Adventures of a Midwestern Girl (and Her Hillbilly Hermit Tennessean) in Sunny, Sunny California

Thursday 11/22/07 Thanksgiving

Our last full day in Hawaii. We tried to go for a snorkel when we got up, but the waves were just too choppy. Instead, we spent most of the day at the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium. It is really a very nice aquarium, even if it is a little pricey. They’ve got some very nice reef exhibits as well as a large tiger shark that is just about to be released back into the wild.

Being Thanksgiving, many places were closed, but we did manage to sneak in with reservations at Roy’s Restaurant. Paulette at WildCare had recommended this restaurant for their chocolate soufflé (i.e. chocolate volcano). What can I say? The soufflé was absolutely magnificent.

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Wednesday 11/21/07

Today we went to the last part of the island we were going to be able to explore – the northwest side. We started out by stopping at Honolua Bay for some good views of the coast and to watch the surfers do their thing. It was surprisingly fun to watch.

We had nearly reached one of our two main destinations for the day when Steve realized we were almost out of gas. There isn’t much in the way of towns or services that far up the coast, so we had to turn around and had back almost all the way to our condo, pulling into the gas station on fumes. Fortunately, while the road was windy, we were only about 10 miles up the road when we saw the gas gauge.

Back out on the road, we made our way back up to Nakalele Blowhole. It had rained pretty heavily just a few minutes before we got there, as well as much of the night before, so we decided to observe the blowhole from up the hill rather than slide down to it. There was another group down at the blowhole and one dumbass among them kept trying to sidle up to the blowhole and look down into it between waves. We kept expecting to catch a picture of him being sucked down to send in to the local newspaper. Fortunately for him, the guy had luck on his side and he managed to escape without injury.

Our final stop on the road was the Olivine Pools, so named by the authors of “the book”. These were beautiful. In spite of our better judgement, we did slide our way down the hill toward these pools. I spent some of the time on my butt, but once we got closer, the footing got rockier and was easier to manage. On a dry day, this wouldn’t have been any trouble to get to.

The waves were a bit rough, so we didn’t go into the pools for a soak, but I did make my way down the final way in order to rinse the worst of the mud from my shoes in preparation for the hike back up. The water was wonderful.

At the parking area, we had met a woman named Vanessa who we hiked down with. This was very fortunate as we were able to swap picture-taking efforts with each other in this remote location. I would love to make it back to these pools again someday.

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I saw a sign that really seemed odd to me at Haleakala Crater. Over the toilet in the ladies restroom, there was a sign that indicated the water in the toilet was reclaimed water and, therefore, should not be used as drinking water.

As you have probably noticed, most public toilets do not have an accessible tank like the toilet you have at home. Tank water, in theory, could be used as drinking water in an emergency. But this was just bowl water.

It seems to me, if you were drinking water from a public toilet bowl, you might want to worry about the water and remnants that had not yet been reclaimed before concerning yourself with the reclaimed water. Just a thought.

To continue on a theme, our condo in the Lahaina area is about 5 miles north of Lahainatown, with Kaanapali in between. Every drive from Lahaina to our condo, and vice versa, takes us past Kaanapali. Kaanapali is home to many high-priced ritzy resorts. We had noticed that, when driving by at certain times of the day, there was a particularly foul odor in the air, much like San Francisco at low tide. We kept trying to figure out what the problem was - how could low tide smell so bad at Kaanapali but not at the towns just to the north and south of it.

It was on our third day in the area that we noticed the Lahaina Reclamation Center is just across the highway from the resort area. I don’t know how the resorts were unable to block the construction of the plant there, but be warned. If you come to Maui and spend big bucks to stay in Kaanapali, you’ll have access to a great beach, massages, and fine dining, but there will be certain times of day when it smells like a toilet. Breathe deep in that yoga class, why don’t you.

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Tuesday 11/20/07

Up again today before dawn for the snorkeling trip I had scheduled to Molokini Crater. In those last moments before the alarm went off, I was dreaming that we had overslept and were going to miss the trip. Even in my dream, Steve wasn’t nearly as upset by the prospect as I was. But off the alarm went and we were out the door by 6am to drive to the boat dock. Unfortunately, due to the trade winds and choppy seas, we were unable to go to Molokini after all. Instead, they took us to their alternate site, a place called Coral Gardens. I don’t blame the tour group; every other boat out that day was going to an alternate location. It couldn’t be helped, but it was a bit of a disappointment. Molokini is supposed to be so great for snorkeling and it is a far way off the coast of Maui. Coral Gardens had decent snorkeling, but it was only a few miles up the coast from the dock and was within view of the highway we had driven to get to the dock.

Oh well, I really shouldn’t complain; we obviously don’t have things too tough.

And we did get to see a small octopus there! I tried very hard to get a picture of it swimming, but it only moved twice from one rock to another where it would settle in to look just like the rest of the rocks. It was pretty neat, though, because it changed color to a dark tone while swimming, and immediately back to a mottled pink to blend in with the rocks. If I didn’t see it moving, I would have thought it was just another rock.

Day 9 - Part 2

Yesterday, during our day of relaxation in Lahaina, Steve and I booked a sunset cocktail cruise with the Pacific Whale Foundation. It seemed like a nice relaxing thing to do. Of course, that meant only a short rest between the snorkel trip and leaving for the sunset cruise, but Steve still got a short nap in while I typed up the first part of this entry.

The sunset cruise was absolutely lovely. While it was advertised as an appetizer cruise, the food was substantial and delicious, and Steve and I didn’t need anything else for dinner. The Mai Tais were loaded generously with rum and the sunset was beautiful. (Check out my fancy new Aloha shirt!)

One thing about drinking Mai Tais on a ship is, when you walk and stumble a little bit, it’s hard to know if it’s the rum or the waves at the root of the problem. I think it was probably a little bit of both, honestly. I’m really glad we signed up for this cruise; it was a wonderful way to spend an evening.

Posted by Anne at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Monday 11/19/07

It was shortly after our zipline tour on Wednesday, just as he realized I had a big hike in Waimea Canyon scheduled for the next day and then we were flying to Maui at 7am on Friday so we could get an early start on the drive to Hana, oh and by the way didn’t he know that the zipline day WAS a rest day because all we had to do was show up at 11:00 and the rest of it was taken care of for us, that Steve started referring to our vacation as a death march. There is so much to see, and neither of us are lay-on-the-beach-for-days kind of people, so I had booked us pretty full when planning this trip. Obviously a day of rest was in order, but we had to plow through until after the horseback ride.

Our first full day in the Lahaina area was just that. We slept in and then drove to Lahainatown to walk along Front Street for a few hours, taking in the sights and window shopping.

I got a couple of new Aloha shirts, but that was it. We also stopped by Banyan Tree Park to observe the extraordinary tree. Planted in 1873 this single tree stands over 60 feet high, has 12 major trunks in addition to a huge core, and stretches over a 200-foot area.

After that, we went to Whalers Village Shopping Center, got some big-ass ice cream sundaes, and started to stroll along the beach path behind the shopping center. The day topped off with a fantastic and huge Italian dinner. Not much to report on this day, but it was certainly a nice change of pace from the previous vacation days.

Oh, and now that our condo is oceanfront and WEST-facing, here is the sunset from the lanai.

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My momma wanted a picture of the spider, so here it is!

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Sunday 11/18

You know how your knuckles feel when you sprain a finger and it gets all swollen? Right at the joint there, you can’t quite bend your finger, and the swollen fleshy bits touch each other more quickly then they normally do? That’s how my butt feels.

Today, we went for our horseback ride with Pony Express down Haleakala Crater. It was fantastic! It was supposed to be a 3.5 – 4 hour ride, but it was almost 5 hours start to finish. We rode down, down, down, to the crater floor, almost 4 miles in distance and down 2,400 feet.

My horse was Benny, described by the guide, Ra, as a good horse but a bit lazy. I told Ra I had dealt with lazy males before.

Steve rode Chuck. In the grand scheme of the horse hierarchy, it was clear that Benny did not like Chuck. Perhaps because Chuck wanted to get a move on while Benny preferred to lag behind.

Benny was, indeed, a bit lazy. He was okay once he got moving, but if he ever had to come to a stop, it was challenging to get him to go again; as I kicked and used the reins and “heeaw”’ed, Benny just turned his head and looked at me like, “oh, please”. It was particularly problematic when we came to a rocky downward slope. All the horses took that bit a little slowly, so the gap that had built up between them and Benny and me (due to Benny’s plodding style), was usually closed and we came to a stop as the horse in front of us started down. Convincing Benny it was time to start up again was difficult. Benny thus proved the scientific theorem that a horse in motion tends to stay in motion while a horse at rest tends to stay at rest.

But I noticed Benny chose his footing very carefully. He didn’t always just follow the horses in front of him; if he thought there was easier way, he took it. He stayed on the less sandy side of the trail, for instance. Over rocky footing he would pause and then make his choice of the best way too go. If there was a shortcut to be found, Benny found it.

On the way back up, Ra told us to be careful on the upcoming rocky incline as the horses had been known to jump over it, rather than step up. Knowing Benny by this time, I was sure he would think the quick jump was easier than the three or four careful steps-up. So, I was ready for him when, indeed, he took that incline in one hop. He was the only horse to do so.

All I can really say about Chuck, not having ridden him, is that he was one of the gassiest horses ever. I was behind him on the return journey and with just about every step there came a fart noise. It was like being in a wind tunnel. Fortunately, I had dealt with gaseous males before, too.

We had absolutely perfect weather for the trip. It was cool at that elevation, but the sun was shining brightly and there were few clouds in the sky. As we reached the summit on the return journey, it started to get mistier and mistier and the wind started to blow. By this time my ass was hurting pretty bad, too. I admit that, for the last 20 minutes or so, I was just wondering when this ride was going to end. Steve and I agreed that it was a wonderful ride and we are so glad we did it, but if it had been cold and misty from the start, it would have been an absolutely wretched day. I don’t think Steve would be speaking to me at the end of it.

However, as the mist started to come in, it was time for the most beautiful rainbow picture ever.

Tired and chilled after our ride, we headed back to the Kula Lodge and got a light lunch of soup and fruit salad before continuing on to Lahaina. It was after we arrived at the condo and I had to walk again that I noticed my cheeks had swollen to be puffier than usual.

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Saturday 11/17

As I mentioned yesterday, Steve loves the lava tubes. There is a big old, pay-to-get-in lava tube in the Hana area that we were thinking about hitting before starting out on the road Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it didn’t open until 10 am and we were out and about by 9 am. Instead, we headed over to the Wai-'anapanapa State Park which was really worth the visit. There are some cool freshwater pools that you can hike to, complete with a legend of a crazy ancient Hawaiian king who killed his princess there after she ran away from his cruelty.

There’s also a great black sand beach, an old cemetery, and a cool sea arch. We were a little rushed because we wanted to get on the road, but it was a neat place to stop.

Our plan had been to drive from Hana around the south side of the island and head up to the Haleakala area from that direction. “The book” advised that the road was much better than it used to be and its former reputation was no longer warranted. However, “the book” was published in 2005 and an earthquake in 2006 had caused a landslide to close the highway going south. We discovered this when I asked about the road at the gas station in Hana, and it was confirmed by the signs and pictures at the national park we stopped at a little further along the road.

The landslide is still there and the road is closed indefinitely at this point. I almost wonder if political reasons are keeping the road blocked. . . i.e. the people of Hana didn’t like that the road was becoming so passable anyway.

But I digress. Since we could no longer follow through on our plan to drive all the way around the island, we would have to head back the way we came. We decided to continue south where there are some great waterfalls until we could go no further, then turn around and head back, stopping at the lava tubes on our return.

One of the nicer waterfalls to the south of Hana is Wailua Falls. It is gorgeous. There is a short hike to the right of the waterfall that will take you closer to the falls, and you can even clamor down to the swimming pool beneath, as we saw a local family do while we were there. Fortunately, due to our plan of staying overnight in Hana and not trying to get this far in one day, we got to these falls early and they were fairly deserted. When we passed by later in the day, they were terribly crowded and there was nowhere to park.

The other awesome falls on this section of road is an unnamed waterfall at Hahalawe Stream that you need to hike down to a bit. Really not far, but you have to climb down from the side of the road, maybe a 3-minute walk. At the bottom, though, is a beautiful section of waterfall that not many people have discovered because you can’t see it from the highway and, apparently, they aren’t being guided by “the book”. It is a perfect paradise down there. You can barely see the cars going by overhead, the waterfall is perfect, and there are big boulders to sit on and enjoy the scenery. Highly recommended.

Finally, we reached Oheo Gulch (aka the Seven Sacred Pools). Yes, more waterfalls. But this is a whole series of waterfalls, each with a swimming pool (more than 7, by the way), flowing into each other all the way down to the sea. Better yet, it is part of the Haleakala National Park. A “day pass” is actually good for 3 days and we were heading up to Haleakala Crater the next day, so paying here would mean we didn’t have to pay up there, as long as we kept the receipt. It was lovely there. It was already starting to get a little crowded when we were there at 11:30; I can’t even imagine it later in the day.

Oh so conveniently, the road was blocked just AFTER Oheo Gulch, so this was the end of the road for us. We headed back towards Hana as a steady stream of cars headed toward Oheo Gulch.

After a quick lunch in Hana, we drove up to the aforementioned lava tube. This was definitely worth the stop, especially if you like caves and/or geology (I’m looking at you, Mom and Dad). The Ka’eleku Lava Tube seems to be both a way to support the landowner and a labor of love. There is signage all along the tube explaining the lava flow and geologic forces at work in the formations. While a bit bummed that we couldn’t see the south side of the island, I’m really glad we were able to spend time at this lava tube.

One weird thing, though. Apparently, this lava tube was the nuclear fallout shelter for the greater Hana area back in the 1950s-60s. Just past the section of the tube that had this signage, there was a gaping whole in the ceiling of the tube, with a massive growth of flora. Now, I’m sure things grow quickly in Maui, but from the amount of growth, I’m not sure if that hole is recent enough to have been post-fallout shelter. I meant to ask the owner about it, but I forgot. Oh well.

This next picture is of Steve right below the gaping maw.

And this one is at the entrance to the tube.

Finally, we were headed away from Hana in earnest, but not before we stopped to get a picture of Steve, “King of the Road to Hana”, with the road winding away behind him.

That night, we stayed at the Kula Lodge, just down the road from Crater Highway. We had an early morning planned at the Crater and wanted to avoid a long drive to get there. Steve and I agreed that it just wasn't worth it to us to get up for the sunrise, but we had to be there early for our horseback ride!

I really liked the Kula Lodge. The room was very nice and the restaurant was excellent. It was a little pricey (both the room and the restaurant), but it was worth it to be that close to the crater. And, indeed, our meal at the Kula Lodge was still cheaper than it would have been the night before at the Hotel Hana Maui! And it was SO GOOD.

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Friday 11/16

"But wait," you say. "I thought the road to Hana was on Maui, not Kauai." And you would be right, my friend.

It all seemed to make such good sense at the time I was planning the trip. And, honestly, it did make sense. We got up around 4am on Friday to catch our 7:10 flight to Maui. The idea was to arrive on Maui by 9:00 and start from the Kahului airport for Hana, thus cutting an extra hour off of the drive than if we had set out from Lahaina, where we would be staying for most of our time on Maui. It worked very well, other than the 4am part.

Anyway, we said good-bye to our lovely Kauai condo and off we flew to Maui.

One of the things that makes the Road to Hana so scenic is the numerous waterfalls along the way. Some of them were flowing better than others, but here are a few that we stopped at.

Upper Waikani Falls (aka Three Bears Falls)

Pua'a Ka'a Falls

Along the way, "the book" directed us to a lava tube on the side of the road. Steve loves him the caves and lava tubes, and off he went disappearing into a hole in the ground for a good 5 minutes or more. When he emerged, he insisted I had to go in with him. I am a wee bit on the claustrophobic side, and I had just been taking some close-up photos of a massive spider whose web was hanging in the entryway to another, smaller lava tube, so I was disinclined to acquiesce.

However, with a little prodding, I followed along. Other than the fact that, in his excitement, Steve took off with the flashlight and I tripped and fell on my ass in the resulting darkness, it was worth the trip in. A little way back into the tube, after one small squeeze that made me nearly panic, the tube turned a corner and there was light up ahead. The top and side of the tube had collapsed and it was pure jungle through the opening. The roots from the trees on the surface had come through the tube and made their way down all the way into the ground below. It was really pretty cool.

In addition to lots of waterfalls along the road, the other thing you see a lot of is burned-out cars. I am not exaggerating when I say that every mile there was at least 1 abandoned, and usually burned, car on the side of the road. I did not get the sense that these cars were left over from accidents as waterfall-obsessed tourists veered off the winding road. Rather, I got the feeling that we were seeing something similar to our rubbish heap experience on Kauai. I think that when people are done with their cars, they simply park them on the side of the road to rot. Sometimes they might set them on fire. Or maybe others do it at later times when there's nothing else to do on a Saturday night. All I know is they were everywhere. Here is one such van we encountered.

We finally got to Hana late in the afternoon, around 4 pm. We were staying the night, so we got checked into our little rental unit before heading out to see booming downtown Hana. Booming it is not. I'm not even sure it has a "downtown". The people who live in Hana don't want their town to be overrun by tourists, so they seem to have gone as far in the opposite direction as possible. One of the reasons the 100-year-old one-lane bridges haven't been replaced with two-lane bridges is simply because the people of Hana won't pay for them. They want them to stay one-lane.

So, we went down to Hana Bay and walked around to the decaying old pier, trying not to piss off the locals as we went.

When I asked the lady at the rental unit where we could find dinner that night, she said we might be able to find a BBQ stand on the side of the road, but they were probably closed. As "the book" had said, there are all of 3 places to eat in Hana, and one of them is only open for lunch. So, we made reservations for the higher recommended of the 2, the Hotel Hana Maui, and settled in for a rest until dinner.

When we arrived at the hotel's restaurant, we discovered it was a buffet with some type of show, and it would cost $50 each. Looking at the menu, we didn't see much that really appealed anyway. So, we ditched the restaurant and, with just 5 minutes until the store closed, we raced into the local market and searched the shelves of dried seafood, WD-40, and tube socks for dinner items. We settled on peanut butter to eat with the pineapple bread we'd brought from Kauai, a $5 bag of Sun Chips (import fees, you know), and a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cinna-bon ice cream, plus the 2 bananas we had in the car. We headed back to the rental unit where we happily ate our dinner sitting in bed. Ah, so much style and class!

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Thursday 11/15

I swear, these are the last sunrise pictures of the trip. After this it's all sunsets. : )

Thursday was the day to re-visit the Waimea Canyon. We had gone on our last trip to Kauai, but there are so many great hikes, we had to go again. Last time we did the Canyon Trail to the Waipo'o Falls. This time, I really wanted to do the 2-mile Alakai Swamp hike. The hike through the swamp is on a boardwalk, so I figured it wouldn't be too tough, but to get there, we had to first hike the 2-mile Pihea Trail. (That would be 8 miles round trip.) We got some great views of the Kalalau Valley as we hiked across the ridgeline.

The trail was pretty tough with lots of boulders and rugged terrain. It became clear pretty quickly that we weren't going to make it to the swamp portion of the hike, so we opted to clamor our way up to the Pihea Overlook, instead.

Another couple we met as we were starting our return journey had made it through the swamp hike and, as I suspected, said the boardwalk was easy and the view at the end was magnificent. But the sun was getting low in the sky and we still had the 2-mile return trek ahead of us. I guess we'll just have to get up earlier and try the swamp hike next time.

Back at the car, we made stops at the Pu'u Hinahina and Waimea Canyon Lookouts on our way back down to the ocean.

As we were driving along the south side of the island back to our condo in Kapa'a, we saw a beautiful rainbow to the north. We were planning on stopping at the Hanapepe Valley Lookout anyway and that was about 1 minute further down the road. We came to a screeching halt at the lookout and just barely managed to capture the lingering remains of the rainbow over the valley before it disappeared.

Posted by Anne at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)