This year’s Maui Film Festival had the regular parties with many new faces.  The Starry Night Moondance party hosted by Tommy Bahama’s Wailea was a hit!  The dance floor was moving like never before.  Most of the photos on this page were taken at this event.

Another great night event was the Taste of Chocolate at the Four Seasons next to Duo.  Here guests enjoyed countless chocolate treats while sipping drinks and mingling.

The Taste of Wailea was held again above the Celestial Cinema on the golf course.  All of the best Maui restaurants showed up to make their signature dishes.  Southern also provided excellent wines for pairing.

A new event this year was held at the Wailea Resort (formerly known as Diamonds.)  This involved a pool side fashion show with club music and great drinks.  We hope this is offered again next year.

Celebrities such as Zac Efron, and the beautiful Malin Akerman (pictured below at the taste of Wailea) enjoyed the parties and promoted their movies.

Local celebrities also found their way to the parties such as Sherri Van and Lucas Woodford causing a veritable frenzy among young Maui fans.

As always, the events surrounding the Maui Film Festival are only secondary to how great the movie experience is.  Watching films under the stars on a Maui golf course with friends and family can not be compared to any screening at any other film festival.

Thanks for joining us!  We’ll post again about the events next year!

Aloha!

The day began with a keiki parade and Eco-Day Conference for the kids.  Throughout the day visitors enjoyed arts and crafts booths, local restaurant food, live music, and plenty of jumping houses for the kids.  Tonight “Laugh @ Da Park” will commence under a large tent where locally farmed food will be served with live jazz from the Fulton Tashombe Quartet and a comedy show to top it off.

This marks the 30th year of this fun festival.  If you get a chance to go tomorrow, you won’t be disappointed.  Make sure to wear sunblock and maybe even bring a chair.  Scripts can be purchased for food and drinks (no alcohol).  Vendors selling crafts accept cash.

MAUI WHALE WATCHING

If you plan on doing a whale watch in Maui, check out this comprehensive list of Maui Whale Watch Tours. There are many boats leaving from Lahaina Harbor, Maalaea Harbor, Kihei Boat Ramp, and on the beach in Makena.  Humpback whales visit every winter from December to May and it’s a wonderful thing to experience up close.

Bring some friends, a camera and some sun screen and enjoy the sights and sounds of surface behavior from our visiting Humpback Whales.

You can see it live here: Makena Web Camera

The camera switches views from multiple locations on an automatic basis.  The camera is located in a prime location, high up on the Makena Beach & Golf Resort, which gives it a great number of potential views.  These are the views that it is set on right now:

• Mooring of the Kai Kanani II
• Molokini Crater (Close Up)
• Molokini Crater from the Beach
• Beach Check in area for the Kai Kanani
• Lanai Island
• South Maui area (includes Puu Olai and Kahoolawe)
• The Beach in front of the Makena Resort
• Surf Conditions for Beach Loading (2 views of this)
• Maalaea Harbor and West Maui Mountains

Below is an animation showing sceenshots from each view.  We know you must think we’re a little crazy about this, but we don’t have that many webcams on the island, and it’s nice to have one that has so many views.  it’s like having 10 cameras in 1.

We’ve been on every Maui zipline tour, and we strongly feel that Piiholo Zipline offers the best tours.  Below we outline exactly why we feel this way:

• Safety - We like that you don’t have to use your hands.  Some zipline courses use trolleys that necessitate you using your hands to slow down, and/or keep yourself from spinning around.  Piiholo trolleys keep you zipping facing forward the entire time without fail.
• Length of Ride - Their 5th zipline in the course is the longest side-by-side zipline in Hawaii.  That means you’re moving fast and high for the longest time.  It’s really nice to have the time to look around and appreciate the scenery and realize exactly what you’re doing.
• Side-By-Side - Piiholo offers lines side-by-side, so you can zip at the same time as your friends.  It’s fun to try racing others while flying through the air. It also speeds up the tour and minimizes wait time.
• Suspension Bridge - To enter the zipline course you cross a 317 -foot long suspension bridge.  This is a great way to start your adventure.
• Tango Tower - What is a Tango Tower?  It’s a 6 sided climbing tower with all kinds of challenges from rock wall to rope climbing.  This is a wonderful place to work on Team Building exercises. (contact to reserve.)
• HorseBack Riding – Piiholo is a locally owned ranch with other tours including Horseback.  This means you can do more than just zipline and rope climb in the same day without wasting the time to drive out again.

Piiholo Ranch Zipline is located in Makawao, Maui, Hawaii.  You can book their activities at the best price by calling (808) 572-1717 or online at Zipline Maui.

Thank you Greg Hoxsie for your excellent Maui commercial Photography. Your photos help enormously in telling the story!

And WOW!  It’s a lot of fun!  Now we’re all hooked.  It’s like going snorkeling without getting wet (if it’s calm and you don’t fall.)  From looking down over your board, you can see the reef clearly as well as any sealife.  Turtles are everywhere!

Not only is it fun for the views of Maui and sealife, we enjoy it because it’s great exercise and a lot of fun.  Sometimes we’ll put some snorkel gear on our board (attached to the leash) and go out to spots that are difficult to access.

When it comes to surfing, it can make a really bad day good.  I don’t recommend taking them out in big waves, but riding tiny waves is really fun.  I feel you have more of an advantage in surfing larger waves with a short board or regular longboard.  Some would disagree, but we suggest only riding the SUP boards in really small waves or just for distance exploration.

Here’s a video from the boards the last time we went out.  We rode from the Makena Golf Resort to Little Beach and back.  We got up a little late, so it had a bit of bump.  It was still a lot of fun, but we suggest going out before the wind hits around 10-11 in the morning while it’s still glassy.  If there is wind, make sure to go up wind to start.  Save going down wind for when you’re tired and coming back. Also, always be safe and don’t ride over shallow reef or areas you don’t know. Be careful!

We rented our boards at Boss Frog’s Dive & Surf.  You can call and rent boards on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii by calling (808) 661-3333.