The Road to Hana

Sunday morning came early…especially after all of that pub crawling the night before…….so after some coffee…and more coffee….we headed off for the day. Today we travelled the road to hana…..we left the terminal on a van to take us to the Maui airport to get our rental car. We got our little rental car…yes little…the road is so narraow in plcea with only one way bridges that I rented us the smallest car possible for this particular event.

The Road to Hana is one of the top ten road trips according to all things ‘trave;’…it is a 32 mile journey through the mountains in Maui to a small town called Hana. The road boasts stops for breathtaking vistas and waterfalls and nature hikes. The travel aficionados were right. I thought the drive to the Yukon in Alaska was the most spectacular drive of my life until this.

Rich was prepared for what he knew would be my compulsion to photograph every single beautiful view…and we planned for the 32 mile round trip to take 10 hours…so..no rush.

First stop was a surfer beach….coincidentally there was a cache there…so Rich set out to find the cache and I was taking pictures from the overview of the most amazing blue water I have ever seen. Seriously….caribbean blue is nothing on Hawaii blue. I loved watching the surfers and just stood there drinking in the beach. I have always been invigorated near the ocean…it is like somebody pumps me full of joy… and that was how I felt watching the surfers and the waves below me. After a while reality sunk in..and I looked for Rich who was still looking for his cache. I asked for a few pertinents about the cache…and walked a few steps from where he was and pointed “here it is”. So he logged it and he took some pics of me with the beautiful beach as a background and we headed down the road to the next stop on the Road to Hana guidebook.

Thus far the road had been flat…but we knew hairpin turns were in our future and did not have to wait long. I had mentally prepared myself for this drive…so I did not gasp and curse and tell Rich to slow down…and he politely went slow enough that I did not panic as we were driving around curves that looked like he was about to drive off the edge of a cliff.

Next stop was a small state park with a 1 mile looped walk up through the rainforest. It was so beautiful…the plants, the view through the trees of the ocean when I caught a peek Flowers I have never seen…ferns bigger than I am tall and round…. Trees so big I could sit in a small curve of the trunk. It was breathtakingly wonderful.

Next stop was what was promised to be a private waterfall…..a good length hike up a streambed leading to a hidden waterfall – right up my alley! Coincidentlly…there was also a cache at this location so it was a double good stop. Out of the car I bounded…excited for my swimming in a waterfall adventure. I hiked up the riverbed…over boulders…over 800 feet….up up up up up…I was sweating, I was tired, I was out of breath……and the waterfall was dry. I was disappointed L

I hiked back down the riverbed…cursing quietly and not so quietly….Rich took a picture of me way up the river….and I will post it as prrof of my futile climb. I got back into the car, disappointed, hot…….and shaking a bit…lunch time.

We headed off on our drive….to a peninsula surrounded by black lava rock. There was a small roadside stand selling fresh fruit, smoothies, hot dogs…..and we had lunch. I had a hot dog and a smoothie and what they called maui chips. It didn’t matter what it was at that point, I needed to eat. Felt better after lunch and Rich started looking for the geocache located, coincidentally…at the road side stand. While looking I started talking to some folks at the next table who were talking about the geocache…and then a geocachers spontaneous event happened with Rich and the cachers from Rhode Island. After some fun and fellowship and log book signing we all headed off. We stopped at the end of the peninsula and I got out of the car to take pictures…Rich got out to find another geocache…both of us accomplished our mission. Took video of the waves here….so beautiful the blue water with white crests from waves spraying up from black lava rock. The video nor the pictures will do this moment justice at all.

Off we headed…… three bears falls…mama, papa, baby…….only falls we saw all day that weren’t dry. The views were amazing on today’s trip..but the falls were not amazing..not enough water …water diverted because they have had a rain shortage. The falls were beautiful though…as were every moment of the spectacular drive. I don’t regret this trip at all…it was a visual feast. Last stop of the day was at the Black Sand Beach…..we walked with our toes in the black sand, walked in the lava tubes and it was wonderful.

Back we headed to Maui………. We needed to get back before dark, and now it was 5…the 32 mile drive was about 2 hours without stops because of the turns and one way bridges…so Rich was going to have to make haste to get back before dark. I took out my kindle to read..thinking that if my nose were in the book he could go faster without me being in a panic. You see…the return trip had my side of the car on the cliff side…..and I am a recovering height phobic. So…I read and he made haste…and I got carsick…he had to pull over three times…but there was no panic, just a little …well…nevermind.

Returned to the ship in time to have some dinner, then went to listen to a folk guitarist play in one of the lounges before bed. Early bed tonight..tomorrow morning we snorkel!