Day 11 Monday - Maui

I got up pretty early from being rested from the weekend. We had breakfast and left for Lahaina to our day trip to Lanai. We were greeted by the crew and a cup of pineapple juice. We sailed off when the crew raised the sails and the ride was about two hours. We got homemade cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, and deli wraps on our journey. I lost my right flip-flop on the way there.

We got to the beach to snorkel on Hupoloe Beach. I saw coral and fishes in my 45 minutes in the water. We left for a guided van tour of the island for an hour. Here are some facts I learned:

• Lanai has 3200 residents on the island with 75% being Pilipino and only 300 are Hawaiian/mixed (Hapa).
• Niihau is privately owned by the Robinson family with 200 people and need invitation to visit.
• Hawaii big island is the biggest and youngest out of the 132 island chain. There a new one forming currently but we will not see it in this lifetime.
• 1990 was the last time to ship out Pineapple from Lanai after 71 years on the island. It is cheaper to grow them in Thailand from labor costs. They are big on tourism and real estate now. 98% is owned by Robert Murdock and 2% is owned by resident.
• Lanai does not have coconuts or palm trees but have Cook Island pine tree instead and weeds.
• There's only one beach on Lanai and the other side is cliffs. There is only two highways so no confusion on how to get anywhere.
• There are 2 Four Seasons resorts on the island and 1000 people work for the resorts. The Lodge at Hoele that is $295 to $1500 per night and the Manele beachside resort goes up to $7000 a night.
• About 40% of the people on Lanai are unemployed since the main industry is the resorts.
• There are three family owned general stores. The Richards family store got sold to Richard Murdock.
• There is a culture and heritage center set to be opened on January 16th.
• They have a community college that is distanced learning from Maui with instructors teaching all local islands.
• Hospital has 10 rooms with two practitioners. They now have dialysis machines there now.
• Lanai is only 3371 feet and gets 30 inches of rain a year.

We got to the one gas station in town to get drinks and snacks. They had $27 flip flops and our tour guide was really nice as she took me to a general store and I got a pair for $3.50. We headed back to the beach for a BBQ dinner. We had salad, teriyaki chicken, Yaki soba, and peas. They did a really great job on the food as I did not shy from a second serving. We left at about 4 PM and the waves were heavy. I got tired and slept on a bench until we got back to Maui. It was dark when we got back and we went straight to bed. I enjoyed our excursion as the crew took real good care of us and were professional. I would highly recommend them to everyone. I left my left flip-flop on the Catamaran… so they both live in Hawai’i now.