Life’s been hectic trying to prep for deployment so I have been MIA. Brian and I made our slow way back to Paia town and stopped at any spots we missed along the way. Which included a small arboretum and a couple more beaches. There happened to be a red sand beach nearby and the path started right outside our hotel room. It was a quick walk, but there were signs all over the place warning of landslides and it was raining… so we worked quickly. I really just wanted to be able to say I’ve seen a red, black, and green sand beach.
The arboretum had rainbow eucalyptus, but we have them in our backyard so… not so impressive. Ha.
We arrived in Paia Town around lunch, and there was no parking… so we stopped at this place called My Thai Maui and holy moly the food was amazing. I would fly back to Maui just to eat there again.
We still had time to kill before our flight so we visited Maui Ocean Center. 10/10 recommend! The have one of those tunnels through their tanks and the sting rays are HUGE. We felt a little too hurried to get back to the airport, I would’ve loved to spend more time here, but it was a great stop.
This was an experience to remember, driving the road to Hana. I’m glad we did it once but likely I won’t do it again without a tour guide.
I’m glad we ended up going back the way we came. I have heard the road gets worse past Haleakala, and that’s where we ran into the most trouble with other cars anyway. I will also add that I have not felt more unwanted in an area of Hawaii than here… some local drivers gave no craps about the tourists driving their road and showed it. All in all, a great last trip to fill my cup before Brian leaves.
I somehow managed to wake up early enough to catch the sunrise and even though it wasn’t all *that* spectacular, I’ll take it. Brian sat with me for a few minutes and then went back to bed, that was allowed. We lazily made our way to breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road to Haleakala National Park. The road to Hana back here gets way worse, incredibly. Significantly curvier and more narrow. Still a spot to pull over to catch a waterfall. This one is Wailua falls.
It was about a 20 minute ride to Haleakala. We then hiked the Pipiwai Trail, which I had incredibly high expectations for and was looking to be the highlight of the trip for me and I’m happy to report it far exceeded them.
About a half mile in you reach waterfall number 1. Again it had rained over night so there was an awesome flow.
You come across a really big Banyan tree a little bit further.
Another small-ish waterfall.
A beautiful bridge leading into a bamboo forrest with, you guessed it, another waterfall.
Then you treck for what had to have been 3/4 of a mile through a bamboo forrest. It was incredible and the wind made the sound of the bamboo so cool.
And eventually you get to this sky-high waterfall called Waimoku falls. Because of the recent rain I imagine the falls on the left started flowing.
The picture of course doesn’t do it justice but it’s 200′.
And we made our way back down stopping for more pics to savor the moments and to listen to the bamboo. So incredible!
Toward the start of the hike there’s another scenic loop that brings you to the Seven Sacred Pools. There are actually a lot more than that but chop it up to marketing to use a catchy name. The pictures, again, don’t do this justice. It’s really beautiful.
That about wrapped up Haleakala, so we made our way back to Wainapanapa State Park. We stopped at one beach somewhere and got a better pic of the offshore island. It has a coconut palm on top, it was rumored to be planted by a father who lost his son in a war and planted it in his memory.
On our way back things got dicier on the road- we were finally kinda opposing a lot of traffic since we got to Pipiwai early since we were right in Hana and left relatively early. So we encountered a ton of cars going back, and the parking lot was nearly full. There was one point where these 2 20 YOs and us were stuck and they refused to go in reverse. Brian claims he was in the right and went through first, I was too busy looking around… we somehow managed to squeeze by but after that I pretty much made the decision we’d go back the way we came out of Hana as opposed to completing the circle.
Anyway, that was our only mishap, crazily and thankfully. Besides other people clearly not yielding… We found our way to Wainapanapa!
The Shaka app raved about this park, but to me it was kinda like eh just another black sand beach. There were some cool features, like this rock arch and lava tube to the ocean. Those people were in there for at least five minutes trying to take the perfect Instagram photo, so I just took a photo of them and left.
We did a walk around the coast for a bit, but we were already a bit tired from all the hiking earlier so we didn’t do the full thing. Just enough to get a taste and a better view of the bay.
And another small black sand inlet.
We also really weren’t wearing the right shoes for a long walk. So we called it and it was already around 3pm at this point and went back to the hotel to enjoy drinks at the pool.
When I got to the end of the beach today and observed the shoreline I noticed patches of gray that were distinctly not clouds. They looked like they could be other islands in the distance… weirdly I haven’t ever noticed them before. I mustered up the confidence to chat with one of the regulars I see, and they were kind enough to point out what I was looking at.
Apparently on clear days you can see to other islands! Maybe I’ve always assumed they were clouds.
I distinctly remember visiting Catalina island and my sister-in-law saying “This is going to be you guys soon, living on an island!” and a quick wave of panic flooded through me as I realized the implications of that statement. However, at the time we were on a tiny island that took twenty minutes to drive to the other side. There were more golf carts than cars. Oahu is certainly a lot bigger and more populous. That being said, sometimes, like when I can see ocean for days and distant small islands, I come to the very clear realization that I am on a tiny plot of land in the middle of a giant ocean and get kinda claustrophobic (that’s the best way I can think to describe it, maybe there’s another word? Like I’m stuck in a small area in the middle of nowhere?). But then I ground myself and bring my thoughts to what my tiny little bubble actually is and that it isn’t entirely different from my old tiny bubble. Gym, work, church, grocery store, husband, friends, even the beach. Some moments it feels really far from things, but most of the time it’s not much different than anywhere else I’ve lived. I don’t think the feeling will ever go away; I more assume it’ll become normal and fleeting.
Brian is working late again tonight, so I’m on my own for dinner. Ice cream?
