Trip to Maui, Part 2
After the sunrise trip to the top of the Volcano, we headed back down the long winding road to sea-level. We passed a few groups of bicyclists, who watched the sunrise then use beach cruisers with great brakes to coast 10,000 ft down to sea-level. We had a Jeep. Upon reaching the coast, we pulled over to warm up a bit and to put down the top.
Mind you, the weather reports were calling for rain, and we had just stood on the top of a Volcano in a rain cloud; we were compelled to the put the top down on the Jeep. Wasn’t too big of a deal, and the sun felt good. Twenty minutes down the road, it starts to rain. It will pass. Continue driving, and it is starting to rain harder. It will pass. Continue driving, but the windshield wipers stopped working! Crap! No windshield wipers are working, just not on the inside of the windshield. Must pullover and put the top up. We had to read the manual to get the top down, and now we had to try putting it back up. After a few minutes of straining, cursing and having a nice, natural and cool rinse, we managed to get the top up and headed back down the road.
Ten minutes later, the rain stopped.
So now we are headed down the infamous Road to Hana. I don’t know the story, but earthquakes, stranded hippies, didn’t know if anyone survived have all been in various versions of the story. Regardless, it is like driving a paved road in a tropical jungle. The road side is dotted with dramatic waterfalls, and no place to pullover, let alone, park. This means you can get stuck in an endless stream of rental Mustangs, Sebrings and Jeeps. 99% of the road was two narrow lanes, but the multiple bridge crossings were almost all one lane roads. Yield means stop. Patience was running thin, because I found the road fun to drive and challenging and we were eager to get to the waterfall hikes. I can now say, “I have driven the Road to Hana.” Never again.
Past Hana, there is a short hike with a couple of great waterfalls, the Waimoku Falls and the Falls at Makahiku. At 5am, I am not the most awake person. I don’t remember getting a receipt for the trip to the top of the Park. We had literally driven from the top of the volcano, around its base to get to falls. Luckily, the Park Ranger took proof of purchase with the pictures from earlier that morning.
The four mile hike to Waimoku Falls and back is easy. After the first “steep” mile, the trail levels to a much easier incline to the falls. Part of the hike is through the bamboo forest, a funky tree and the Falls at Makahiku. After a quick dip in the pool by the falls, we headed back down to start heading back.
The nice thing about the Road to Hana and the falls, is a complete lack of cell phone coverage. It makes the trip feel more remote than it actually is. Rather than torture ourselves on the return trip past Hana, we continued around the southern part of the island. The narrow, gravel road through the old lava fields made the Jeep worth having. We were rewarded with unspoiled views of the ocean and undeveloped beaches.
We arrived back at the hotel in the late afternoon. We saw the same desk clerk who checked us in, and Miriam went over to show him the ring. He asked where and when we did it, congratulated us and laughed. Suddenly my sudden change of topic the day before all made sense. We were tired from the days events, mostly from waking up at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise. We hung out in the room, popped a bottle of champagne from Safeway and relaxed for awhile.
We watched the sun start to set while we prepared for the evening and headed down to the hotel’s sushi restaurant. It was nice to have a decent meal. We found the sushi to be very good, and recommended by Lucky – one of his two favorite sushi restaurants. The restaurant was empty so the meal didn’t take too long, and we didn’t make it much past that…
Saturday morning we searched for a quick breakfast at sunrise. We decided that we should go snorkeling before the waves and wind picked up. We rented snorkels, masks and flippers and we were off to explore the ocean. It didn’t take long before the ocean revealed its hidden life. Loads of fish, an octopus and sea snake surrounded us. It was like swimming in an aquarium. We decided that we needed to swim to the turtle cleaning station to try to see some sea turtles.
Thought I could finish this up, but there is more to come…
