The Road to Hana....Maui

We flew to Maui a couple of days ago.  Whereas Oahu is on steroids, Maui has that relaxed feel of  "taking your time." There is still a lot of traffic, but you feel like you have time to drive on this island.  I have been sleeping deeply here, which is what I needed after being on the road in the van for so long.  We are staying in my timeshare at Papakea Oceanfront Resort.  My goodness, it is so pretty here.   It is right next to the ocean and there is a water fountain right outside our window.  I am at the moment drinking my Maui coffee looking at the palm trees and the island of Lanai across the ocean.  What could be better?

I drove the "road to Hana" the other day and also completed the loop around the eastern part of the island.  It is not for the faint of heart. but wow was it gorgeous. The road to Hana loops the highest part of the mountain of  Haleakala Volcano from north to east to south.  The ridges that run from Kipahulu, Hana, and Nahiku up to the highest part of Haleakala (10,023 ft.) are some of the rainiest places in the world and the vegetation and waterfalls reflect this.  I felt like I was in a tropical jungle (wait! I was).

This road dates back to the 1500s when the great chief Pi'ilani ordered his people to build a trail (alanui) around the entire coastline.  Before that there were places in the trail at Waiohue where "a traveler must cling like a lizard to the pali [cliff]"  (Sometimes I felt like the car was clinging to the road).  When completed, the road measured six feet wide and 138 miles long.  Remnants of this road still exist on the island, but the current road still has 617 hairpin turns and countless single lane bridges that are hundreds of years old. 

When we arrived at Hana, we stopped at the historic Hasegawa General Store and I could have picked up the "I survived the road to Hana' T-shirt, but I felt like the memories and pictures were enough.

The town of Hana is really the halfway point for the road.  That part where you are clinging like a lizard was after Hana and it was mostly rutted and unpaved on the southeastern portion of the island.  Now that was a technical challenge to drive that portion.  All my years of driving government vehicles in forests and over rough terrain came into play.  When I finally hit paved road, we had been on the Hana Road for 6 hours.  The reward was this magnificent sunset behind the islet of Molokini.  The sky was on fire.  It actually rivaled those sunsets that we have in Tucson, AZ.