For those not in-the-know, the last two months or so have been crazy. Stephen's brothers visited, and then we had a week break before his sister visited, and then we had a week break before we went on our own vacation (finally!)
So, we have a lot of catching up to do, but since Stephen was the one who did all the things with his sister (I do still have to work, y'know!), I'll have to leave it up to him to share those photos and stories.
As it is, we just got back today from a long, wonderful, and tiring 10 days on Maui. On one hand, that was a long time, and on the other hand, I'm glad we did it that way so that we at least had a snowball's chance of not coming away totally exhausted.
Cuz, you know, things don't always go as planned.
The first thing we did, of course, was fly to Maui. We took Mokulele, which meant we flew in this:
Yup, that stinking little 8-passenger plane was our ride to Moloka'i and then to Maui. The funniest part, though, was that when we arrived on Moloka'i, in the world's smallest airport (there might be other ones smaller, but with only one gate, and only servicing small planes like this, it might as well have been the smallest), one of the kids who worked there told us that since everybody was already there for the next flight to Maui, we could just hop on instead of having a 1-hour layover in the middle of nowhere.
Turned out he was wrong, the flight was full, and we had to wait for our next plane. Our luggage didn't, though, so instead of meeting our luggage on the side of the plane like everyone else, we had to hunt it down. Our luggage didn't have a layover.
It all worked out, the rental car company came and picked us up, and we went to Kihei where we "rented a wreck."
They meant it.
Talk about a beater. And I thought the car we bought from my co-worker was on its way out. Hey, it was cheaper than renting a nice car, and less likely to get broken into because we blended in with the locals. Right? Never mind that you had to try and start it three times before the engine actually turned over. LOL.
We AirBNB'd the whole trip, so our first stop was at a house in Kihei with a studio in the back. Not gonna lie, no hotel is going to greet you like this:
That just made my day! The studio was a portion of converted garage that seemed to be used by his daughter, a professional longboarder and surfboard shaper, when she came to stay. The bed was raised ridiculously high off the ground because she stored surfboards underneath. No joke.
About half the backyard was fenced off for our use, so we had access to a nice hanging bench, a big grill some tables and chairs, and the shower stall was outside. Hey, whatever works, I guess. You take a hot shower and catch a few breezes and see the palm trees above you.
A lot of people pay a lot of money at fancy resorts for an experience like that. Just sayin.
Day 1: Road to Hana
We decided to make our first part of our adventure the Road to Hana. Our day started with just a quick breakfast in, and then we grabbed the map, our tour books, and a CD that our host let us borrow. It's actually a guided tour of the whole Hana Highway.
Lo and behold, we get into the car, and our wreck's CD player doesn't work.
So we did it old-school, with a map and a guidebook, and when we saw people standing on the side of the road, we stopped, too, just in case we were missing something. That turned out to be a useful technique.
We left around 7am because it takes about 30-45 minutes to get to the actual Road to Hana itself from Kihei, and then driving the road itself takes 2 hours not including stops along the way. It's so curvy that you have to go between 15-25 mph the whole way, and it's about 30 miles.
We had the tropical depression coming through, so the weather really sucked in the morning. Also, that side of Maui is a tropical rainforest. There was a lot of rain.
By around 10 or 11am, it finally started to clear up.
We stopped at the Huelo Fruit Stand because all the books were like, YOU MUST STOP HERE! So we did. It was a fruit stand. Stephen and I weren't hungry, so we skipped the fruit and crepes. We lived to regret that decision.
We also took the guidebook's advice and decided to stop when we saw people stopped. So we were driving along the road, and there were all these cars stopped. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why, but we decided to get out and look.
They were all getting out to look at the painted eucalyptus trees.
It's incredible how the bark is so smooth, and how they really look like they've been brushed over with bright colors. I'm not even sure these photos do it justice, because the trees were huge and they were just blotched with the bright lime greens that you can easily see and also a rust color. It was a whole forest of these trees!
Here's another picture of the eucalyptus trees, just to get a sense of how many there were.
So at that point, the guidebook is winning.
We also took the guidebook's advice and skipped the Twin Falls because there are a lot of waterfalls on the Road to Hana, and all of them are better. So here on the left, we stopped at Waikamoi Ridge Trail and actually walked the whole thing. As you can see, the trees are huge. If you look carefully, that's Stephen down at the base of the tree, just walking past it.
The flowers were huge, too. I'm actually not right next to that flower. I swear it was almost the size of my head!
Stephen took a picture of me taking this selfie, as you can see below. He also took an up-close picture of the flower, because it was just that cool.
We got to the end of the trail, which just had a sign that said "End of Trail." It was kind of odd because the trail clearly kept going, but I looked, didn't see anything, and so we turned around. We ended up catching up to a family that we had passed right at the end, and the dad said off-hand, "Oh, you didn't go down to see the waterfall?" We were like, "There's a waterfall?" and he told us that if we kept going, the trail would take a sharp left and go down a steep incline, but it was only about five minutes before you got to the waterfall. We turned around and headed back.
The East Maui Irrigation Company diverts a portion of a lot of the rivers and waterfalls to help bring rainwater from upcountry down to irrigate the fields closer to the coast. Some of the waterfalls result from that. This waterfall was natural, and the EMI diversion just gave us a place to stand that was right over the falls!
Pretty freaking cool!
And that's a selfie of us way down there, because we were definitely the only two people there catching the awesomeness. Oh, and since the tropical depression had just bypassed us, the rivers and waterfalls were RAGING. This was some intense stuff.
The next photo I managed to find on my phone was this picture of me pretending to be a velociraptor. We had just stopped on the side of the road when someone commented about finding a black sand beach because there was only one on Maui (this turned out to be false), but we decided to walk down a completely unpaved road to see what was down there. It was cool, but not particularly epic, more of a gravel beach. But the sight of the mountains made me think of Jurassic Park, so, there you go. I'm pretty sure this was at Honomanu Bay.
I'm sure it's more exciting when the sun is out, but as you can see, it was a pretty miserable morning.
Here, we just have a panoramic view from the side of the road. The views the whole way were amazing. This doesn't even do it justice.
A picture of us on the side of the road. I'm not even sure where we are, but we stopped, and a fellow tourist offered to take our picture. I think it might be the same place as the panoramic, but I'm not sure. Sometimes pretty just starts to all blend together.
Here, we stopped at the side of the road because we were looking to get to Ching's Pond. Apparently it's a stop that is really popular as a swimming hole. I think we were there, but neither us nor the small gaggle of tourists (it really was small) could figure out how to get there, and it was clearly private property. So we took photos of it from a distance and moved on.
Once we were done with that, I had this random regret that we didn't
stop at Ke'anae, because it's such a cute "old Hawaiian" town, so we
turned around and headed there. There might have been a reason why. Somewhere along the way, the clouds started to clear, the sun came out, and we were treated to this view at the shore of a sleepy little old Hawaiian village.
Black lava rocks along the shore, bright blue skies, and turquoise waters. This was finally the amazing scenery that I'd heard the Road to Hana was famous for!
We decided to drive a little bit farther into the town to see what else was there. It really wasn't much, just a few small buildings and a church. We stopped at the beach park and watched the huge swells from the tropical depression beat against the jagged rocks.
Stephen took a picture of me taking these pictures.
And I took a video, just for good measure
Somewhere along the way, we stopped on the side of the road to take a photo of Wailua Valley State Wayside. There's nothing to do there except take a picture, so we thought we'd at least make it a selfie so you know it's not a stock photo!
But we also included the stock photo version, just in case. Plus the color is a lot better with a real camera instead of my phone selfie-cam.
Then we stopped to see the Three Bears waterfall. It's actually right there on the side of the road, so it's hard to miss. It was also hard to park because everybody stops there! You can't really tell from these pictures because it was a gullywasher, but on the left is a big waterfall, and then a medium sized one in the middle, and a smaller one on the right. Hence the Three Bears.
We had a guidebook that showed us some of the more adventurous stuff, and it said there was a trail to get to the waterfall, so like the smart ones that we were, we scrambled down under the bridge to the path and then stood right next to the waterfall! So the picture to the right is really up close and personal. And then there's a picture of Stephen giving a shaka while standing in front of the waterfall.
No, but seriously, all the pictures of Three Bears show these beautiful, dainty, graceful, Hawaiian paradise waterfalls. This was not that. I almost wish I had seen it without the tropical depression going through!
And the obligatory selfie, because once again, we were the only two at the waterfall. We did NOT intend to match that morning. Just saying.
I know, we match. You and everybody else on the Road to Hana pointed it out. There's just so much pink going on here.
Of course, by the time we finally got to Hana, we were both getting darn near hangry! We actually skipped the Lava Tube and the black sand beach because we just needed to eat food.
We also committed cardinal sin number 1 of going ANYWHERE in Hawai'i: not carrying enough cash. We had $7. Everything on the side of the road was $14. So we had to get to Hana, get to the ATM, and then look up food.
Of course, as our luck would have it, nothing is open on Friday. Yep. Friday. All the best "You need to eat here" places in Hana were closed, so we ended up at Crunchy Hippie Place number 1: Hana Fresh. I actually took a picture of my lunch below because it was fresh mahimahi (as in fresh-fresh, which is more than just fresh), stir-fried in all kinds of colorful veggies. Om-nom!
Once that was out of the way, we could continue on with our adventures. Stephen really wanted to see Kaihululu Beach, which is the red sand beach in Hana, so that's what we did next.
We had to actually walk down a somewhat gnarly, narrow trail in order to get down to the beach. It's not exactly an easy access. Stephen took a picture of the beach from the trail. With the sun out, the water really was that crazy-amazing turquoise color that was beyond surreal. No filter needed for that color!
Everything we read said that the juxtaposition of turquoise waters against red-red sand was amazing, and I'm pretty sure that's an understatement. It was surreal. By this time, it was around 2pm, so the water was a brilliant aquamarine color, and the sand is a deep blood-red color. This is the sort of stuff fantasy and sci-fi worlds are made of, but it was right there for us.
I don't know what it is about the water, but it is obviously insanely reflective to be that blue against such deep red sand. I don't know if it is something about the red sand in particular, if it's just the contrast or if it adds some reflective quality to the water, but it seemed like the brightest ocean I've ever seen.
Stephen included a close-up of the grains of sand in the water, and also took a couple pictures of me in the sand and by the water. We would have thought to go swimming, but the water was extremely turbulent from the tropical depression, as maybe you can see in the picture below.
I also took what I think is not a half-bad picture of Stephen among all the sand and ocean.
Here are a few more pictures, in case you forgot how awesome it was already:
Oh, and it is definitely a nude beach. I knew that going in. Stephen didn't.
There was also a crunchy hippie homeless dude who had squeezed mountains of lilikoi into a huge jug, like one of those 5 gallon plastic bottles, and then stuck a pink condom on top. I'm scared of whatever he was fermenting...
So after the trip to the red sand beach, we decided that, instead of going on to the Sacred Pools as everybody else does, we were going to backtrack and hit the Lava Tube and the black sand beach at Waianapanapa (say that three times fast) State Park, in that order.
Here is the entrance to the lava tube.
Stephen took a picture of something in there, but I'm not sure what. Just the inside of the lava tube, I guess.
And there's me, deer-in-the-headlights because he shined a flashlight on me and took a picture.
I, in turn, took a picture of him making an impressive scary face with his flashlight, but it came out blurry. Still, it was funny enough to share. That's just how dark it was in there!
On the left is a vent that opens up to the outside world. Kinda neat!
The cave had both stalactites (which are common) and stalagmites (which are pretty uncommon in lava tubes because usually theres, well, lava flowing through the tube). For some reason, they were obsessed with how this room of stalactites looked like chocolate or Hershey's kisses. Honestly, I can think of some more colorful and less appetizing descriptions that seem to fit better, but I guess if you want to think about chocolate in that way, then go right ahead.
As far as the lava tube history, t
he best I could gather from the signage and from talking to the woman who took our $12 each was that it's the biggest and most easily accessible lava tube on Maui, but it used to be a cattle carcass storage space for the Hana slaughterhouse. Then, in the late 90s (I actually think 1999), a dude who likes caves bought the property knowing there was a cave, and worked to clean it out, put up handrails and signs, and made it available to the public. It does mean that you might see a cow bone hanging out in the cave. Stephen saw some. I didn't.
And then, since it was there, Stephen and I decided to navigate the ti leaf maze, and I took a selfie against the leaves because it was pink on pink on pink. The maze was legit, too. We actually got to the point where we were really hoping we found our way out soon, because the afternoon sun was beating down on us something fierce!
After that, going to Waianapanapa State Park was a nice change of pace!
It has a black sand beach with a little cave that you can walk down into and swim, you know, in a "Hey, I went swimming in a cave!" kind of way. In this case, once again, the waters were way too turbulent for me to risk getting thrashed against the rocks, but I at least walked down to the water.
And from there, I took this picture of the view from the cave. Then I ran away from the big waves.
Here is another picture of the black sand beach. Again, incredible contrast and unreal scenery! The picture also doesn't do justice to how big that shore break was. It kind of reminded me of Waimea Bay on a "go out with serious caution" kind of day.
Some more pictures of the waves at the beach. There's a tiny little person in there bodysurfing, or getting beat up. Sometimes I think it's the same thing...
Stephen holding some of the black sand here.
And looking out into the ocean here.
Of course, we couldn't look at waves that big with bodysurfers having a blast and little kids squealing as they got knocked down without wanting to go in and play ourselves, so we have a picture of the beach from the water, and a random picture of me having a good time.
After that, it was really time for us to go. We didn't want to be caught driving the Road to Hana back in the dark. I actually took a video to show you why:
We stopped in Ha'iku (not to be confused with the Japanese poem) on the way back for some amazing Thai food. Stephen said that the only curry he's had that was better is the stuff you can get at Opal Thai, but honestly since Opal Thai is an experience in and of itself and not just a place you go to for food, I take that to mean it's the best curry he's had at just "any old Thai place." For my part, they had a special on adzuki bean tempeh, and since I had never had tempeh before, but I know I like adzuki beans, I let the guy make a suggestion for what preparation to go with. He recommended the pad thai, which is not normally something I would go with given all the noodles, but I went with it. For non-meat, adzuki bean tempeh is amazing! So much better than tofu! I had so many noodles, though, that I boxed it up and saved it for a side dish. I have since kept my eye out for adzuki bean tempeh, but to no avail. I can find the classic soybean variety, and I've found mung bean. Oh well, no big shakes.
Then we went home and went to bed. And that was our first day in Maui.
