The weather on Maui is usually pretty consistent. The trade winds blow from the NE, there is a wet and a dry side of the mountains, and the resorts have beautiful weather on their side of the islands for tourist to soak up the sun on calm beaches.
Every once in a while, especially during the winter months, the trade winds will slow down, and even reverse. We call these 'Kona Winds', when the wind starts blowing from the South. As these winds shift, you might be lucky enough to enjoy some flat calm conditions for a day. And if you get out with the right captain, on the right boat, then you might get to go to places that no one else sees.... not even the locals!
Maui isn't really known for its lava formations..although it has some relatively recent flows, 500+ years old. Today we got to go explore one of these recent flows by water, which is really the only way to get to it. Check out some of these photos from our trip today which went farther south along the coast of Maui than I had ever been.
Far down the seldom visited south coast of Maui, with unusual lava formations.
Columnar basalt and natural rock arches can be found here.
Interesting geology of a rare volcanic formation called a tuff cone. This was an eruption in shallow water. The steam added a lot of energy to the eruption. The layers of pumice and ash fell back down around the vent and created these layers of rock.
More cool erosional features in the lava flow.
Columnar basalt, jagged a'a lava on top, and sea caves leading to lava tubes underwater.
Multiple arches in an otherworldly scene.
This was on a calm day. You can rarely get down to this part of the coast because of the wind and waves. You can imagine what it might be like if it wasn't a 'calm' day.
Check out the destination here on pinmapple.com: [//]:# (!pinmapple 20.57639 lat -156.37388 long Secret Lava Coast d3scr)
And keep traveling!
-Dai Mar