Today we had a 7.15am start for our 150 mile round trip of Maui - the Road to Hana. Four hundred inches of rain fall here each
year producing 50 million gallons of water from the volcano per day! We expected the route to be very green.
We passed by the island of Molokai (below left) and the island of Hawaii (below centre). Molokai Crater Rim can be seen (below right), though the crater is underwater.
We passed alongside sugar cane fields. In 1870, a fifty-mile long canal was built through the rainforest and gravity was used to move the water from the mountains to the plantation - this is now the East Maui Irrigation Ditch System and is one source of irrigation for the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Mill (HC&S), which is co-owned by the last remaining sugar mill on the island.
In order to harvest the sugar cane crop, after about two years of growth, the fields are burned to remove the leaves, leaving the juice-filled stalks which are collected and transported to the Mill. The roots are left in the ground to regrow for one other crop. The transportation must happen quickly to prevent the stalks drying out and one truck can carry 55 tons at a time.
They gather the sugar cane and carry to the sugar mill, to wash it with sprinklers removing soil and rocks. It is then chopped and crushed producing the juice which is processed to get molasses and sugar crystals. The raw sugar is then further refined in California while the molasses are sold for animal feed in Hawaii and the US mainland.
We drove through the historic town of Paia. Willie Nelson has had a home here for years. He still hangs out in Charley's Restaurant and Saloon.
We stopped at Ho'okipa Beach - just a quick stop to admire the surfers (very impressive) and the surf.
We made another ten-minute ocean view stop at Kaumahina State Wayside. More amazing views out over the ocean and more of that rainforest greenery.
With 617 curves in thirty-one miles, the Road to Hana is known as the longest roller coaster ride in the world. The roads wind back and forth, over fifty-nine bridges (most single-track) that were built between 1908 and 1926. Most are still in good order (fortunately!)
We drove downhill to the Keanae Peninsula. In the distance we could see a small island (below centre and right). This is the island Steve McQueen jumped off at the end of the movie Papillon. (I still haven't seen it.)
Amongst the lava rocks were a collection of rock pools. We saw hermit crabs, small fish and some weird-looking limpet-y things. It was cool to spot the different creatures, even though I didn't know what most of them were.
We continued on our way.
There's not much room to park on the road around the bridges, but many pass over waterfalls so we got held up a few times by folks who'd either stop their vehicle or even get out of it to take photographs. Even we stopped on occasion, but only where there was room to park a bus and not block the road!
We stopped at a little farm store at the side of the road. This was the Hana Farms Organic Food Shop, selling six varieties of banana bread, different flavoured macadamia nuts, pineapple and the like. They had some fabulous macadamia nut toffee (with free samples!), home-made lemonade and even coconut milk in a coconut shell. It was a great little stop with very nice friendly people.
We stopped for lunch at Hana Bay with an included ham and cheese or turkey and cheese sandwich. Di had ordered a plain cheese sandwich (being a veggie) but one of the other people on the bus claimed it (insisting they ordered it, which we found out later, they hadn't!) Rather than cause a fuss Di settled for turkey and cheese and picked off the turkey (fortunately she's not too picky about these things). They also had some macaroni and cheese salad, a shortbread biscuit (cookie) and some pineapple pieces. Additionally, we had mustard, mayonnaise and a knife and fork! The driver also provided orange and passionfruit drink or water. It wasn't a bad spot, in the shade so not too hot.
We got underway and made a ten minute gift shop stop at a place called Hana Treasures. We passed a church - the First Congregational and through yet more lush scenery.
We did stop at one waterfall that was pretty outstanding. Mind you, so were the folks taking photographs - stepping backwards to get the shot, not noticing they were stepping in front of cars as they passed over the narrow bridge. It was kind of amusing to watch! Dopes! Most of them were totally oblivious!
We took a half hour stop at Haleakala National Park, walking the 0.5 mile Kuloa Point Trail. It was a bit steep! Di was ready for oxygen by the time we got around the trail, but there were great waterfalls and pools as well as the ocean crashing onto the rocks, so it was totally worth it (especially for me as I got carried!) The view was pretty spectacular.
Back by the bus there was a small Visitor Center. While inside I got to do my opening credits of Hawaii 5-0 impression - I'll admit it was a little weak. Outside I found a map that said You are here - it was right, I was - how did it know? Amazing! (I know, it's a feeble joke, but it makes me laugh every time!)
We returned to the bus and drove some very windy, narrow cliff edge roads with breathtaking views. We were (as always!) on the wrong side of the bus to get any great photos of the view. Some of the roads were pretty bumpy and unfinished! Scary (for the humans, you guys know I don't get scared, right?)
We made a quick stop at a spot by another lush valley. This was where the opening credits of Jurassic Park were filmed (they got around!) although when the helicopter lands, it's actually in Kauai!
We made another stop at the location of the 1763 eruption crater rim. As we drove on we saw some steep valleys that looked pretty cool so I took another photo.
We made a final stop for half an hour at The Tasting Room at Ulupalakua Ranch. This was where they make Maui's own wine and here they let us have a taste of a few of their wines. We started with a Maui Blanc, a semi-sweet white wine that was very nice. It is made of 100% Maui pineapples (that should mean the pineapples are 100% from Maui, not that there's only pineapples in the wine.) We followed that by a sweet white with a passionfruit flavour - I'm not keen on passionfruit and didn't like this so much. Finally, we tried a Ulupalakua Red which wasn't bad. However, as we were in Hawaii (pineapple-country) and we really liked the pineapple wine, we bought a bottle of the Maui Blanc - we figured it would be rude not to!
We then headed back to the bus for our approximately two hour journey back to the hotel. We arrived back at the hotel at 5.45pm from a long but fabulous day. The only negatives were Di's lunch and not seeing Charles Lindberg's gravesite which we had expected - and wanted - to see. Oh, well, too late now (besides, I saw it last time!) Despite that, I still gave the tour five Teds.
We headed to the Cliff Dive Bar at 6.15pm ready to watch the sunset cliff dive. A young warrior lights torches along the beach and then along a rocky outcrop before jumping into the ocean. To be fair it's quite short and not hugely exciting, but hey, it only cost us a drink, and you can watch without buying one if you wish.
We decided to go to the Hula Grill
for dinner - not that there was a huge selection of affordable restaurants nearby. The hotel restaurant was particularly pricey. When we arrived there was a one to one and a quarter hour wait for dinner so we tried the pasta place and even Leilani's again, but they all had similar waits. We tried the Hula Grill Restaurant (didn't know they had one, but this was inside) but even they offered us a thirty wait minute for the restaurant...or, immediate seating if we went "indoors" where we could choose from the bar or restaurant menus (why didn't they say that before?) We didn't really understand the difference so opted for the "now" option.
It was a bit noisy in there, but it probably would have been in the bar as well. It was warm, with no air conditioning, but there were overhead fans so it wasn't too bad. The waiter started out a bit surly but got better as the night wore on. As it turned out, we all chose from the bar menu. Di had a goat's cheese pizza, which she said was a bit hard but okay. Dave and I had the mahi mahi fish and chips which was good and Paul's burger wasn't bad. We had a bottle of Blackstone Merlot with dinner which was $28. Overall, dinner came to about $100, including the wine, which seemed a bit high for what we had, we thought. Compared with Waikiki where I gave five Teds this one only made three. Maybe the outside area would be different (or not) but our expeiernce wasn't the best. Ah well, at least I was stuffed by the end of the meal! (And at the beginning, if I'm honest.)
At the end of a long day we headed back to the hotel.
