We started the day with a walk on the Beachwalk to Whalers Village. We had to avoid the crew pruning palm trees near our hotel.

People were enjoying the walk, the beach, the ocean, and the sky.

This afternoon, we took the Factory Experience Tour at the Maui Chocolate Factory, led by CEO Gunars Valkers, who had co-founded Biosite and developed the first visual pregnancy test and a test for congestive heart failure. Biosite got absorbed by Abbott in a hostile takeover, and Gunars took the money and moved to Maui, planning to retire. But he got interested in chocolate, and founded Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate, which now donates its entire net profit to local charities.

Gunars took us through the chocolate production process from farm to wrapped chocolates.

Gunars experiments with chocolate and sends the results to his Ku’ia Club members as their monthly chocolate. He’d just finished creating a chocolate from the 2024 harvest from his farm (the first since the Lahaina fire, which really stressed the trees), and it was ready to be wrapped.

 

We got to taste the Maui 2024 chocolate; it was excellent, and the Kuia Club members are in for a treat.

Our next stop was the chocolate storage room, which has ready-to-ship product as well as semi-processed chocolate, like the 10kg block of untempered chocolate that Gunars showed us. He said that there was a million dollars worth of chocolate (at retail) in the room! The room is kept at 60 degrees, which allows him to store the chocolate indefinitely without degradation – he also said that the best place to store chocolate at home is in your wine cellar (failing that, the refrigerator is good, but you need to let it warm up for a few minutes before eating it).

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After the tour, we had a chocolate tasting – seven five-gram pieces of chocolate. Three were chosen for us (the ones they make from pure Maui chocolate from their own farm); we had to choose the other four.

The tour included a $25 gift card for each of us; we decided not to buy any chocolate just yet because we’d have to keep it cool on the way home, which would be difficult. I’m considering joining the Kuia Club – the cards would almost pay for the first month’s shipment. :-)

As we walked back to the car, we were faced with the reality of the Lahaina fire again.

Diane and I had dinner at Mauka Makai (Land and Sea) restaurant here at the resort; we had a nice view of the ocean at sunset.

I went snorkeling this morning (Diane’s feet were bothering her too much to be able to get into the fins!) but I didn’t see a whole lot of fish – just a couple of yellow tang. I might have seen more if I’d gone farther out, but I don’t like snorkeling on my own.

This was the first time I’d used my phone for underwater photos (I bought a drybag at The Snorkel Store on Monday); I have a lot to learn. Most of my photos were out of focus (I’m guessing that the phone wasn’t quite touching the inner surface of the bag), and the phone kept wanting to switch into video or portrait modes – if anyone knows how to force the camera app on an iPhone to stay on “Photo” instead of sliding into other modes, I’d love to know the secret!

We attended the General Manager’s Update after lunch – it was interesting, possibly useful, and had some two-way conversations (unlike the sales pitch Owner’s Update they bribe you to attend). I found out why there are no lights on the room balconies (to discourage birds from flying into the building), some of the improvements that they’re making, and a bit of how the resort is reacting to the Lahaina fire of last year (cash contributions, fostering trees to be planted as people rebuild their houses, and buying a quilt which tells the history of Lahaina to support the Pūnana Leo Preschool of Lahaina.

After the update, we walked all the way down the Beachwalk to the Hyatt Regency, only to discover that the penguins were no longer there. We did see a heron on the way down, and the hotel still has a nice collection of swans (the information sign about the swans says that “swans are beautiful birds, best admired from a distance”), so the trip wasn’t a total washout.

This evening, we went to the “Rhythms of Polynesia” luau on the lawn at the Westin Ka’anapali Resort North, a short walk from Nanea. This was our first luau, so I don’t know how authentic it was, but Diane and I enjoyed it. The open bar probably didn’t hurt. :-)

They had cultural activities before dinner – you could learn a little hula, try to play Hawaiian instruments, or make a bracelet to accompany the lei they gave all the guests.

The show itself featured six dancers and an emcee, along with a band. It was fun.

The staging of the luau was a little unusual. Most of the luaus we’ve walked by have been isolated to make sure passers-by can’t see anything; this one was on the resort’s lawn, just off the Beachwalk and easily visible (and probably audible) from half of the buildings in the resort. I wonder if it encourages guests to buy tickets (the luau just started last month and only has one show a week).