Today we got an early start to take an all day trip on the road to Hana. We packed plenty of snacks and refreshments for our long journey and yes some motion sickness pills for Racer.
Our first stop before beginning our road to Hana trip was the surfers beach known as Hookipa beach. The waves here were the largest that we had seen so far on our travels through Maui. Living in Southern California we are used to seeing high waves and we had thought all of Hawaiian beaches had them but apparently not. Needless to say the waves and water color here were just gorgeous. So many different shades of blue as far as the eye could see.
The boys were just eager to go jump in the waves but with the long drive were we just beginning, we opted not to. I am sure the local surfer's wouldn't want two young boys in their way of hanging ten while riding a large wave too.
To make the drive on the road to Hana a little easier we had purchased a car CD called the road to Hana. Nothing on this road is labeled for the best places to stop. You won't find any billboards or signs telling you the best places to pull over and stop the car. Locals want to keep the area as natural as possible.
Speaking of pulling over and stopping the car....this can pose as a challenge as well since the road in most places is the size of a single lane highway to be shared between two cars. Having experience driving both Highway 1 and the mountains in northern California, my hubby did just fine.
Along the highway locals have set up fruit stands for people to stop, sample and purchase local organic fruits. We stopped at a few. The first one was a man that served us our first coconut. It is a coconut still in the green pod. Here he is taking a macheti to it. The kids were impressed but I think they were more impressed with the yummy mangos that they purchased. My kids love mangos so much back on the mainland that they decided to use their own money to buy a whole mango for themselves.
We stopped by several waterfall pools along the way. They looked like something out of a movie or a Fantasy Island episode when combined with the colorful flowers and follage around them, simply beautiful.
Our final destination was the seven sacred pools at the Haleakala National Park. There are more than just seven sacred pools there I might add. According to the informative CD that we listened to, they were orignially named something else but changed their name to attract tourists; they were hoping to lure people to area. It was a great day to visit the area because the tide was low and the pools were great for swimming.
After swimming it was getting late for the long trek home and our greatest fear was taking the road home in the dark especially since it is very narrow. A local suggested that we take the road that runs along the backside of Haleakala. Many experienced travelers, including our friendly CD narrator, warned us not to take it. My hubby was up for the daring challenge on traveling on a dirt road in a rental car that could potentially have wild animals stopped to block it along the way.
It was a hair raising, nail biting ride back. If we thought the road was narrow traveling on the way to Hana, this one was even more so and bumpy. It proved to quite the adventure for the whole family and luckily we and the rental car escaped just fine. We got to see some more gorgeous views and the devastation left from the volcano eruption left on this side of the mountain.
We finally arrived back at our condo just about 12 hours later from the time we first left. A long and adventuresome day in Maui.
Aloha!
Aloha!
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