Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Trip to Maui (2008)--Day 10
3/26/2008
Haleakala Zipline
In my opinion, this activity was the absolute highlight of our trip. Patty felt that the Lanai day trip was our best activity, but she also had a great time doing the Zipline. Leaving the hotel by 9:00, it was a somewhat lengthy trip through Kahului and up the Haleakala Highway, ending at the Skyline Ecoadventure shack with time to spare. In fact, we arrived earlier than we'd anticipated; they were just starting instruction on the tour prior to ours, so we had to hang back and wait awhile. Meantime, we talked to operators at two adjacent activities, Haleakala ATV Tours and Pony Express Tours, getting some ideas for possible activities during a future trip. The ATV tour looks like it would be a lot of fun!
Eventually, the tour guides arrived and begin our instruction of what to expect during this tour; how the clamps worked, how to change your orientation as you go over the lines, and other information deemed pertinent. There were five different ziplines, with a swinging bridge (if you saw Indiana Jones & the Temple Of Doom movie, it's the same type of bridge, only more narrow) just prior to the final zipline. I asked the guide if my glasses would be okay and would stay on my head during the ziplines and he quipped "Sure, unless you flip upside down, in which case losing your glasses will be the least of your problems" 
So, off the thirteen of us went, including a family from Maple Grove (Twin Cities). Those tour guides must have had difficulty understand our Minnesota accent, with the clipped consonants and all...eh?  We hiked up a short trail, taking us to our first zipline. Viewing the gorge we were about to navigate, there was a little trepidation even though it was a fairly short line. Yeah, everything is safe, they'd told us, and the lines can hold 15,000 tons of weight or whatever the heck weight it is. We get it...you couldn't do this if there was even the most remote chance of injury or death. Anyway, Patty handled the first line just fine. I must have been instinctively trying to pull myself up closer to the line as I stepped off the platform and started shooting across the gorge because one of the instructors yelled at me "Relax your arms!!". One of your hands is tucked into a ring which you can turn either way in order to control which direction you're moving. They stressed that they want you facing forward when you reach the landing platform at the far side, where a second instructor is waiting to help you stop. Pretty neat!
The next three ziplines were easy, even though each line was longer, higher and faster than the line before it. The only difficult part for me was the swinging bridge we had to walk across. There was the thinnest of wooden planks you had to walk across. You're zipped in so if you slip, you won't plummet into the chasm to an almost certain death, but it was still difficult walking for me. It was slightly embarrassing, but what choice did I have? Eventually I slowly picked my way across to the other side. The final zipline awaiting us was a doozy at over 750 feet in length. They said we'd reach speeds of 30 mph on this line and it's way the hell up there in height. How high it was, I'm not sure but it looked close to 150 feet up. There is no metal ring on the final line to correct your direction. When you stepped off the platform, whatever way you turned, you turned with no way to correct it. I ended up turning 180 degrees immediately after stepping off and was facing backwards as I flew down the line. What a rush! You fly past the landing platform and up the line towards a tree the line is attached to, coming to within 15 feet of the tree. The heavier you are, the closer you'll come to the tree. Then you coast back down and eventually are caught by the guide at the landing platform. This final zipline made this activity well worth the cost ($82).
It was a nice drive back down the Haleakala Highway, and you could feel the air warming, going from 65 degrees to 84 by the way we were back near sea level in Kahului.
Tony Roma's
I don't know what their idea of a New York strip steak is, but the one they served me wasn't it. It was fairly heavily marbled, more along the lines of a Ribeye steak. Let's just say it was disappointing. The atmosphere is average; I suppose it would have been nicer to have an outside table, but they were all occupied, so we sat inside. Service was adequate to good. Patty had the baby back ribs, which she liked. Our dessert choice was strawberry cheesecake, which was somewhat dry. Overall, it was my least satisfying dining choice during our trip.
Back to the hotel, I had yet another session in the hot tub talking with other visitors. One lady had been staying at the Lahaina Shores since September! No idea whether she was working or living off her husband's $$$...she made it a point to mention how he'd been working at the same company for 36 years and was very well off. She also said that the hotel was about to undergo a $7 million renovation project, costs borne by the units' owners...and then by the visitors, of course. According to her, it "should" take a year and should be done before our next planned trip in April 2010. Rotted pillars will be replaced along with all the lanai railings. Will the increase in rental rates be more than we're willing to pay? Will the improvements be completed on schedule? Management isn't giving any concrete details, she claims, as to when this work will start. Interestingly, when I mentioned this conversation a couple nights later to a man who is an owner of one of the units, he acted surprised, as if this was the first he'd heard of it. He was dubious as to her statements, so how knows what to believe? We'll find out when we check out the rates and make reservations next year, assuming we're returning there in 2010.
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