Maui, HI
February 17-22, 2013
The road to Hana town is a loopy drive along the northeast shore of Maui, with over 50 bridges to cross (many of them are single lane) and amazing scenery. There are lots of hairpin turns on this road, so if you're prone to motion sickness, take appropriate medication with you. Plan for at least a full day for this trip. From Kahului, it took us about 4 hours to drive the 70 or so miles to Hana. There are tons of roadside turnouts and we took advantage of most of them for the views and photo opportunities. There were some amazing views of the shoreline and lots of beautiful waterfalls to admire. Apparently there are black sand beaches and lava tubes to check out, but we missed those!
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| view.on.drive.to.hana |
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| tiny.bridge |
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| waterfalls.near.hana |
Many Maui tourist brochures have ads from the Hana Bay Picnic Co in Paia, the last town to load up on food and gas before reaching Hana. Their claim to fame was their picnic box lunches, which ended up being nothing more than a combo containing a glorified sandwich, a small bag of chips, and a cookie. They also sell many items that tourists may need along the way, including sunscreen, ponchos, motion sickness pills, and CDs to follow along to for a self-guided tour. Though this is a convenient stop for food and sundries for the trip, I would have been happier stocking up on stuff from the grocery store we went to the night before in Kahului. In addition, there are a bunch of self-serve flower and snack stands as you get closer to Hana (they operate by the honor system - make sure you have exact change!). Some claim to carry amazing banana bread! We picked up some tasty coconut brittle at the Nahiku self-serve stand.
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| nahiku.self.serve |
Most people head back to Kahului the same way they got to Hana. Andrew was feeling adventurous and upon talking to locals, he was convinced that it was ok to drive back via the south shore, as long as the conditions were dry. The car rental companies warn against driving on this road due to the isolation, stretches of bumpy unpaved roads, blind corners, and some paths being at the edge of cliffs. We drove with caution, and at one point a Hike Maui van passed us and Andrew decided to follow them as close as he could because they were driving confidently and knew when to honk to warn oncoming traffic at the blind twists and curves.
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| scary.section.of road |
We were treated to some spectacular views completely different from the northeast shore. At one lookout, the landscape showed a beautiful rocky shoreline in one direction, and complete desert in the other direction. Another thing I didn't expect to see was the number of cows in Maui - it was even more than what one would typically see driving along the highways in Alberta!
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| maui.south.shore |
The afternoon before our flight out of Maui, we decided to drive from Kahului along the north shore to see the blowhole at Nakalele Point. From the parking lot, it's about a 15 minute hike down to see the blowhole, but there are warning signs for visitors to not get too close, as the waves are so strong that they have sucked people away into the ocean before.
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| warning! |
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| dude.ignoring.warning.sign |
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| nakalele.blowhole |
After our visit to the blowhole, we were able to say that we drove along the entire shoreline of the island (as far as the highways would allow). We decided to try to accomplish this on island of Kauai as well...stay tuned!
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| maui.northwest.shoreline |
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