Hawaii - Part 2

Heavenly Hana!

(for those of you unfamiliar with the infamous "road to Hana" here is a map - the green dot is where we started, the first red dot where we spent the night (Hana itself) and the second red dot where we turned around.)

When we were planning this trip there was no shortage of helpful advice on the key activities of Maui. At the top of almost everyone's list was this drive from Kahului to Hana. It's a roughly 40 mile drive, over 52 bridges and through about 600 hairpin turns on a narrow (and I mean narrow) road. There are numerous stops for waterfalls and hikes through lush rainforest so the drive can take the entire day if you want it to. We decided to take all the time we could and spend the night in Hana - something I am SO glad we did!

A warning of what was in store for us - Ben wasn't too happy about me driving first. I had WAY too much fun with the top of our Jeep off, taking those curves as fast as I could!
We had a cd that narrated the drive, telling us the history of the island and when to stop. The first place we stopped was at a bamboo forest.

We hiked all through it and saw a waterfall. It was so beautiful - Ben felt like we were in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"!

The whole drive was seriously breath-taking - the pictures don't even do it justice. A lot of spots were too crowded to stop so Ben would stand up on the seat and hang out of the roof of the car to get pictures. (Don't worry I slowed down when he did that, a little.)

One of the staples in Hawaii is taro and this little town that harvests it is called Ke'anae. The people who live in this town live the same way their ancestors did, and the ones before them did. It was really cool.

This was at a black sand beach that had this cool cave. We could have hiked around to some lava tube but we were exhausted by this point. Doing a 5-mile hike the day before and then all the walking around in the sun made us tired :)

We got to the bustling town of Hana at about 4:30. This charming little house was where we stayed. I was nervous booking somewhere online but we were pleasantly surprised.

This was the view from the backyard.

This was steps from the back porch!

Ben got to be pro at taking the cover off the Jeep!

The "road to Hana" experience does not end in the city. You can drive another 10 miles or so and get to a park where the O'heo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools) is. We thought it was excellent planning on our part to save the pools for the next morning and beat the crowds. We left the town and got to the park where we were informed that the pools were dried up due to recent draught. Yep, that picture above is supposed to filled with water. We were a bit disappointed but it was still a fun drive.

In fact, Ben took those corners WAY faster than I did...it was fun watching him.

We turned around after the park and started heading back the way we came. We stopped at a little stand and bought a couple loafs of banana bread and a jar of passion fruit jam. It was seriously the best breakfast ever. Ben was about to just pour the jam down his throat it was so good.

We stopped at a couple places that we had missed on the drive down.

It was seriously gorgeous. Every single place you looked was as pretty as a postcard. We both got some good sun and Ben learned that it is fun to take the corners fast!

Coming up next - lovely Lahaina