Highway to Hana

For years I've heard of the "Road to Hana" and the beauty it holds, as well as the crazy drive it entails.  When deciding what to do on Maui, it seemed like a nice activity to do to see a lot of Maui.  We decided to rent a convertible for the drive to take it all in and we used an app on my phone that linked to the GPS called Gyspy.  It was a really neat app because it was narrated by a tour guide to give you some history of the drive and island while telling you good places to stop and see things.

The house we were staying at was already about 3 miles into the Hana Highway.  The length of the Hana Highway is 64 miles consisting of about 620 curves (some VERY tight) and 59 bridges (46 one lane bridges).  Luckily the traffic was not too bad when we went because I can only imagine how backed up things can get when it's busy.  Tourists tend to drive slow, taking everything in, while the locals seem to want to fly by.  We even pulled off a few times to let people pass and not feel rushed.

Our app was good about telling us "must see" stops, stops that were nice, and stops that were just okay.  We got out at a few waterfalls, but we wanted to see a lot so we didn't really go down to any or go swimming at any of them.  There isn't much room to park along the Hana Highway, so we frequently had to park a good ways off from what we wanted to see and hike back.

One of the must-see spots was an arboretum.  It was along a little creek and had many of the indegenous tropical plants labeled and easy to see.  Our favorite was the rainbow eucaliptis which has a red, green, and tan trunk.  It was so colorful and beautiful.  At the end of the garden was a small taro farm.  Taro is a staple here in the Hawaiian diet (used to make poi) and grows best in cool and flowing water.

We also stopped in a small town called Ke'anae.  We actually stopped here for lunch and it was a neat little community.  It had a a few houses, a small church, and a couple of small stores and stands.  It also has a fairly large taro farm community.  Unfortunately, this entire village was decimated in 1946 when a tsunami wiped out the area.  This tsunami got the ball rolling to create the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which interestingly enough is located just down the road from us in Ewa Beach.

Our next stop was the Wai'anapanapa Park.  Here, we saw a nice black sand beach, caves that connected to the ocean, blow holes and arches from the lava rock formations.  If we were to come through here again, I would love to spend more time here.  All we really had time for was to stop, see it, appreciate it, and move on.

Once we made to Hana, our guide on the app recommended we keep going past Hana to see another big waterafall (Wailua Falls) and to see the Seven Sacred Pools in the Haleakala National Park in Kipahulu.  Much to our dismay, we were disappointed in these stops.  The waterfall was almost non-existent and there were much more beautiful ones along the route to Hana.  The Seven Sacred Pools were okay, but it cost $15 to get into the park and we hadn't planned on going swimming.  Even if we had, it was dark, muddy water and wasn't flowing very steadily (I'm too paranoid about getting leptosporosis from stagnant water).  The park was 45 minutes past Hana, adding 1.5 hours to our trip.  We ended up not having time to get out and explore around Hana because of the additional time and just had to do a "drive through".  We had dinner reservations at Mama's Fish House that night we did not want to miss.

On the drive back, we didn't stop at any of the sites and the guide gave us more history of the island instead of telling us places to stop.  It was an absolutely beautiful drive and I really enjoyed having a convertible to take it all in around us.  It is definitely not a drive for people that easily get car sick.  I get a little woozy, so I drove.  Luckily Joe is a trooper and had no problems riding.  It's also a drive that you need to pay close attention to.  As a sad reminder of that, we passed a jeep that had rolled at one of the curves that had tourists in it.  Luckily no one was seriously injured, but the closest fire, police and rescue are in Hana or Paia in the other direction, so it takes a really long time for help to get there.  So if you just take it slow, expect to spend plenty of time (we took about 7 hours), and are ready to just take in the beauty of nautre, it's a great drive through the Maui rainforest.

Haleakala Crater Sunrise and Bicycle

Back when we first started telling people we were moving to Hawaii, we got to hear a lot of people's stories from the trips they had taken to Oahu and the other islands.  One excursion that kept coming up was Haleakala Crater and the activities that surround it.  The crater itself is MASSIVE.  It makes up 75% of Maui with a peak of 10,000 feet.  Though it hasn't been active since the 17th century, it's pretty crazy to imagine lava flowing out and down the side of it.

One of the activities suggested to us was to do the sunrise bicycle tour of Haleakala.  We ended up going with Haleakala Bicycle Company after reading a lot of reviews and they were a good group.  The bikes were better than some of the others we saw (9-speed vs. single-speed) and a comfortable bus ride to the top.  We had to meet at the bike shop at 3 am (ouch!) to check in and get our cold gear.  We took the long ride up the crater in the dark, getting some of the history and stories of the crater from our driver on the way up.

We finally got to the summit and it was still an hour and a half before sunrise.  Apparently the parking lots fill up and once they're full, you're out of luck so the buses get there early.  We were a little worried we wouldn't see the sunrise because a front had come through the night before, bringing a lot of clouds and rain.  Lo and behold, there was no sunrise.  At the time the sunrise should have been, one of the park workers sings out a sunrise chant to bring in the day, but there was nothing to see and it was FREEZING.  We couldn't believe how cold it was and were very grateful for the heavy duty wind breaker jackets and pants the company provided.

After getting everyone back on board, we rode the short ride out of the national park at the summit to a pull-off where we met the bike trailers.  We were fitted up with our bikes and off we went.  It was a really nice, easy bike ride since it was 95% downhill for 24 miles.

We stopped at one point to try and get breakfast, but the small shop was overwhelmed.  Instead, we went to the adjacent general store and grabbed a light snack.  We pedaled the rest of the way back to the bike shop in about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Our top speed was about 30 mph, but overall we kept a pretty good pace.  There were 3 uphill sections that got the heartrate up, but overall was a very easy and relaxing ride.  But, it had been quite a while since either of us had ridden a bike and, boy, were my sit-bones sore!  Totally worth it though, I would definitely do this again.  Once we checked back in at the bike shop, we went next door and got a pretty tasty breakfast.

The rest of the day we relaxed at our cottage on the cliff, soaked my sore bones in the hot tub, and got a nice nap after getting up at 2 am.  We went back into Paia that evening for dinner and got to walk around, checking out the little shops around the town.  The next day was our adventure to Hana, but I'll save that for another post.  Until next time, aloha!

Mini Maui Vacation

Ever since we moved to Oahu, everyone has been telling us we needed to get off-island and see the other islands.  While we've wanted to do this for the past year, the logistics of having time off and someone to watch Molly have kept us from traveling.  So, with a lot of planning in advance, we had decided to take a long weekend at Easter to see Maui and celebrate Joe's birthday.

We took off on a Friday morning after leaving Molly at a doggie daycare and boarding place for the weekend.  The flight itself was only about 40 minutes long, but we flew through a front getting there and had a bouncy ride.  We had reserved a convertible for the weekend, so after arriving to Maui we got to pick our Camaro convertible out (I picked the red one...) and off we went.

The closest town to our cottage was Paia, a small, but very cute and active town on the north shore of Maui with lots of shops and restaurants.  We stopped for lunch at a place called Rock & Brews and in a "what a small world" moment, our waitress was from Richmond and had lived 3 blocks from me while we lived in the Fan District.  The food was great and it was a very fun atmosphere.

The place Joe had found was a great little spot on Airbnb, a little cottage on a 300 foot cliff at the beginning of the Hana Highway.  It was very quiet, very secluded, and allowed for gorgeous views.  That being said, it was 30 minutes from the closest town so we had to pick up a few essentials from the store.  So, by the time we had lunch and stopped at the store, it was time to check-in.  Good thing too, because at about that time the front we had flown through had caught up to us and the rain began.  We had been worried all week that it would rain all weekend, but luckily it was just for the first day.  We had some great views of the thunderstorm off-shore from our little cottage and, honestly, it was just nice to relax.  Our cottage was pretty much off the cell phone grid, so we were able to just relax and unwind the first night.

The next couple blog posts will talk about our excursions on the island, but I figured I could talk about the food on this one...

All our dinners were in Paia, and they were all good.  We ate at a pizza place called flatbreads on Saturday night and we both thoroughly enjoyed our meals.  It was a surprisingly large place, but they seemed to have trouble keeping up with orders as the night went on.  Despite that, it was quite tasty.  

Our best meal by far had to be at Mama's Fish House.  I had heard rave reviews of this restaurant on the Food Network and by people that had visited the island, so we had to check it out.  It's a bit on the high-end of the Maui restaurant market, but we were celebrating Joe's birthday and it was very much worth it.  I to a macademia nut encrusted, crab and lobster stuffed mahi mahi which was out of this world.  Joe got a filet mignon (not a big seafood fan), but his was outstanding as well.  We also had to try their Mai Tais, which they were very well known for.  Again, outstanding.  We highly recommend this restaurant if you get the chance to visit Maui, but make reservations as far out as possible.

We had an overall great trip to Maui and loved seeing how different it was from Oahu.  There is just so much more space, so many less people, and it just feels so much more natural and beautiful.  It's also so much easier to see the landscape even from just the car, it's beautiful.  Coming back to Oahu was a sad reminder of how over-crowded the island is and has us looking forward to our next off-island adventure.  Be on the lookout for the next couple of blog posts to hear about our Haleakala Crater adventure and our drive on the Highway to Hana.

Kaena Point Trail

With this post comes the end of Kathryn's visit with us.  It was a whirlwind, action-packed two weeks and we had a lot of fun with her.  Typical of her "go-go-go" spirit, we were doing activities up until she left (we literally came home from this hike, showered, ate, and left for the airport).

The Kaena Point Trail is well-known on Oahu as you can get there from two directions, the west side through Wainae or through the North Shore.  As you guessed, it is the point joining the north and west sides of the island.  We choose to go through the north shore access, as it has better views and is a little more established and safer than the west side.

When arriving for the hike, the road dead ends to a gate and we just parked alongside the road.  You are able to drive past the gate if you get a special permit and have a 4-wheel drive vehicle (Kat and I thought this would be a lot of fun on an ATV).  Once past the gate, you can walk the "road" for the vehicles or bear off and hike along the shoreline.  There wasn't much of an established path, but as long as the mountains stayed to our left and the water to our right, we figured we couldn't get lost.  The route was about 3 miles each way, and even with our route by the water, we moved along at a pretty good pace.  The waves were pretty big that day (30-35 feet) so it was pretty awesome to walk along the shoreline and see the power of the ocean.

I was glad we did this hike during the winter, because there is absolutely no shade.  No trees along the trails, nothing.  Once we got to the end of the trail, you reach a fenced-in nature preserve.  It was kind of interesting entering, there was a big heavy door to go through to enter.  It seemed a bit out of place to me as there wasn't anything built up around there to fence in or out, but I digress...

Once we entered the nature preserve, there is maybe another quarter or half mile of walking to the point.  Along the way, we passed plenty of Albatross birds that are protected here and very animated.  We caught a couple of males in a fight for a female, and then we cracked up when she flew off and left them to their dance.

When we got to the actual point, we were holding our breath.  One of the biggest things this trail is known for is the congregation of monk seals that meet up on the point.  Monk seals are seen more on Kawai, so they are a treat on Oahu.  We were worried that with the surf so big, they wouldn't find their way safely in, but we worried for nothing.  We found two big, lazy, sleeping seals laying out on the rocks in the sun.  The few people there were respectful and kept their distance, letting them sleep undisturbed (it took everything in me to not go stretch out next to them, haha!).

After watching the seals for a bit, we saw the time and decided to head on back to the car.  We took the vehicle road on the way back so it would be a little more direct and faster, since someone had to catch a flight.  It was a fun end to Kathryn's visit, but we were sad to see her go.  I'll be looking forward to her next visit for sure!

We're heading to Maui this weekend for our first off-island excursion, so be on the lookout for some tales from that trip soon.  Aloha!

North Shore Horseback Riding

For any of you that knew me growing up, you know how big of a horse nut I was.  I started horseback riding with one of my oldest, best friends Lindsey when we were little (I think I was 5 or 6?) and kept on for many years.  We had weekly lessons during the school year and not a summer went by we didn't have horse camp.  As I got older, things got busier and I had too much time invested in softball to own a horse, so I made the tough decision to move away from horseback riding.  That being said, I miss it all the time.  It was always such a relaxing and peaceful activity for me and I truly miss it.  So while Kathryn was here, she brought up doing horseback riding and I jumped at the idea.

Kathryn did most of the leg work for this activity and after reviewing many places, she settled on this place called Happy Trails in Wailua in the North Shore.  We wound our way up a road with tight switchbacks and made it to the gate of the property.  After a little wait for the rest of the group to arrive, we were matched with our horses.  The owner buys primarily retired polo horses, which are usually well trained and follow commands well.  Kathryn and I ended up in the back of the group, but in the long run it didn't matter too much where we were.  We had a guide in the front of the group and then the owner caught up to us about half way through our ride.  The ride was all trails, up and down, and very muddy.  Unfortunately that meant nothing so much as a trot speed-wise.  It was still beautiful, though.  I spent a good portion of the ride talking to the owner about how he got into the horse ranch business (he was a polo player himself) and then ended up talking shop (I ended up leaving him with a home exercise program for a nagging injury he had...PTs are never off the clock haha...)

The end of the ride brought us out to a paddock overlooking the North Shore, which made for a perfect photo-op.  Kathryn and I both thoroughly enjoyed the ride, though we would have had a little more fun with a little cantering here or there.  Being back in the saddle brought back a lot of great memories, I guess one of these days I'll need to get back to horseback riding :-)