The Road to Hana

The Road to Hana is probably the most well known attraction on Maui.  It has become famous for its winding roads and sweeping coastal vistas as you drive along the mountains towards the eastern side of the island.  Naturally we had to give it a go, which we couldn't do without a rental car, so we forked up the dough and got a nice little piece of shit for the week.  We started the trek from our little town and headed east around 11am, making plenty of stops along the way.

 

Our first stop was on the side of the road to check out a field, but we ended up coming across a pasture with a bunch of rainbow eucalyptus trees.  The painterly color comes from the bark breaking off at different times during their growth, and they range in all sorts of colors but we mostly noticed the red and green hues.

 Our next stop was a 3 mile trail head, but we just wanted a quick glimpse of nature so we didn't stay too long.  The path was a bit overgrown and very lush; it had that look like it wanted to eat us.  Of course my curiosity was peaked, but we still had a long way to go to get to Hana and we both decided it would be best if we saved our energy.

A few more miles down the road we came to a spot overrun with onlookers and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  It was a bridge overlooking a small stream that lead to a dainty waterfall, though Court's eye caught a view of a much larger falls in the back, which is what made us take to the trail.  We climbed for a while through a thicket of trees and brush, passed by two smaller waterfalls and finally found a view of the largest one, but for me that wasn't good enough.  I felt the call of Pocohontas inside me and took to the stream.  I forced Courtney to climb over rocks and through the current so I could swim around in the pool below the raging water.  Court convinced me not to actually go under the waterfall because the enormous force would have probably killed me, but I had such a peaceful moment with myself floating in the water.

After a while we hiked back to one of the smaller waterfalls where a few people were jumping in, and it only took us a second to whip off our clothes and leap off the edge.  When that was done we out back on our dirty and soaking wet clothes, and got back in the car to realize we were dead tired, and that I had lost my polarizing filter on my camera :( .  Spending all of our energy here was well worth it, but it also meant sacrificing our sanity for the next few hours.

The duration of the car ride was us two being loopy as ever and me speeding down the curvy roads to just get there.  "Are we there yet? Are we there now? Are we there yet?"  I almost drove us off a cliff.  But these wonderful views just kept me going.  When we finally got to Hana, we stopped at the Hana Bay Beach but we were too tired to do anything but whine.  We drove around a little, spotted a Thai food place, found out it was closed, got sad, drove back.

All in all, that road is kinda annoying and if you get stuck behind someone slow, you're screwed, but the beautiful views do make up for that dizzy feeling though.