Ke’ala’iliahi 2012

The Halau Kekuaokala’au’ala’iliahi are performing at the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens 150 Kanaloa Ave this Saturday, February 25th, 2012 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

This is a fun family event. The Cost is $10 (presale), $15 (at gate), children 5 and under are free!

Great Entertainers such as  Weldon Kekauoha & Friends, Hoku Zuttermeister & Friends, Del Beazley & Friends, Walt Keale & Friends, O’Brien Eselu & Ke Kai O Kahiki and Halau Kekuaokala’au’ala’iliahi will be be perforning. There are also Food, Arts & Craft Booths, Silent Auction during the event.

Tickets Available at:  American Savings Bank – Pukalani, Maui Thing – Wailuku, ‘Ulalena Maui Theatre – Lahaina and any Halau Member

When you come, you will see Shane’s wide range of work: numerous forms of abstract photography, digital art created on the iPhone and iPad, and his acrylic paintings in process.

He will be offering demos, refreshments, music, and special pricing! It’s easy to add some art to your walls at home and work during the Maui Open Studios tour. The studio is on the top floor with great north shore views!

Shane together with Roxanne will also be hosting an extended gathering aka party on Saturday evening – it will be a fun time of art, food, drink and conversations.

Photos shown here were taken by Peter Liu at the last year’s Maui Open Studio.  Thank you Peter for allowing us to use these photos. You can see more on Kaiscapes Flickr Acct.

For more information on this event and on Shane’s art, go to at www.shanerobinson.com

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So once again, from us here at Aloha Luxury Properties, we wish you a Happy Valentines Day today and Happy Love Day, everyday!

Run and Walk For The Whales

Runners and walkers, adults and kids, residents and visitors are invited to take part in one of Maui’s largest fun runs and walking events. The Run and Walk for the Whales course includes ocean views — you might even see a whale or two breaching in the distance! Choose from the 5K walking course, 5K running course, half marathon walking course, half marathon running course and 2K running course for kids. Starting line and post-run festivities will take place at the Makena Beach and Golf Resort, South Maui.  Medallions, lei and free whalewatch tickets awarded to top male and female overall in 5K and Half Marathon. Age group medallions awarded in 5K Run and Half Marathon Run. Keiki race will award medallions to the “boy top finisher” and “girl top finisher.” All runners and walkers will be entered into prize drawings.

This event includes professional chip timing for 5K runners and Half Marathon; clock timing for 5K and Half Marathon walkers and 2K Keiki runners. Entry fee for adults includes “Run and Walk for the Whales” quick dry t-shirt plus post-race breakfast. Children ages 12 and under participating in the 2K Keiki Race will receive a “Run and Walk for the Whales” cotton t-shirt plus post-race breakfast. Water and aid stations and musical entertainment located along course. Starting line and post-run festivities will take place at the Makena Beach and Golf Resort, South Maui.

Maui Open Studios

The Annual Maui Open Studios Event is the first island-wide event of its kind in Hawaii. It spans over 4 weekends in February every year and consists of an Opening Celebration and Preview Exhibition, 3 weekends of artist open studios, and other satellite concerts and art exhibitions throughout the month. The inaugural Maui Open Studios Event took place in February of 2011 and included 111 registered artists at over 90 venues island wide.

Artists are encouraged to do live demonstrations, serve refreshments, talk story about their art, sell their work, connect with their visitors and create unique exhibition spaces for the public to enjoy.  The public, both local and tourist alike, will have a very unique opportunity year after year to experience the creativity that the art community on Maui has to offer. It is a very special event for both the artists and art-collectors alike.

Maui Open Studios Tour will be held at Maui Tropical Plantation, Wailuku February 4 (preview) 11 and 12, 18 and 19, 25 and 26 (multiple locations) Everyone is invited to meet the participating artists and see samples of their artwork at the preview event at the Maui Tropical Plantation. The free event takes place on Saturday evening from 6-9pm on February 4th. Get the guidebook on February 4 for the self-guided tour or check online for the participating artists and locations for each subsequent weekend in February at www.mauiopenstudios.com.

James and Molly Jacobson, food writers who live, eat, and play on Maui started writing and publishing Top Maui Restaurants, the definitive dining guide to Maui, in 2005.

This week they announced that the 2012 edition is out! They are joined by Shannon Wianecki as a contributor. We heard that this year’s edition is even more organized, more useful, and more complete than ever before.

• There is a new listing section at the back of the book, where all of the restaurants are listed in order of their ratings (food, service, ambience, love, value, and overall). It really does show you “at a glance” which restaurants consistently rise to the top!

• The section which used to present lists of restaurants by location, budget, and food craving (ex: burgers, happy hour, sushi, etc.) has been pruned and beefed up at the same time. Instead of listing all restaurants in these indices, they cut the slackers and kept in only the restaurants they really recommend. They renamed this section “Top Maui Restaurants” — because it only addresses their best recommendations.

• They added in the map to Maui that somehow got omitted their last edition.

It will take a few weeks for every retailer to get their copies on the shelves, but the paperback edition is now available on Amazon.com.

Happy Eating!

OTHER “WHAT TO DO” POSTS:

• Hiking (and suggested Iao Valley as a start).
• Enjoying Maui Upcountry Farms.
• Driving The Road to Hana .
• Enjoy Haleakala
• Have Fun Surfing

photo courtesy of www.mauipic.om

Happy New Year! This is our 2nd post for 2012, next to that wonderful report that WordPress Team did for us (Thank you WordPress!).

So now it’s time to do another  ”What To Do While On Vacation On Maui” post.

So far we’ve shared about Hiking (and suggested Iao Valley as a start). We’ve talked about Enjoying Maui Upcountry Farms. We  shared about Driving The Road to Hana . We suggested about the many ways to enjoy Haleakala.  For the beach lovers, what comes to your mind when we say Maui vacation? For many the word “surfing” comes to mind, so let’s stalk story about that! What to do on while on vacation on Maui? SURF!

Let’s look at the different kinds of surfing and what are the best beaches suited for it. Then it’s up to you to decide what kind of surfing you’d like to try (if you have not done so already).

1. Surfing – The most common surfing we know about is the simple stand up surfing.  The surfer uses a board – some use long boards while others use short boards. This past few days we this kind of surfing in the many videos being posted about JAWS.  However,  you do not have to be as good as those professional surfers to enjoy this kind of surfing. Here on Maui there are plenty of surfing lessons being offered and they plenty of beaches you can enjoy surfing without being intimidated by the professionals.

Photo courtesy of www.mauiwindsurfing.net

2. Windsurfing - is a  surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a mast, wishbone boom and sail. The sail area ranges from less than 2.5 m² to more than 12 m² depending on the conditions, the skill of the sailor and the type of windsurfing being undertaken. Kanaha beach and Hookipa beach on Maui are famous for wind surfing. Windsurfers from around the world come to Maui to sail on these beaches. For more information on Maui Windsurfing, visit www.mauiwindsurfing.net

3. KiteSurfing -  is an adventure surface water sport that has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport Kitesurfing harnesses the power of the wind to propel a rider across the water on a small surfboard or a kiteboard (similar to a wakeboard). The terms kiteboarding and kitesurfing are interchangeable. There are a number of different styles of kiteboarding, including freestyle, freeride, downwinders, speed, course racing, wakestyle, jumping and wave-riding which is focused on kitesurfing big waves using a directional board similar to a surfboard. More photos on kiteboarding can be seen at A Maui Blog where a student of HST windsurfing is learning how to kitesurf. More about kitesurfing (with video) at HST website.

4. Stand Up Paddle Surfing  - In the Hawaiian language Hoe he’e nalu. It is also commonly known as SUP. It is an emerging global sport with a Hawaiian heritage. The sport is an ancient form of surfing, and reemerged as a way for surfing instructors to manage their large groups of students, as standing on the board gave them a higher viewpoint. This increased visibility of what was going on around them such as incoming swell. This SUP is actually the latest craze right now. You will see both locals and tourist trying them out, and some had gotten pretty good at it! As with the other surfing, there are plenty of stand up paddling school around in case you want to learn.

Do you have any questions about surfing on Maui? Who to hire as a trainor? Where to purchase or rent an equipment?   Don’t hesitate to contact us.  You may leave a comment and we’ll direct you to the best resource.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 33 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

About three weeks ago we took at Peak at the January and February 2012 events on Maui.  Well, we took another look and there are more! Here there are, in addition to what we’ve already listed on our previous post:

Paia Annual Beach Fest

Pa’ia Youth & Cultural Center’s 15th Annual Beachfest is set for Saturday, January 7th, 2012 at Pa`ia Bay. This is mainly a body boarding event but there is a free style surf division. The competition is open to all ages, and includes several divisions and tons of great prizes and give-aways. Families are invited to watch from the beach, but they ask that spectators keep it an alcohol, tobacco, and drug-free event. For more information, visit: www.pyccmaui.org (that’s where the photo above was taken)

New Shanghai Circus

Maui Arts and Cultural Center on January 16 and 17, the Castle Theater hosts the New Shanghai Circus for three beautifully orchestrated shows in two days. Chinese acrobatic skills have been passed on through generations. Building on the traditional performances, artists of today’s New Shanghai Circus have added layers of complexity and daring with new techniques and spectacular stunts, thrilling audiences around the globe. For more information, call 808 242 SHOW (7469) or go to www.mauiarts.org

Buy Back the Beach with HILT

For the 11th year in a row Old Lahaina Luau is hosting the event Buy Back The Beach, and this time around they’ll be showcasing their amazing family of restaurants. In addition to the traditional luau spread, guests get to sample tastings from Aloha Mixed Plate, Star Noodle, and the brand new Leoda’s Kitchen & Pie Shop. Prepare to eat well! A true feast for the senses, the night’s entertainment includes total “Ahumania” with mistresses of ceremony Joni DeMello and Liz Morales of Ahumanu leading the show. The Old Lahaina Luau dancers will perform and HAPAheadlines with a special performance commemorating the 20th anniversary of their first album. Save the date: January 28, 2012

Chinese New Year Celebration

The sights and sounds of Chinese New Year take center stage at Maui Mall from 9 am to 2 pm, on Saturday, January 28, 2012 when the Year of the Dragon makes its auspicious debut. Free family event! Lion Dancers from the Maui Chinese Martial Arts Society start things off at 10 am. Also enjoy the Keiki Chinese Costume Contest and free Good Luck Lion photos for kids in Chinese Attire by Photography by Irvin. The day’s festivities will also include a fried rice cooking contest, Children Chinese Attire Contest, Children Art Contest for the Year of the Dragon, Children Chinese craft activities, calligraphy and a special Chinese antique display.  Also to greet the New Year are the Wah Ngai Lion Dance Association with their active and energetic dragon dancers and more lion dancers.  This Oahu based marshal arts group bring in the Chinese New Year with extra joyous festivities.

Maui Open Studios 2012

The Annual Maui Open Studios Event is the first island-wide event of its kind in Hawaii. It spans over 4 weekends in February every year and consists of an Opening Celebration and Preview Exhibition, 3 weekends of artist open studios, and other satellite concerts and art exhibitions throughout the month. The inaugural Maui Open Studios Event took place in February of 2011 and included 111 registered artists at over 90 venues island wide.
Artists are encouraged to do live demonstrations, serve refreshments, talk story about their art, sell their work, connect with their visitors and create unique exhibition spaces for the public to enjoy.  The public, both local and tourist alike, will have a very unique opportunity year after year to experience the creativity that the art community on Maui has to offer. It is a very special event for both the artists and art-collectors alike.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of salted butter, browned (see instructions below)
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (use a high quality extract)
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter) – skip if using salted butter
• 7-8 ounces of chopped chocolate (use a high quality chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips)
• 1 cup Island Princess Hawaii macadamia nuts (chopped & lightly toasted)