The Road to Hana

      We actually used an alarm to wake up for the first time since being here, but we wanted to get a bit earlier start as we were going to be making the long journey to the opposite (ie. eastern) side of the island. It's a famous stretch of road called the Road to Hana but we first had to drive about an hour to get to the starting point near Kahuliu (central Maui, where the airport is located). We gassed up and began the tour by about 8:30. We used an app on Beth's phone that we had downloaded (at Josh and Jess's suggestion) called the Shaka Guide. It uses your GPS location to trigger commentary about the area you're passing through and it was a phenomenal help. Over the course of the day it came on about 150 times, sharing history, tips, don't-miss-locations, and great Hawaiian music.
      The road is well paved, but fairly narrow (no shoulders to speak of usually), extremely curvy (apparently about 620 in total!) and over 50 one-lane bridges where you have to yield the right of way if someone is coming from the opposite direction. It's a pretty busy road but most of the traffic is going pretty slowly in one direction and you are spread out over many miles so you only notice the traffic when you stop to see something. The picture above (of Queen Elizabethamahama) was taken down a side road (to Ke'anae) where you could see the large larva rocks along the shore and fields of taro patches from the road above.
       Another cool stop, this one right along the road (and with no admission price), was climbing through a lava tube. Apparently these are formed when still molten lava bores through some of the already hardened rock. This is me at the entrance and it was basically a cave that wound back about 50 metres and was often tall enough to stand up in. When it opened up, it was to a jungle at the end. We made our way back through the tube to the road. Oh yeah, I should say that we definitely were travelling through a rainforest, as the east side of the island gets a lot of more rainfall than the rest (like 300 inches/year vs. 30 inches). Wise Beth had brought along some fashionable yellow ponchos that were a big help in keeping us dry on walks/hikes we took early on. One suggested excursion took us down to the village of Nahiku which had been developed 100 years ago as a short-lived rubber production area. The bridge was out so we had to walk down to the shore. The road was lined with homes of the local people. It was interesting to see how they live - lots of vegetable gardens, fruit trees and of course flowers. The end of our walk brought us to yet another beautiful view of the ocean. On the way back out our Shaka Guide told us that back in the day George Harrison had bought property in Nahiku in the 1980's and came here to escape. Apparently he even donated a stone glass window in the small village church.
      Another nice, isolated hike we took was to a 'secret falls' recommended by our digital guide. It was definitely raining for this one but the path was wide and rocky so easy to navigate (although a bit steep at times). Further on down the road we stopped at the very busy Wai'anapanapa State Park and stood in line to use the washrooms. We had a great parking spot so went back to the car to eat sandwiches that Beth had packed and then headed down to the black (yes, black!) sand beach. It was formed long ago when the rough surf pounded on a fresh bubbling lava flow and then the waves continue to grind the rocks to a smooth sand. I felt that I should really take a swim at this unique beach so took a quick dip.
      We didn't actually stop right in Hana on the way in but did go in to the (apparently) famous Hasegawa General Store (established in 1910 with seemingly few updates in decorating since then) and bought some chocolate macadamia nuts. We drove past it for a fair distance as recommended by the audio guide, as far as Haleakala State Park. We took a hike down to the Seven Sacred Pools of Oheo Gulch where there were many people bathing or swimming in the water and a couple of local surfer dudes jumped off of some cliffs.
      Then we headed back home, which felt like a pretty long drive as we didn't make stops along the way like we did on the way in. The audio guide was a good companion though as he filled us in with stories about the history of Hawaii. Beth was amazed by the bamboo growing along the roadside as well as the flowering trees and shrubs tree. One type of tall tree had bright red flowers way up in their canopies. In total we spent 10 hours going back and forth on this road - and amazingly we used a 1/4 tank of gas! When we got back to Kahuliu we drove around the town for quite a while looking for somewhere to eat (and take a leak!) and in the end had to settle for McDonalds. In reality it just felt good to get out of the car for a bit. We still had another 45 minutes or so of driving back to Kahana in the dark. What was most fascinating about that part of the trip, was the way the side of the mountains were all lit up with tiny lights, which must be from the surprising number of people who live up there.
      We got back to the condo pretty exhausted, plus I had the beginning of a sore throat and a stye in my right eye. Beth gave me a much appreciated shoulder massage, and with some Vitamin C and warm compresses to my eye, I'm feeling quite fine this morning, but we don't plan to go anywhere but down to the pool today.