Hawaii Travel Diary – Day 4: Iao Valley & Bubba Gump.
I never thought I would have spent the first day of 2015 in Maui, but here I am! I was kinda tired from the sunrise shooting of the previous day, so I decided to live this day with the Aloha spirit.
That’s why I went to enjoy a light breakfast at the beach.
Of course I couldn’t resist to the view, so I took a couple of shots there as well (same place of the day before, but like sunsets, every sunrise is different). The clouds painted a wonderful sky, and the sun enlightened Lanai island.
After spending the rest of the morning working on the pictures and relaxing a little, it was time to shoot again. Iao Valley here I come!
As soon as I arrived there the view was incredible (looks like Jurassic Park – except for no dinosaurs)
If you turn yourself you can see the Iao Needle Point, which is a famous landmark in the state park.
The “needle” itself is an illusion, and is in reality a sharp ridge that gives the appearance of being a spire when viewed end-on. The needle is an extension of and surrounded by the cliffs of the West Maui Mountains, an extinct volcano.
From there I walked a little following a very much slippery and tiny track (not a good idea when wearing sneakers and a camera on your neck, but I survived).
When I take pictures I lose the track of time, so of course it was sunset time already (damn!). Too bad Iao is not a great place for sunsets, cause is faced east and the sun goes behind the mountains pretty soon.
So let’s jump in the car and reach a point from where to shoot the sunset!
The best time for the sunset was gone already, but after reaching a panoramic view point (which is also used for whale watching), I took a decent shot of the blue hour.
As you can see very dark clouds were approaching, but that was nothing compared to what happened here last night (you’ll see that in a couple of posts).
After all this shooting it was finally time to eat something; that’s where Bubba Gump comes in!
I thought it was only in the Forrest Gump movie, but apparently it’s a theme restaurant kinda popular in the US! And of course it’s based on the movie Forrest Gump. What can you eat there? Shrimps, shrimps and…shrimps!
I never ate so many shrimps before (nor I will), but it has been a very nice experience!
Once out of the restaurant it was time for some cheesy and “tourist shot”:
9 pm, time to go to sleep. Tomorrow’s alarm clock will be at 4.30am to explore new parts of the island and shoot at the sunset!
