Maui Maui Maui!

Well we've done very little here on this beautiful island except swim, gold, relax, wander the foreshore and do the odd bit of shopping! It's been absolutely fabulous and a perfect way to finish our big trek through some of the East Coast of America!
Had a great night out last night at Lanaini Sports Bar playing pool, foosball and trivia. Funny night!   It's our last night tonight and we've an early pick up for our flight to Honolulu in the morning, and then on to Sydney, an overnight there and back to Bris on Friday afternoon! Can't wait to see Ben and Matt for a quick catch up in Sydney, that's for sure!
We've had plenty of laughs, drinks and shenanigans there's no doubt about it!
So we'll say farewell to Maui "A hui  hou" - until we meet again! Aloha xx

Beautiful beach!

Our own bit of backyard at the Resort

Enjoying the ocean Maui style

Beautiful days

Our Ka'anapali Beach Hotel

The Tiki Bar and Grill area

Some of the lush gardens

Lahani Sports Bar

Daz and Lu playing foosball

Johnny hustling the pool table

Ka'anapli Beach

Part of our hotel lobby

Maui - Day 2

Started this morning with a breakfast and talk from the concierge about what's to do on Maui, which was pretty informative, but we're not sure we plan on doing too much at all actually!
John and I took a big walk along the front of the beach past all of the other resorts, and some are huge! The cave bar was open at the Hyatt, so had to drop in and have a Maitahi of course, and we were able to walk back to our hotel with them is plastic cups!
We were all a bit burnt from our day in the sun yesterday, and the boys were going to have another game of golf, so what did us girls do? You guessed it - went shopping! There is an outlet shopping centre at Lahaine which is a short bus ride away, so we whiled away a few hours there, then met the boys at the golf club for a well earned drink! Quite a few more Maitahis and beers later, we shuttled it back to our hotel.
The grounds at our hotel are just beautiful so we grabbed some red wine, beers and pizzas and sat outside for dinner. The friends from Amsterdam found us, and another good night was had by all!

The boys after the 18th at Ka'anapali

Golf Course

Relaxing walk along the beach front

Beach cabanas

John at the Cave Bar

Maui

Our first day on Maui was pretty relaxing. We're staying at the Ka'Anapali Beach Hotel which is just lovely, low key and traditional Hawaiin. John and I were up reasonably early after a great catch up sleep, and went walking along the beach. To wake up to birds chirping and the sound of the waves on the beach, is just wonderful after the last week of plenty of horn blowing, sirens and traffic!
We caught up with the others and had some time on the beach. Daryl lost his wedding band in the ocean which was just awful, but we grabbed some goggles and snorkel and after about 20 minutes, John miraculously found it! Amazing - so lucky!
John and Steve then went and had a round of golf in the afternoon at the lovely course just behind the Hotel and the rest of us went and had lunch near the beach and listened to some great music, which took us into happy hour!  Well, our happy hour pretty much lasted for the rest of the day and it was just glorious floating around in the ocean watching the sunset. The water is just a beautiful temperature, can stay in for hours.
Daryl made some new friends, who were also floating around, so looks like his next holiday could be in Amsterdam!
Had a great dinner and then crashed into bed! This is heaven!

A quick peak out of our room window on 

our arrival

A beautiful morning in Maui

The last of New York

Have had a few internet issues, so, sorry for delay in blogging.
Our last day in New York, was a pretty cruisey one, which was great. John, Mick, Anne and I went into Manhattan and I got my hair done in a Salon at W38th St between 5th and 6th,  as one does whilst in New York! Anne shopped and John and Mick went to the driving range at Chelsea Pier 59. The boys thought it was fabulous hitting 148 golf balls directed to the Hudson River, in about 2 hours! Must say though, we never saw anyone else walking the streets with golf clubs, but hey, nobody said anything, so really, anything goes over here!
We then got back to the room and organised ourselves to meet Sandra and Paul in the Theatre District to, of course, see a show on Broadway.  Mick, Anne, Paul and Sandra saw Something Rotten and John and I went and saw Book of Mormon, which would have to be the best show we've seen to date. So, so funny and policitcally incorrect! We virtually laughed the whole show. We got great seats, meet some new friends from Chicago, and all in all had a fantastic night.
Well we've had a wonderful time in Canada and America with wonderful friends. We've driven over 3000 miles through 2 Provinces in Canada and 11 States of America! A fantastic adventure for sure!
We all had to get up early to be picked up to go to JFK airport at 5am for our flight to Honolulu, then Maui. Paul and Sandra had an early board of their train to Montreal where they'll go on to explore some of Canada for the next few weeks.
Our flight was a huge 10 1/2hrs to Honolulu  then only a quick half 45min flight to Maui. We were absolutely shattered by the time we checked in! Got to our room, showered and went straight to bed!

Incredible driving range!

View to the left - hard to concentrate!

Mick at the range

John at the range

Only one person walking through

Manhattan with golf clubs!

At Eugene O'Neill Theatre Broadway 

watching Book of Mormon 

Flying out of Honolulu 

Flying into Maui

Wall Streett & Brooklyn Bridge

Headed into Wall Stret this morning to find a bank haha! Did find one or two so that was all good! Had a look around, some good coffee then headed to get bikes - again - to cycle across the Brooklyn Bridge! That was a pretty good experience I must say! Once on the other side, we had to cycle down and get an ice cream from "the best ice cream place in the world" apparently, then cycle back over. We really did enjoy this bike ride as much as cycling through Central Park, I have to say.
We then headed through some of the little interesting streets around the area, where there were quite a few funky little bars, but we didn't stop! Back onto the subway and off to walk the High Line which is an old disused railway line that's been converted into gardens and pathways. It was really lovely and peaceful walking high above the city streets, and can imagine the gardens would be truly lovely in the spring. Popped into the Chelsea Markets, which were fantastic! Anything and everything can be bought here. I thought it had a bit of a Seattle markets feel actually. Loved it! This is the Meatpacking District of  NYC.

Our Bank in Wall Street

Johnny on the Brooklyn Bridge 

The Samfordites cycling again! This time

across the Brooklyn Bridge

World famous ice cream to look forward to

on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge

(Helen photobombing!)

Fabulous ride across this bridge

A little wine bar 

near the bridge actually had a small car

inside!

Great artwork on a building near the bridge

Funky little streets

Crazy little bar with bras hanging up

everywhere inside! 

Chelsea markets

Florist's display 

at Chelsea 

Markets

Guide through Chelsea Markets

Anne, Sandra and Deb in Chelsea Markets

Gardens on the High Line 

John up on the High Line

Quick refreshments after walking the

High Line

Eataly deli's

More food at Eataly

Meat display at Eataly

Eataly

More and more at Eataly

The Flatiron Building built 1902

A triangular 20 floor icon

The Flatiron

After all that exercise, stopped off for a quiet ale at the Half King Tavern before we met the others at Eataly which is just an amazing place. Everything you can think of in numerous delicatessens and so much more!  Six different restaurants, we had Italian, but the vibe of this place is fantastic. Another great day here in New York and it's all coming to an end too quickly! Sipping on a glass of red and ready to say good night!

NYC

Off early again via bus and subway into Downtown Manhattan for our 9/11 tour. Had a great guide, John, very knowledgable of course and he was actually working at the closest hospital when the planes hit the towers, so had first hand knowledge of that devastating day. We went into St Paul's Chapel which is a remarkable place and through a few past incidences, and of course 9/11, not even a single pain of glass has been shattered! This Chapel was a place where relatives of those missing would go, post pictures of their loved ones on the fences, and rescuers and families could receive some comfort. Today, when those in the rescue services from around the world come to the chapel, some leave a badge or hat from their country on the pile of many, that regularly gets archived, as a sign of respect to their fellow rescue workers.
We then went down to the two memorials, where each tower stood, and the names of all nearly 3000 of those who perished are honoured there. The waterfall on the first memorial represents the tears being shed for those lost and it falls into an infinity pool. The second memorial has a smaller waterfall.
Going through the museum was extremely sad, of course, and couldn't help but cry when you see the photos of all of those people who died that day, recordings of last phone calls to loved ones, and the absolute devastation that day caused. Very, very sad.
Then we all went up the One World Tower to the Observatory, apart from Daryl and Luanne, as Lu's not keen on heights, so they stayed longer in the museum.
Wow, wow,wow! It takes 48 seconds to get up to the 102th floor, but seems even quicker! Of course the views are breathtaking! It cost $3.9billioan US to build and is 1776 ft tall, which is representative of the year that America was discovered. We had lunch up there and a good look around. Could see all of the places we've been to over the last few days, and the miles we've covered, then got the lift back down which popped everyone's ears!
By this time, we had to subway it over to Madison Square Gardens for an ice hockey game, as you do! New York Rangers v New Jersey Devils. It was great! Our team,the Rangers, won! A pretty cold venue of course, and we made some new friends who filled us in on all the rules and even extended their family homes to us on The Big Island in Hawaii in the future! Now Facebook friends as well! An interesting night, finished off with a couple of drinks at Hooters! Another big day!

One world Tower

One of the 9/11 memorials and waterfall

Some of the names at the memorial

of those lost 

In the museum where voices of those

who survived play, and their words

are displayed on these columns

Part of a stairwell from one of the Towere

A destroyed fire truck from the day

Great view from One World Tower Observatory

U.S. At the Observatory with a tiny Statue of

Liberty in the background

Looking down from the 102 floor

Looking Uptown

Do we jump?

At Madison Square Gardens for ice hockey

NY Rangers v New Jersey Devils

Hooters for an after game drink

In the elevator of One World Observatory

Sandra and I contemplating jumping!