Road to Hana

Today, we did a tour of the Road to Hana.  We decided that rather than driving it ourselves, we would take a tour, thereby not missing any of the wonderful things we were about to see.

I don’t even know where to start with the photos.  We took over 500 photos today and there is just too much to choose from.

I read some reviews that the drive of the Road to Hana was overrated.  It is NOT.  There is absolutely no way that this incredible drive can be over-exaggerated.  It’s just that incredible.

We chose Valley Isle Excursions for our tour.  It was the perfect choice.  They have comfortable vans with huge viewing windows.  The driver, Barry, was very knowledgeable and we had a 10 hour long lesson on the history of Maui!  It was great!!!  There were 12 people in our group, representing 4 countries – Steve and I from Calgary, people from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and California in the U.S., a couple from Italy and a man from Taiwan. 

Our first photo taking stop was at the rainbow eucalyptus trees.  These are amazing.  The trunks look like they are painted

 

he rainforest is so phenomenal.  It’s so lush and has every single shade of green you could possible imagine.  With vivid colours mixed in – bright orange tulips, etc.  Amazing.

We made a quick stop at “Aunty Sandy’s Banana Bread” stand and bought a couple of loaves.  Pretty expensive at $5.50 for a very small loaf – but it was delicious!  We then went a little bit further down that same road and took scads of photos of the waves crashing up against the lava rocks.  The sound and sight of the waves was phenomenal.

Random Shots Along Road to Hana

Black Sand Beach

Next we came to Wainapanapa State Park (Shimmering Water).  This is a black sand beach.  Very different and very cool.  There was a lava tube here that was safe to go into.  I didn’t feel comfortable going in, but  Steve did and he took some pics…  You can figure out which ones were in the lava tube!

Flower Farm

We stopped and had lunch at the flower farm.  They gave each of us ladies a ginger flower.  These flowers were pretty wild – they had no scent.  But if you wrapped your hand around the flower and squeezed hard, then it brought out the most beautiful scent!

Any Packers Fans?

So we’ve left Hana and the Flower Farm when Barry asks “Any Packers fans here”.  Steve, the ultimate Packers fan shouts out “Yes, me!”.  Barry pulls over.  There is an old lady there (Beverley Pu) who is a HUGE Packers fan.  In fact she plants specific plants of green and gold in her yard.   Her street is unofficially called Packers Drive….here it is….

 

 

Oheo Gulch

Our next stop was the beautiful Oheo Gulch (7 pools).  We had an hour to spend.  The loop down to the pools and back is a half mile.  We went down – weren’t going to go all the way because my back and hip were aching, but just could not stop.  It was that beautiful.  We had to go all the way down.  Large rock formations with pools in them, and at the end, huge white waves crashing against the rocks.    Hiked back up to the top to wait for Barry, and piled back into the van

Kipahulu & Charles Lindberg’s Grave

Next, we were off to Kipahulu to see Charles Lindberg’s gravesite.  According to our tour guide,Charles Lindberg lived in Maui for the last several years of his life – he hated the publicity and wanted to be away from the public eye.  He died in 1974 (?) and was buried at this awesome looking little church at Palapala Ho’omaui in Kipahulu.  Beautiful grounds.  His pets are also buried there, but his wife is buried with her family in  Connecticut.  I find it kind of sad how he was so shy and hated being a public figure, and is buried in a beautiful, peaceful place that should have given him the solitude in death that he so wanted in life, but even in death he couldn’t get away from it. – Millions of people stop to visit his gravesite and take photos.  Us included.  I kind of felt like I was intruding.

Past Kipahulu

Kipahulu is as far as the rental car companies will allow you to drive.  The road past there becomes VERY bumpy – massive potholes.  A real brain-scrambler!!!  More pics:

No More Rainforest

Soon, the beautiful lush green rainforest had disappeared and the landscape became dryer and browner, lots of brush and the trees were very small as opposed to the massive trees in the beautiful rainforest.  Such a different landscape – this seemed so barren compared to what we had been driving through all day.  We were now driving around the back side of Mt. Haleakala.

The End

t was interesting. We could see Wailea across the way – it was just 4 miles away.  But there is no road from where were through to Wailea, so you actually have to drive 47 (or was it 38??) miles to actually get back.  So we headed in through the Upcountry and stopped at the Tedeschi Winery, and into the tasting room.  The wine – I didn’t really care for it all that much.  The pineapple wine was awful.  The red wine was ok, but not sure that I’d buy it.

After looking around here, we went across the street to Ulupalakua  General Store.  Steve and one of the cats, “Barney” became fast friends!!

Back in the van, back to Kahului and then dropped off outside the condo again at 5:30. A long, wonderful day, full of breathtaking views.  We barbecued steaks on the lanai and had an early night.