jacaranda trees. The craft fair is usually a fundraiser for tuition scholarships at the school. This year the school refunded the crafters their fees and has gone online – not to raise money – but to support the crafters and help them sell their inventory they’ve been creating for this and other craft fairs.

Do check out the list of crafters and see if anything piques your interest. If you’re on facebook, check their facebook site which shows you pictures of what you’re missing!

Hubby just asked what I’d like to do for Mother’s Day today. I think we’ll go pick up some ice cream and go for a family walk along the Wailea beach walk. We may have to be creative. My thoughts were to grab Lapperts at the Shops at Wailea and usually we would then cut through the Marriott to the ocean. But a quick look online shows that both Lapperts and the Marriott are closed. We’ll pick up ice cream at Maui Gelato and shave ice at Beach Street and head on our walk.

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Good Morning from Maui

April 11, 2020 life on Maui

Aloha all and good morning from Maui! How are you?

the island of Kahoolawe . Just seven weeks ago we were worrying about the uncontrolled wild fire burning on Kahoolawe. Seems like such a long time ago.

This morning I got up at sunrise and went for my morning exercise walk to the beach. It was a beautiful walk and a beautiful morning (incidentally it’s lightly showering in Kihei right now, where did that come from?)

The walk is beautiful. This morning there were just a few people out. One man was kayaking, another walking on the beach. At the far end of Kamaole 1 beach an man and child had some fishing lines out. I didn’t go close enough to see if they’d had any luck.

Normally at 6:30 in the morning you would typically find several jet-lagged families up early and spending time at the beach, allowing their kids to burn some energy in the open (rather than the confined condo or hotel room). There’d be several people out on paddle boards, and several dozen walking, some slowly with a coffee in hand, others actually exercising.

Now with Covid-19, there are next to no tourists on island. Residents are sheltering in place and may only venture out to exercise, grocery shop, perform essential jobs or seek medical care. Masks are a big thing and now we you can only travel in groups of two to conduct essential activities (with a few exceptions). This weekend we have a curfew – no being outside between 11PM and 5AM. If you’ve been to Maui, I’m wondering who is actually affected by this curfew and frankly what the point is? Most are in bed during those hours.

I am wondering when we will return to normal and when visitors will be able to return to Maui. Both from a health perspective and also economically. I hope this summer. I really do.

Easter weekend

I can’t believe it’s Easter weekend. Sig keeps asking who I’ve invited for Easter dinner. Unfortunately with Maui’s ‘shelter in place’ and social distancing rules, we will not be having anyone over for dinner. I actually have a turkey in my chest freezer which we bought last November. Fun fact, did you know you can only buy turkeys on Maui in November and December? Grocery stores just don’t carry them otherwise. These means we plan ahead and pre-purchase turkey for the year (yes my dear husband insists we eat turkey Canadian Thanksgiving (October), US Thanksgiving (November), Christmas and then Easter. I am not roasting a turkey for our family of five. It can continue its hibernation in the freezer until Canadian Thanksgiving. I sure hope we’re past all this by then.

one of many hand-sized hibiscus in my neighborhood

a spider lily. These are the strangest most delicate blooms

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Kihei food truck court

February 15, 2020 Restaurants

I have a confession to make – I’m a bit of a food truck snob. Maybe snob isn’t the right word. Maybe it would be better to say I have a bit of a phobia of food trucks. On one hand they intrigue me, on the other…. I wonder about food safety and hygiene. After all, how big can their water tank really be? I like hand washing.

Regardless, Sig is away this week and I didn’t feel like cooking, so we went to check out the food truck court in Central Kihei. It’s a neat place. It’s set up on an empty lot behind Azeka mauka, near Fork and Salad, Roasted Chilies, Coconuts Fish Cafe etc. I figured, these food trucks have been here for at least a year or more, surely they’d have been shut down if there were a problem. Right?

I was pleasantly surprised. We picked up a few items from a few food trucks. I think the best part was the variety of choices. Fish, burgers, local food, vegetarian, shave ice and deserts, and of course coffee.

What did we order?

We ended up picking up pulled pork and a fish taco from Da Nani Pirates and hurricane fries from Vidad’s Local Kine Grindz. They were delicious. Okay, maybe that wasn’t so scary after all. And I did see a lot of other items I want to try.

Here’s a little video of the food truck court.

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Outrigger canoe paddling

February 8, 2020 life on Maui

High school paddling season is coming to an end on Maui. In fact, today is the state championship regatta on Big Island. The winning teams from Maui, Oahu, Kauai and Big Island all compete for the state title.

This was my family’s first experience with outrigger canoe paddling. Turns out, it’s quite the sport.

Our high school’s team had 50+ kids participating, boys, girls, mixed, JV (junior varsity) and Varsity teams. They practiced daily after school, either at Kahului Harbor where the cruise ships dock (the water is kinda nasty, definitely not a swimming beach) or in the school’s weight room. Then Saturdays they had paddling regattas. The actual event would start around 8:45AM with an opening ceremony. This would include Hawaiian chanting and always the singing of Hawaii’s anthem Hawai’i Pono’i. The regatta (and ensuing meal) would usually be over by 1PM.

While our kids have participated in a variety of high school sports, this has definitely been the most Hawaiian experience. Students and parents arrived at each regatta at 7AM to prepare and serve breakfast to the team. Sometimes it consisted of muffins and fruit, other times parents went all out with fried rice. After the regatta was completed, we’d serve lunch also – the two times I was involved it was shoyu (soy sauce) chicken and then sweet and sour pork, cooked in a campfire setting. I must say, in a way it reminded me of our German heritage – keep everyone well fed at all times 🙂

Did you know?

Canoes weigh about 400 lbs. This means everyone pitches in whenever a canoe needs to be moved. Canoes can be connected with two beams to create a double canoe (you take off the outrigger for this) – which then weighs 800 lbs.

They are teams of six. The rear member is the steersman. The first three paddlers are the strongest with the best form.

Transporting a 400 lb canoe across the road to the water. All hands on deck

Want to give paddling a try?

Curious to give outrigger paddling a try? Both the Kihei Canoe Club across from the North Kihei ABC store and also the Maui Canoe Club just North of Sugar Beach Resort have visitor paddling opportunities. Check out their websites for more information. Disclaimer, I don’t think they feed you, but you could head over to the Sugar Beach Bake Shop after your morning paddle for a second breakfast.

Hawai’i Pono’i

Did you know – Hawai’i used to be a monarchy? You can still tour the palace – Iolani Palace – in downtown Honolulu. Compared to European palaces, it is a small affair, but nonetheless, it is the only royal palace in the United States.

The lyrics to Hawai’i Pono’i were written by King David Kalakaua in 1874, the music by Henri Berger, the king’s royal bandmaster at the time. It served as the national anthem and now is the state anthem and is sung in the Hawaiian language. Even now, after annexation, becoming a US territory and then obtaining statehood in 1959, Hawai’i Pono’i is sung at many events throughout the islands. For much more information on the controversial overthrow of the monarchy, check this link.

Celebrating the ‘seniors’ (12th grade paddlers on the team) with many lei – floral, plastic, candy and yes, floaties

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Do you love hockey?

January 30, 2020 Maui to-do

One of our sons has been playing hockey for… well, forever. He started playing as a 10 year old because, after all, it’s the Canadian thing to do. When he first started, I knew nothing about the sport. In all truthfulness, I still don’t understand much of it. But it’s fun to watch.

Did you know that Kihei has a hockey rink? No, it’s not an ice rink. It’s inline. Maui Hockey has a youth league with kids ages 5-16 and an adult elite, adult rec and 35+over league.

At last night’s adult elite game. Such a fun game to watch!

The rink is located at Kalama Park in Kihei, right along the ocean-front bike path. Games and practices are evenings (it’s just too hot to wear all your gear in the hot Kihei sun).

When are the games?

If you are in the mood to watch a little, here’s the schedule:

Monday night: 8:15-9:45 PM rec league (2 games)
Tuesday night: 7:45-9:45 PM adult league (2 games)
Thursday night: kids games start at 5:30, 35+over league begins 8:30-9:45 PM

Lights out is a hard 10PM per County rules.

Did you know, last season the 16U team kicked the adult rec league’s butts? It was an awesome season, but to keep things competitive and fun, they’ve been split up for this season. They are practicing as a team (together with the rest of the leagues) for an Oahu tournament this April at Kapolei’s indoor hockey rinks (what a treat!)

Pickup hockey

If you love hockey, come down to the rink on Sunday nights for a round of pick-up, starting at 7:30PM. Sign a waiver, pay $10, borrow some gear and play ! It’s a fun crowd! What else do you have going on on a Monday night? And – what could be better than playing hockey on Maui? Inline hockey, that is!

Open skate

Yes, for those who want to just skate for fun, there are three open skate nights, Wednesday 6-8 PM, Friday 6-9 PM and Saturday 6-9 PM. Admission is free, skate rental is $5 (bring your own socks!). Skate night is run by volunteer hockey parents/skaters.

Check here for a few more hockey related posts on this blog!

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Malasadas

January 9, 2020 Restaurants

Our family likes to celebrate special days with freshly made warm malasadas. One of us recently celebrated a birthday, so I got up early to pick up a dozen from a local diner.

My kid didn’t want a birthday cake, so I stuck a candle in one of the cream-filled malasadas. A good compromise, though I still would have liked chocolate cake.

What are malasadas?

Malasadas are a Portuguese donut – essentially they are large donut-holes: deep-fried yeast balls, coated with sugar, sometimes cinnamon, and sometimes filled with custard or guava jam.

In Kihei there are two places to pick up malasadas. Our go-to place is the Home Maid Cafe in Azeka Plaza. They open at 6AM and will make either ‘sugar’ or ‘cream-filled’ malasadas to order before 10AM. The Sugar Beach Bakery in North Kihei also sell them, but I believe they stop making them at 9AM.

Early morning malasadas pick up at the Home Maid Cafe in Kihei. There are always several roosters to entertain in the parking lot.

Our family always gets a dozen (for about $15), half and half (half cream-filled and half sugar). It used to be the kids preferred the sugar ones, now it seems they prefer the cream (custard really) malasadas. There’s motivation to come get them!

Note: best to eat these fresh and warm. Once they cool they just aren’t as good.

What’s the Portuguese connection?

Did you know, in the 1800s sugar cane plantations on Hawaii were in need of workers. Plantation owners started bringing immigrants from around the world to Hawaii to work. Some of these immigrants came from Portugal, while others came from China, Japan and the Philippines. Here is an interesting article about this sugar cane immigration. These immigrants brought many of their own cultural traditions, beliefs, foods to Maui.

On Maui, you can check out the Kepaniwai Heritage Gardens at the beginning of Iao Valley (before you get to the State Park). While the gardens themselves are in disrepair, the signs tell the interesting Maui-specific story.

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Special Edition Black Pearl beer

October 25, 2019 Made in Maui

A few months ago I came across a special edition beer from the Maui Brewing Company – Black Pearl. The other day they had a picture of it on their facebook page – it’s back! I had to go pick it up. Check this article for more information on Black Pearl.

I admit – I am not a beer drinker. In fact, I know very little about beer, except that I like dark beer. My go-to drink is usually a glass of merlot. But this beer is delicious.

I picked up a bottle of Black Pearl yesterday. It comes in a 750 ml bottle for $30, you can pick it up right in their pub. In fact, you can sample it before buying it right at the bar. As she was ringing up my bottle, the bar tender asked if I wanted to sample it vs the Coconut Porter. She said the Black Pearl was made from the Coconut Porter, which is then aged in a number of different barrels. Again, if you know more about beer, I apologize. But go check it out!

Maui Brewing Company

Have you been to the Maui Brewing Company? There are two locations on Maui. The original location in Kahana and the ‘new’ brewery with restaurant here in Kihei. If you haven’t been to the Kihei location, go. It is a really neat building that won an architectural design award. You can take brewery tours, sample any one of their 30+ beers on tap, play games on their outdoor patio and dine in their restaurant.

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July 10 brush fire

July 20, 2019 life on Maui

A week ago we had a pretty bad brush fire here on Maui. It started on Wednesday July 10th near Waikapu and spread rapidly across the Central Valley coming very close to North Kihei (and our Sugar Beach condo). The fire ended up burning 9000 acres of brush land. This is mostly former sugar cane land.

As you may recall, A&B finished their sugar cane operations on Maui with their final harvest in December 2016. Since then the land has mostly been fallow, with sugar cane regrowth, weeds and of course kiawe trees growing wild. During their sugar cane operation A&B would irrigate the fields regularly, keeping them nice and green until about 2 years in, when they would have controlled burns and then harvest the sugar cane. These controlled burns would of course generate their fair share of ash particularly in North Kihei. Locals called it ‘Maui Snow’, black ash on cars and roads in the morning. However, A&B would then work up the fields within a few days and things would settle down again.

Last year A&B sold 41,000 acres of sugar cane land to Mahi Pono, a joint venture between a California agricultural group and ironically one of Canada’s largest pension funds. They have very slowly been starting to work up some acres and planting. Unfortunately it’s been an incredibly slow process. We were so used to the green central valley. It’s been brown and dry ever since cessation of the sugar cane operation now. In fact, there have been brush fires the past few summers, prompting the landowners to work up or disk buffer zones near roads as a form of fire break.

On July 10 the fire came so close to North Kihei, our guests at our Sugar Beach condo were evacuated. The Mokulele Hwy (now known as Veterans Hwy) and North Kihei Road to Ma’alaea were both closed due to the fire and heavy smoke and people missed their flights (including me – we had an inter-island flight to Oahu for a hockey tournament). The community pulled together, opened shelters and eventually everyone got to where they needed to go.

Driving from North Kihei towards Kahului on the Mokulele Hwy (also known as Veterans Hwy)

In wonderful news, there was no damage to inhabited buildings at all. To our knowledge, noone died in the fire. The police have an ongoing arson investigation for both this fire and a smaller fire which was started between the new Kahului Safeway and Target and the Sugar Cane factory on July 11.

What to expect when you come to Maui?

You’ll noticed the burned area in the central valley as you fly in – in fact, I would love to see your pictures! You’ll see the burned area as you drive across the central valley. You will see the dust blowing badly in the central valley and into North Kihei during certain times of the day. Here in South Kihei we are still getting some ash on our lanai.

However, fire fighters brought the fire under control within two days and are working to put out any flare ups that occur. We are so thankful for these men and women!

Our Sugar Beach condo is fine – no damage. There is still a lot of dust, we apologize. Join us in praying for rain. I’m not sure what else to do to help calm the dust down.

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This weekend – Maui’s own hockey tournament

April 24, 2019 Events

Do you love hockey? Let’s be honest, you probably didn’t come to Maui for the hockey. You probably don’t even think Maui has hockey (besides on TV screens in bars). However, Maui has its own group of hockey playing enthusiasts. Yes, we have a rink, but it’s not necessarily what you’d expect.

Maui’s own (and only) inline hockey rink in Kihei’s Kalama Park.

Kihei has its very own oceanfront sports area located at Kalama Park. Free and open to the public to use, we have tennis and basketball courts, multi-purpose fields used for baseball, kids soccer and kids football practice, a skate park and – yes – an inline skating rink. This is all Maui County owned property, however the County has an agreement with the Maui Inline Hockey Association (MIHA) regarding use of the skating rink. Volunteers run 3 free public skate nights/week (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings) and in return MIHA has inline hockey practices and games the remaining nights.

This weekend (April 26-28 2019) MIHA is hosting their first (in quite a while) inter-island hockey tournament, the Maui Outdoor Classic. Maui’s own hockey leagues are just finishing their winter season this week (rec league has their championship games Thursday night). Then Friday evening the fun begins. Since this is the only rink on Maui, players are excited that there are a number of kid and adult teams flying over from Oahu (look for the KIHA Warriors – Kapolei Inline Hockey, and HI Old School teams on the schedule)!

Admission to the Maui Classic is FREE. Come on down, enjoy some hockey, cheer on the teams! Here is the schedule. Note there are different divisions – kids games are 9U, 12U, 14U. Then for adult leagues there are rec league, 35O (35 and over) and ‘adult’ (elite).

Hockey Season

Love hockey but missing the tournament? No worries. Monday nights are pick-up nights (for older teens and adults), come around 7:30, sign a waiver, borrow some gear and join them. I believe there is a fee ($5 or $10, I can’t remember). We are heading into summer, the adults will play a summer season, details have yet to be announced. Fall season typically runs late September through early December, winter season late January through April. Adult games typically begin around 8PM, the rink closes with lights off by 10PM.

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Tag: Kihei

What does the mandatory 14 day quarantine involve?

What will happen next?

How are we impacted?

Easter weekend

What did we order?

Did you know?

Want to give paddling a try?

Hawai’i Pono’i

When are the games?

Pickup hockey

Open skate

What are malasadas?

What’s the Portuguese connection?

Maui Brewing Company

What to expect when you come to Maui?

Hockey Season