This trip feels a bit intimidating to write about because we did so much but I told myself I’m not going for perfection here. First, Brian was in (a sub in) Alaska for the last month or so. He did get a chance to get off the boat to see Alaska and was able to call me. On one call he told me to cancel the trip (at this time the hotel and car booking). Later that same day he told me not to cancel it. The wise sub spouse I’m becoming only cancelled the hotel because it was the priciest part of our trip. I was easily able to rebook. However, I did wait to book our flights, which meant needing to book first class to get the times we want (now, mind you, the flight time to Maui is ~21 minutes, so the upgrade was $20/ticket and includes unlimited Mai Tais). It also ended up being expensive. I am very grateful we’re able to make these decisions. This was our vacation budget for the year anyway since he’ll be gone.
On to the trip! The basic game plan was to do the Road to Hana and back over the course of three days. We got in our rental car (a Jeep) and were on our way by 11:30am on a Sat. We used this app called the Shaka Guide which gives you a driving audio tour and it turned out to be an excellent choice. It works off GPS and guides you to all the best stops on the Road to Hana.
Also, to preface, I was a little nervous that this trip would be like… less than exciting? “Pretty beaches? I get that on Oahu…” “Black sand beach and lava tubes? Saw that on big island…” “Waterfalls? That’s rookie Hawaii…” But I have to say the act of doing the Road to Hana in and of itself was an adventure and made for a great time.
Starting at 11am with no rush to get to Hana with our check in being at 4pm was the best thing. We beat the morning rush of everyone heading out down the road, and everything we wanted to see was open already. The first stop we made was at Ho’okipa Beach park where the draw was to watch surfers and wind surfers. We ended up seeing the biggest turtles I’ve ever seen and a LOT of them.
There are probably like ten turtles in this picture. The size is deceiving, but of course we couldn’t get too close.
We next visited twin falls. I’ll say that everything in Maui was a little more… rugged? There wasn’t any mapping or indication of where to go really. So truly it wasn’t completely obvious what the twin falls are… the pictures online are completely different than these falls. We did go after a rainfall and some part of the trail was closed due to washout, so we could’ve missed some of the hike. Nonetheless, here is a pic of the ones we did see.
Next we stopped at Waikamoi Nature Trail. This stop was definitely a we could’ve “left it”. However, you’ll find that after being in a car on a windy road for a period of time getting out to stretch is a nice idea. Here’s a single picture from our walk.
Next was the Garden of Eden. This was a definite highlight because you get a great overlook of a waterfall, a small glimpse of the Jurassic Park rock (Brian was disappointed), and a cool overhead of a bridge. Most people start the road too early to get to stop here. We bought some banana bread here… it turns out this was our first of a few places to take advantage of this popular Road to Hana snack.
Then we stopped at some lookout, but I’m currently not finding it on the map.
And I like this picture of the road hugging the ocean/rock. This is what it’s like for a lot of the drive.
Then to Keanae lookout, which just “meh”.
Well we made it halfway! We ate a banana bread sundae here. Yum!
Then a Waialua Overlook where we saw the Coral Miracle Church. Essentially they used coral to bind together the stones to make the church, however it was painstakingly slow because there wasn’t a lot of washed up coral. Well, a storm came by and washed up a ton of coral. They finished building the church, then a few days later the storm swept the unused coral back out to sea. It’s a little white dot in this next pic essentially, but cool story!
And a cool look back into the valley.
There were so many waterfalls just pouring down along the mountains, I honestly couldn’t tell you which this one was.
We skipped any further stops and finally got to our hotel at just about 4pm. Actually, we tried to visit Wainapanapa State Park but it rained! So we moved on to the hotel. This was the view from our lanai.
We checked in and in short order went to the one restaurant open past 6pm for some well earned grub. We hadn’t eaten a real meal since breakfast! There are very little substantial food places in-between Paia town and Hana. The Shaka guide tells you to get something to go in Paia town to eat somewhere along the way. Thankfully we had a big breakfast and two stops worth of banana bread. Dinner was just meh but it did the trick.
Phew, I’m definitely tired after writing this. I’ll probably take a breather and get back to day 2 and 3 some other time.
