View from the balcony

The beast Mr Z


13 days to Ironman Hawaii

Jo enjoying the sunset in Paia

The black lava rocks, the blue sky, the blue water and the green island are perfect attributes for a great photo

Surfers near Paia.

Arrival in Maui
We arrived yesterday night after almost 27 hours of travelling. Everything went really smooth, even though we had two short layovers in Newark and in Honolulu. The one in Newark was only 1h45 which, I know from experience, makes it very difficult to make the connection. We went through customs relatively quickly, we then had to wait quite long for the luggage, checked the lugagge back in and went unusually quickly through security. They had almost completed boarding and we only just made the flight! A bit more than 10 hours later we touched down in Honolulu which was a little more relaxed. It is a small airport and we even had time to have a bite to eat.

The flight to Kahului, Maui was only 40 min and when we got off the plane the lugagge was already waiting. We then went to Hertz to pick up our rental car. A huge red Ford Expedition SUV was waiting for us and the beast had no problem with the large bike case. On our way to the Maui Coast hotel in Kihei we stopped at a supermarket to get some drink and breakfast for the next day and we arrived at the hotel around 10:30 PM Maui time, lunch time the next day in England.. After 27 hours, we were at our destination.

First day in Maui
We woke up really early which with an 11 hour time difference is not surprising. I spent the morning doing some work and then we had breakfast. At 10AM it was time for a run. Jo and I ran along the ocean and enjoyed the beautiful views of ocean, beaches and volcanoes. Jo turned around after 20 min and I turned around after exactly 1 hour just after Makena. It was 32 degrees already, even at that time of the day, and I was sweating perfusely! Once back in the hotel after 23 km I could not stop drinking. I probably set a new PB diet coke drinking...

We then explored the area a bit. First by a walk on the beach, then we took the car and drove to the other side of the island to Paia. There we watched some surfers and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. The black lave rocks in the ocean, the waves, the blue sky and the intense green of the island itself were stunning.

Towards the end of the day we were both very tired and decided to have an early night.