Hawaii II

 So begins the second half of our trip.

 


Day 5
Wednesday morning we were up bright and early to catch a 6:30 flight to Maui.  Since Maui is right next door the flight is only 30 minutes long.  By the time you reach the proper cruising altitude you are headed back down for a landing.  Upon arrival in Maui we grabbed our luggage and headed to the rental car.  Once we were all set up we were on our adventure of exploring Maui, first stop was breakfast before we drove the road to Hana.

One of the many waterfalls on the Road to Hana

Waterfalls

Waterfalls with a swimming hole

The road to Hana is a notorious drive in Maui, everyone I spoke to said it was a must do.  It’s a long winding road that follows the coast around Maui to a one horse town - Hana.  A friend of mine had traveled to Maui and told us to rent a room in Hana because it was too dangerous to drive at night.  Now I completely agree with her this is not a road you to want to drive at night, it is mostly a one lane road, very curvy, with dangerous drop offs. Now I completely disagree with her, whatever you do...DON'T STAY IN HANA.  Now this is just a personal opinion, so if you’re feeling adventurous check it out.  The minute we pulled into town I felt like we had step into the movie Deliverance.  It was an eerie, creepy little town with one general store.  The locals stared at you like a fresh piece of meat.  There are two places to eat and they have questionable food and hours. Since we left so early that morning we arrived in Hana around lunch, we drove around the town, ate some lunch and checked into the place we were staying.  There were not a lot of options when booking a room in Hana.  You can either stay at the 300 dollar a night place or rent a bedroom at Joe's Place for 50 dollars.  Being the money savvy travelers we picked Joe's Place it had mixed reviews online so we figured we would give it a try.  Well it was sketchy not awful, but pretty bad.

After we unloaded our stuff we decided to go to the beach. (mind you there is NOTHING to do in Hana) As we came outside we realized that our car had a flat tire (typical Skipper vacation always some type of car trouble in one horse towns) somewhere along the way we picked up a nail.  I called the rental car place and they informed us we were SOL because we did not buy their insurance.  Since we had to drive back we didn't want to put the spare on because it was a doughnut.  We bought some fix a flat and prayed it would get us through the rest of the drive. 

That evening we meet the rest of our roommates, they were an interesting. There was a young couple from Germany, and older couple from Australia, two women and some other random stragglers.  The Australians were very interesting and funny so we talked to them until I was too tired to stay awake.  It was a rough long night; there was no air conditioner so the room was steaming and there is nothing harder than trying to fall asleep when you’re sweating.  I am guessing the bed was a cheap mattress that was at least 40 years old with sheets that might not have been washed in the last ten years.  Somehow I survived the night and was up at five ready to get the heck out of dodge.  We left as early as we could because the town gave us the creeps.

Day 6
Our tire looked like it was holding air so we were off to the next leg of our adventure. Most everyone goes back the way they came because the rest of the road is for four wheel vehicles, it’s a dirt road with splotches of paving, rocks and gravel.  Being the adventures (or maybe stupid) type we decided to give it a try.  Well that turned into 48 miles of sheer terror.  Maybe not for Chris, but the whole time we were diving I was thinking of the worst case scenario.  The nail would come out, we would have to put the spare on, we could easily be killed doing that because of how narrow and curvy the roads are, the doughnut wouldn't get us out, we would be stuck forever because there is no cell phone reception and no one dives out there, whooo paranoid much?  It ended up being an incredibly beautiful drive with insane scenery and we made it out alive.  The minute we got into town the nail popped out and we had a flat tire.  Pretty sure the big Man upstairs had that one under control. 

Scenery on the way out of Hana

Black Sand Beach

Lava Tube

More waterfalls

Awesome tree

The seven secret pools(its a set of seven waterfalls with pools)

The scary second half of the drive most of it looked like baren wasteland

A paved section of the road, this did not last long

Why did we drive this??

Chris put the spare on and we took it to Goodyear to have them patch the tire.  While they were working on it we walked into the town and ate some breakfast.  By the time we finished it was ready to go and we were on our way.  After we picked up the car we headed to our hotel and checked in.  After a quick nap we rented some snorkel gear and headed to the best snorkel beach in town.  Little did we know that the best snorkel beach also happened to be the best boogie board and only NUDE beach in town!  Well that was interesting to say the least, there a quite a few people that are very comfortable with their bodies.  I am not that comfortable so I did not partake in these activities.  The snorkeling turned out to be the best we had seen.  There were tons of fish and sea turtles swimming around and having a good time. 

The non-nude half of the beach

Day 7
We had a charter snorkel trip to a small island off of Maui called Molokini Crater.  The trip consisted of breakfast and lunch with two separate snorkeling spots.  It was fun trip, although the nude beach still had the best snorkeling.  After our trip we drove to another part of Maui and checked into the hotel we would be staying at until we left.  For some reason they upgraded our room to a suite with a full kitchen and a great view of the ocean.  That evening we went to Barefoot Grill and enjoyed an incredible chef prepared meal.

Day 8 
We decided to check out the surfing in Maui, the tide was out so it was supposed to be a great time to surf.  We rented some boards and headed out.  Well it had been a while since Maui had some good waves so everyone was out surfing.  Since I am still a beginner I like surfing the smaller waves with easy breaks, unfortunately these waves were reaching about the ten foot area and breaking incredibly fast and hard.  After about 30 minutes of getting destroyed by the Ocean I headed out, Chris came in a little after me.  We grabbed some breakfast and watched a surf competition.  We strolled around the little town for a while and then headed back to the hotel.  That evening we went to the Old Lahaina Luau for dinner and a show.  We thoroughly enjoyed our last evening in Maui. 

Luau

Me

Hula dancers

Day 9
As they say all good things have to come to an end, we packed all our stuff up and check out of the hotel.  Since our flight didn't leave until that evening we decided to kill a few hours and drive up to the volcano.  It was an interesting drive and the volcano was neat. That evening we headed back to the airport for our long flight home.  After 13 hours, three plane changes, and going through three different time zones we arrived back home with all of our luggage.  It was a great trip, but it was good to get back home and settle into a routine again. 

The Volcano

Until next time....you all enjoy your weekend