The island of Maui is a top vacation spot, and after our trip there in late December through early January, we can definitely see why! The magic of Maui can hardly be properly captured in a photograph. It’s something that we think everyone should go and experience themselves.
Our friend, Sarah, teaches on Maui at a school in Wailuku. We’ve been eager to visit her since she moved there a few years ago. In her time living on Maui, she met Henry. He lives on Oahu, but their relationship has blossomed beautifully even though it currently requires island hopping to see each other. In October, Henry asked Sarah to marry him after a hike along Ka’iwa Ridge Trail as they watched the sunrise together. We had already booked our trip to Maui, so we were glad we could add their engagement session to our to-do list!
Sarah and Henry led us on many adventures during our week on Maui. We truly got a beautiful view of the island and they were wonderful hosts. We adventured along the Road to Hana and I am quite glad that we had a local drive the road! It was filled with one-lane bridges, poor road conditions and we did quite a bit of it in the dark. Sarah has driven the road many times which made the experience very positive. We stopped at the Ke’anae Peninsula to stretch our legs and to check out the viewpoint. Without a doubt, it was a breathtaking view. Not long after taking a few (gorgeous) photos, the downpour began. We had read that it would likely rain along our Road to Hana journey, but we didn’t know it would be so early on! Thankfully, soon after the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds.
One of our favorite things about checking out new areas in the US is the wide range of biodiversity. Hawaii had us oohing and aching the whole time. The black sand beach of Wai’anapanapa State Park was clearly on all of those “must-see” lists for the Road to Hana for a reason! Our jaws definitely dropped as we saw the caves and amazing views from the upper viewpoint.
We’ve always been suckers for waterfalls and often going out of our way to see them (like seeing Multnomah Falls near Portland and Snoqualmie Falls near Seattle). Naturally, while on Maui, we had to see some waterfalls. First up, we saw Wailua Falls. Sarah shared her story of jumping into the pool at the foot of the falls!
We couldn’t visit the island without checking out Haleakalā National Park. We not only did a 4 mile hike roundtrip to get to the base of Waimoku Falls (a 400-foot waterfall), but journeyed through a bamboo forest, got rained on while hiking through the rainforest, and watched the sunrise over the dormant volcano crater of Mount Haleakalā. Like we said, Maui was an amazing experience filled with a lot of adventures!
We are so excited to head back to Maui in June to photograph and celebrate Sarah & Henry’s wedding in Kihei!
