Maui Day 4 -- Road to Hana

Warning: This is a super long post with lots of pictures -- proceed with caution!

We got off to another early start to head out to tackle the long and winding "Road to Hana".  This is a 33-mile stretch of road that is wound into the northeastern coastline of Maui.  It typically takes about 3 hours to drive the 30 miles, due to the extreme nature of the narrow roadways and tight turns.

The best part about this trip is that there are waterfalls hidden just off of the road.  We used the most awesome guide book (Maui Revealed) to help us find some of the "off-the-beaten-path" locations.  Our first stop was at a small waterfall called Haipun'ea Falls with a small pool that was about 30 yards off of the highway.  We had this location all to ourselves for a while, so we enjoyed swimming in the pool and goofing off.  When some other swimmers arrived, we used the opportunity to have our picture taken as a group and then we decided to move on.

Our next stop was listed as an "adventure" according to the guidebook because it required a long hike up boulders.  The river was dry where it crossed the highway, but we decided to hike up anyways because the hidden waterfall, called  was supposed to be amazing.  We hiked for about fifteen minutes up a dry river bed with 300 foot high walls on each side of us -- an amazing river valley full of beautiful plant life.  Unfortunately, we weren't seeing any water.  We sent Josh and Emily to hike up further as a scout to see if the waterfall was worth the continued hike and they found it to be completely dry -- the result of a 2-year drought on Maui.  So we hiked back down to the highway.  We may not have found Punalau Falls, but we enjoyed our little "adventure"!

Our next stop was a familiar location for us -- the waterfall and pool called Waikane Falls, or "Three Bears".  Chris and I stopped here on our last Maui vacation and knew that these were beautiful falls.  They are just barely visible from the road, but most drivers continue to drive because they don't know that there is an awesome pool area that is accessible with a little creative maneuvering.  The falls are AWESOME and so much bigger when you're standing right next to them than you think from far away.  Everyone, except for Emily, got into the pool.  We stood under the waterfalls and even jumped into the largest falls and let it shoot us out underneath it.  Chris and Josh spent half an hour trying to figure out how to jump through the falls for an action photo op!  We had a great time and spent about an hour and a half enjoying the beauty of the falls.

After our adventurous romp in the Three Bears falls, we stopped at Kaumahina State Park to eat our picnic lunch and rest.  We found a fabulous picnic shelter only a few yards from a little waterfall.  Just as we began our lunch, it started to rain.  It was truly an awesome meal, sitting a few yards from a waterfall and watching the misty Maui rains soak the earth.

Just before we arrived in Hana, we stopped to see the famous black sand beach at Wai'anapanapa State Park.  The beach was surrounded by beautiful lava formations and lava rocks on the beach were perfectly tumbled and round.  Chris and Josh bravely dove right into the huge, crashing waves to swim.  Unfortunately, the waves were much stronger than they were and we all watched from the beach as they got thrown around like they were in a washing machine!

We drove right through Hana, which is a little town with not much entertainment to offer.  This trip is truly a case of the journey being better than the destination. :)  We continued on the road to Wailua Falls, a huge waterfall right next to the roadway.  Chris and Josh decided to find a way to jump into the waterfalls.  First they tried scaling directly up the waterfall, but the climb was tricky and didn't give much height.  So they found a ledge on the side of the falls that provided great height and the pool was deep enough for landing.  Both boys enjoyed showboating in the last waterfall of the day.

At this point, most tourists turn their cars around and drive back.  But not us.  We decided to continue on the road up around the eastern side of Mt. Haleakala, which is poorly maintained and considered a "challenging" drive.  We pulled off the road at a great little stone beach, which produced an amazing rainbow into the ocean.  We took advantage of the backdrop to take some really good pictures of each couple.

The remainder of the drive was crazy.  The convertible Mustang we drove certainly didn't have the off-road capabilities to handle these crappy roads very well.  I drove slowly and got my boned rattled thoroughly.  We witnessed a few stray cows in the road and an awesome sunset over the neighboring island of Lanai.

By the time we finally arrived in Kahului, it was nearly 8 p.m. and we'd been on the road for 11 hours.  We ate at another local hot spot called Da Kitchen.  More local Hawaiian fare.  Portions were HUGE and prices were fair for the huge amount of food they put in front of you.  I wish we had saved room to try their deserts, but we were stuffed and exhausted.  We drove back into Ka'anapali and everyone showered and went straight to bed.

Maui Day 3 -- Lounging in Lahaina

Our third day in Maui was the first day we were able to sleep in and take it easy.  So, of course, we were all awake early.  Dad and Josh went to play golf at the Ka'anapali Golf Course.  The rest of us walked down to the beach and did a little shopping at Whaler's Village in Ka'anapali.  The beach was beautiful and we enjoyed just walking in the sand.  We all met up for lunch at Aloha Mixed Plate, a local restaurant that specializes in true Hawaiian "mixed plate" fare.  Prices were reasonable and the food was pretty good.  Chris and I are generally pretty plain-Jane eaters, so it is good that we have more adventurous family with us to force us out of our comfort zones! :)  The Powells and Perkins' went back to the condo to take a nap.  Chris and I took the remainder of the day to lounge around in Lahaina and Paia.
We scheduled ourselves for a date night and all of the couples enjoyed a little bit of alone time.  Josh and Emily went to Sansei, a sushi restaurant.  Dad and Millie went to a beach-side restaurant where they could eat Hawaiian-style hamburgers with grilled pineapple.  Chris and I went to the Lahaina Pizza Company.  The pizza was only OK... but the company was great! :)

Maui Day 2 -- Rafting/Snorkel Trip

We scheduled yet another early-morning activity for today.  Having previously done a snorkeling trip here (with disastrous, motion-sickness results), I was not overly thrilled about doing another snorkeling trip.  However, we found a completely different kind of activity that combines snorkeling at multiple sites with a high-speed rafting adventure.  So I put on a motion-sickness patch and decided to give it a try.

We arrived at Kihei boat ramp at 6:30 this morning (which meant another early 5:00 a.m. wake-up-call) to meet our group, Blue Water Rafting.  We loaded about 20 people onto a high-speed inflatable raft and headed out of the harbor.  Captain Brad and Kapelli told us that weather wasn't being very cooperative and that we were going to be fighting a big south swell, which may ruin our visibility or decrease the sites we can visit.  Right outside of the harbor, we encountered a few green sea turtles, right next to the boat.  Five minutes on this tour, and we were already spotting wildlife!!  We then embarked on the craziest wild boat ride I have ever been on.  Captain Brad cranked up some rock music and drove us straight into 15-30 foot waves!  Our boat was flew up and down like a Disney roller coaster and the waves would crash over the sides soaking everyone in the back.  (Thank the Lord for motion-sickness patches, or this could have been miserable)  Everyone had a death grip on the ropes in the boat to keep us onboard.  We were headed to the far south end of the island where we are supposed to tour the lava caves hidden in one of the 600-year-old lava flow formations.  Halfway to the lava caves, we spotted a huge pod of spinner dolphins.  The captain estimated that there were probably 100-150 dolphins in the pod.  They played in the waves and our bow and came RIGHT up to the boat.  It was incredible!!!  We stayed with the pod for about 10 minutes.  Then we saw a small group (4-6) of bottle-nosed dolphins, which jumped right off of our bow!  The staff was really excited because it is rare to find bottle-nosed dolphins in these waters, especially so near a pod of spinner dolphins!  All-in-all, we spent about 20 minutes with the dolphins.  It was so cool.  I tried to take pictures, but all we had was a waterproof disposable camera, so we'll have to wait until the film is developed before we find out if we got any good photos.  We continued our crazy ride to the lava caves where Captain Brad actually maneuvered our boat INTO a cave.  The lava formations were crazy and beautiful.

After another crazy boat ride, we stopped at our first snorkel site in La Perouse Bay.  They considered it a "warm up" dive.  I had forgotten how awesome the coral, fish, and sea urchins are.  Our next snorkel spot was on the backside of the Molokini crater.  This was a crazy snorkel site because the crater just drops straight down into the sea -- apparently a very popular scuba wall dive.  There were huge fish all over the place and some super colorful angelfish.  Then we went to the inside of the Molokini crater to do a drift snorkel.  The coral was awesome and one of our party even saw an octopus!  Unfortunately, the big waves were too much for me.  I started to head back to the boat and finally threw up.  Oh well, it could have been worse!  Our final snorkel site was at "Turtle Bay".  I felt too sick to get into the water, which was a real disappointment.  Emily and Josh dove right in though and snorkeled WITH wild green sea turtles.  So cool.  The rest of us watched from the boat.  On the way back into the boat ramp, we stopped to watch two spotted Eagle Rays that were mating near the surface.  It was super cool that we managed to see them at all!

Overall, we all got more sunburned than intended and we are all going to have semi-sore backs from the crazy jarring ride.  Dad was being the tough guy by riding in the front of the boat and his knuckles are scraped bare from rubbing them on the canvas pontoons.  I'm not a huge fan of snorkeling, and would have been happy with this trip just doing the wild ride and seeing all of the amazing sea-life.  The dolphins were, by far, the highlight of the trip.  I would definitely do this adventure again, as long as my motion-sickness patch was in place!! :)

Emily and Josh snorkeled with sea turtles.  Here is the awesome video footage she took.  You have to look closely because visibility wasn't great... but the sea turtle is pretty clear.

Maui Day 1 - Haleakala Sunrise, Pai'a Town, and Lahaina

When Chris and I visited Maui in 2007, the one activity that we had planned on doing, but didn't, was to drive to the top of Mt. Haleakala to watch the sunrise.  Haleakala is the largest volcano on Maui and the summit is at about 10,000 ft above sea level.  Watching the sunrise over the clouds is said to be a life-altering experience.

This time around, I insisted that we see the sunrise.  All 6 of us woke up at 2 a.m. to drive out of here at 2:30 a.m.  (Good thing we went to sleep early the night before!).  It took 2 full hours to get to the top of Haleakala, where it was dark, cold, and very windy.  I was freezing despite my jeans and hoodie.  My stubborn husband refused to pack jeans, so he froze his legs of in shorts!  The man sitting next to us had on an honest-to-God mink coat!  We had to wait for more than an hour for the sun to actually rise, but we had the BEST seats in the house for an incredibly cool sunrise over the layers of clouds floating below.  Yes, the sunrise was awesome and I'm very glad that we saw it this time around.  But getting up so early on our first day of vacation was... rough.

Before the sunrise...

Yes, this is actually OUR photo.  Pretty incredible, huh?

So after the sun came up, we were all ready for breakfast.  We drove down the volcano and into Pai'a town on the north shore of Maui.  Pai'a is known for being very "eclectic" and also for it's amazing kite surfing -- best in the world.  Unfortunately, most of the main street shops weren't open yet while we visited, so I'm hoping Chris and I can go back there sometime to shop.  Dad asked a local for a restaurant recommendation and we ended up at Cafe Mambo for breakfast -- a cool little cafe and coffee bar where the surfers come to fill-up.  Breakfast was insanely good and we left Pai'a with full bellies and smiles on our faces.

After a much-needed nap and a dip in our condo pool, we decided to head into Lahaina for dinner.  We ate at a fairly new restaurant called "Mai Tai" and had a table out on an ocean-front deck.  Our day truly came full-circle as we watched the sunset over the ocean in Lahaina.  It was a really wonderful end to the day.