Hana

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Yesterday, with Cathleen’s parents, we drove the road to Hana. It ended up a twelve-hour day of driving, hiking, and eating - a little something to please everyone. The drive starts out of Pa’ia, a cute little town on the north coast. At first the vegetation is exactly what comes to your mind when you think of Hawai’i: lush green grass, colorful tropical plants, coconut palms, and flowers. Gradually the road narrows and becomes curvy - and stays that way for the next sixty miles. It’s very slow going, but we understood that this was what was advertised, so we were prepared for it. As we drove, the vegetation became more and more lush, thicker, and so many shades of green. The trees were enormous and seemed to create more real estate for other plants to live on. It was easy to recognize many plants: dracaena, pothos, elephant ear. Typical houseplants, but here they’ve run amok and taken over the jungle. As we climbed higher along the sea, there were thickets of bamboo.

We drove to the small settlement of Nahiku, right in the midst of this rain forest. Just beyond there we stopped at a little stand for tacos. Incredibly huge tacos. Incredibly delicious tacos. Nothing like Mexican tacos at all, and I’m not sure they’re worth driving halfway to Hana for, but they were darn good.

Further down the road, and still not yet to Hana, we stopped for a hike and some geocaching at Wai’anapanapa Coastal Trail. This hike on black lava is right on the edge of the sea. The coastline is very dramatic with churning waves, blowholes, a black sand beach, and a small lava cave. We hiked south towards the heiau, the ruins of an ancient Hawaiian temple. It was very exposed and hot on the black rock, but very beautiful.

From there, we drove to Hana and beyond. Not much to say about Hana, but we bought a huge avocado there at an honor system fruit stand. Huge = bigger than a softball. After picnic sandwiches near the Seven Sacred Pools, Dan and I headed up the Ohe’o Gulch on the Pipiwai Trail. My parents waited patiently in the parking lot while we hoofed it up the trail to see an immensely tall waterfall. In less than two hours, we hiked up to a huge banyan tree, saw several waterfalls and pools, and then entered a massive bamboo grove. The trail meanders through the grove, sometimes with lava stone steps and sometimes with a composite lumber boardwalk. It was so dark in this dense grove that at times it was difficult to see even after we removed our sunglasses. We made it to the 400-foot high Waimoku Falls - this after numerous, smaller falls (some “only” 200 feet tall). It is an amazingly beautiful fall. This hike was definitely the highlight of our Hana trip.

Back to the trailhead, and from there it was just less than three hours back to Lahaina. After leaving the rainforest, the landscape becomes very desolate, but it is still striking in its own way. The trade winds bring the rain to the northeast side of the island, and because the mountains on Maui are so immense, the southeast and northwest sides get very little rain. I have been very surprised at how varied the terrain is in such a small area. A very long day, a very long drive, but incredibly beautiful and worthwhile.

Today we spent part of the day on the Kihei / Wailea part of the island. We did a little snorkeling with more turtles and enjoyed a rather lazy day.

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