mindless ramblings

We woke up pretty early as we wanted to beat the rush of cars heading along the Hana Highway. We grabbed breakfast at McDonald’s (who serve rice platters here BTW) and headed off. Even though we left early, there was a fair amount of traffic on the way out towards Pa’ia. However, it dropped off once we got past Pa’ia and embarked on the seriously narrow roads. The picture shows what you’ll find along the Hana Highway. That would probably be considered a fairly wide road, with most of the bridges being single lane. Moreover, the roads get really narrow after passing Hana and heading towards O’heo Gulch.

There definitely is a lot to see along the way. The terrain is rugged, and there are many waterfalls and hikes if you are inclined to do such things. Maui Revealed warned that a day trip would not allow one to see all the sights along the way, and so we had taken a look the night before to plan what we wanted to check out. Even if you don’t have the book, there are plenty of scenic lookouts along the way, and since you can’t really go any faster than 20mph, you’ll have plenty of time to pull over and enjoy the sights.

Just before you get to Hana, there is an attraction that I’d definitely recommend to everyone. It’s called the Hana Lava Tube and it was really cool! It is basically a tour inside an ancient lava tube. It costs $11.95/person and you get a flashlight and (optional) hard hat. We got there pretty early and there was only 1 other couple inside who left just as we went in, so we were the only ones inside the whole tube. The cave is seriously dark. Try turning off your flashlights or simply looking behind you. The level of darkness is unlike anything I have ever seen (or rather, not seen)! If you keep the flashlights on, the path itself is easy to navigate and there are informational signs located at regular intervals. The tour should take under an hour and it definitely is an unique adventure!

We finally got to Hana around lunch time. Honestly, there isn’t much to see in Hana. We parked in the bay, got some lunch from Tutu’s, which is a little snack bar right on the bay. Your food choices in Hana are fairly limited, it was either that or the hotel, which apparently is horrible. Esther had a hot dog, while I had some BBQ chicken on rice, which was actually not too bad. We sat on the beach and ate a peaceful lunch under the sun.

After lunch, we got out of Hana and continued along the highway towards O’heo Gulch, also known as the 7 Sacred Pools. We didn’t find it all that interesting, but I guess the number of cars in the parking lot means that a lot of other people do. Keep in mind that you have to pay $10 to enter as it is part of Haleakala National Park. However, there are a couple of interesting trails (including one to a bamboo forest) so it is worth it. Moreover, the pass is valid for 3 days, so if you intend to do a trip up the volcano, then try to schedule it close to your Hana trip.

Although most rental car companies dissaude you from continuing south and doing a loop on the Hana Highway, Maui Revealed mentions that it is actually quite doable. However, we couldn’t go any further because the road was damaged by the recent earthquake and as such it was actually physically blocked by rocks. This left us with no choice but to turn back and drive back along the same road that we had come from. This was definitely pretty boring, and only the windiness of the roads kept me awake.

Back in Kihei in the early evening, we headed to Kalama Village to find some dinner and do some shopping. Kalama Village is a little open air mall with restaurants and stores selling touristy stuff. Dinner was first. We chose a “New Jersey style” restaurant called Bada Bing. We got a seat on the patio, which actually wasn’t all the great as it faces the parking lot. I think they have another patio which faces the main road, probably better! Maui Revealed mentioned that the grilled chicken pesto was awesome, so I got that and Esther had their version of a Hawaiian pizza, made with kalua pig (the lu’au pig which looks like pulled pork). the food was delicious! The grilled chicken pesto had a very generous amount of chicken and it wasn’t overly creamy. The pizza was great too, with the kalua pig on top, BBQ sauce and pineapples. It was so good I wanted to eat the leftovers but I was so full I couldn’t! We finished off the night with some souvenir shopping in the village and headed back for an early night. A very long day spent mostly in the car, but it was very interesting and very different from the Maui that we had seen so far.