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Bloggings, Reviews - Travel, Travel

Road to Hana

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We had to wake up early today for our trip to Hana. The Road to Hana is a famous drive in Maui with many attractions along the way. The road is known for it’s natural beauty all around, including waterfalls,cliff sides, and views of the Pacific. There are many guides online about how to do the road to Hana and I used a variety of sites to help plan our day. We only had a day, which was unfortunate, but we did see and do a lot!

After having our leftovers from Da Kitchen for breakfast we left Kihei around 7:30. The plan was for me to drive the way to Hana and for Don to drive back. We first stopped in the town of Paia. It was a cute, small town. It seemed a bit hippy-ish. We didn’t really spend any time here, just made a bathroom stop and we were on our way.

The drive was pretty cool. It was a bit scary at times, but awesome. The road was filled with areas that were only one way and hairpin curves. At times it would be rainy and then a minute later the sun was out. There were often lots of cars and people also.

 

 

Our first stop was Twin Falls. There is a small parking lot at Twin Falls but a lot of people will end up pulling over on the side of the road like we did. The hike down to Twin Falls was not long but it was slippery.

The next place I wanted to stop was a lookout point in a Wailua Valley. We thought we had missed it but then we saw a small parking area. The walk up to the lookout was not long and it was easy. The views were incredible. We could see a waterfall in the distance. This is what I always envisioned Maui being.

Waikani Falls was the next place we stopped. You can see this waterfall just by pulling over on the side of the road. There are many signs saying not to pull over, but many people were so we did. It was pretty awesome.

The highlight of the road to Hana was the Waianapanapa State Park. We got here and walked around a bit. Then we decided to have our lunch before we did much more here. We brought lunches we had picked up at the grocery store the night before. We had sandwiches, chips, salad, and even a couple of Longboards. We ate in the car because they were no tables nearby. Once we were done eating we changed into some swimwear because we knew there would be a beach.

The beach was formed by volcanic rock so the sand was actually black rock. It was called Black Sand Beach. It was very hot walking down to the beach, but it was overcast. We got into the water and it was cold but refreshing. It started to rain a bit. Supposedly, you should be able to swim out to caves in the rock but it was too rough to do this today.

Once we were done swimming we got out and continued our hike. There were really cool lava rock formations. The sun started to come out and it was so hot. We walked around for about 30-45 minutes, but I felt like I was going to get burnt and it was so hot so we turned around. There were just incredible views on this hike. The water at the beach looked calmer now that it was sunny and a few people were pretty far out snorkeling.

We made our way back to the car and Don started driving. We drove to the town of Hana. From the park it wasn’t far, maybe another 20 minutes. We didn’t really know what to do in Hana so we found a place to park where we thought there was a beach. We started walking towards the water and it was pretty much a walk straight down a cliff. Don ended up falling and luckily he didn’t get hurt. I didn’t want to continue because it was so slippery and the water below was so choppy with rocks everywhere. It was beautiful but I didn’t want one of us to get hurt.

This was taken 2 minutes before Don slipped.

We made our way back to the car and decided to drive back to Kihei. Don had a lot of fun driving. He felt like he was in a racing game. I started feeling sick because I often get car sick. We stopped at a shop and got some coffee and chocolate chip banana bread. The bread was so good! We also found the Hana Lava Tube Cave and even though it was set to close soon the guide let us and a few other people explore the cave.  It was a pretty cool cave and it was a self-guided tour. It took about 30 minutes and it was a little spooky at times, especially when you turned off your flashlight.

On the way back we wanted to stop at this restaurant area so we did but things were closing down and nothing looked that good. It seemed like a tourist trap. I did get an iced coffee and some cokes for the ride. I was able to take some Dramamine and I felt pretty good on the ride back.

We stopped at a lookout point that had incredible views of the sun starting to make its way down. There was a bench here with the name Sierra on it.

We made another stop by some cows.

Our last stop on the way back was a beach lookout. The beach was called Ho’okipa. The views of the sunset were awesome. Don noticed some people gathering on the sand down on the beach. They were looking at something. It looked like rocks on the sand but then Don realized they were sea turtles! The sun was starting to set fast but we wanted a closer look so we drove the car down to the beach and found a spot. The turtles were so awesome! They come up here almost every night to rest on the beach. A conservationist was there to keep people from getting too close. She told us sometimes there are over 150 turtles here a night. We stayed here until the beach was closing. Every day in Maui so far we have seen turtles!!

By the time we got back to Kihei we were both pretty hungry and the pizza place I wanted to try had already closed at 8. So we found a bbq place called Daddy’s Smokehouse and it was pretty good. It was a long but pretty awesome day.

 

Bloggings, Reviews - Travel, Snorkeling, Travel

Honolua Bay, Kapulua Beach, & Nakalele Blowhole

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This morning I had some coffee on the lanai and it was so nice.

We packed up some food and drinks in a cooler and then we attempted to try this breakfast place called The Gazebo at the resort South of us but the line was ridiculously long. I would recommend trying to get into this place because we heard it’s great but get there like at 5 am I guess because they can seat like 10 people. The view from this resort is really cool though so if you can’t get food check out the view.

After taking a lot of pictures near The Gazebo we decided to try a breakfast place we saw called Slappy Cakes. This place also gets crowded but if you can sit at the bar. This place was amazing–so, so good–I really don’t know how The Gazebo could beat it. Don had the Slappy Moco and I had the Carnitas Benedict. It was so delicious, thinking about it right now is killing me! We would highly recommend Slappy Cakes.

After breakfast we made our way to Honolua Bay. There is no parking for Honolua Bay; you just have to find a spot on the side of the road and hike down. The hike is easy and maybe 5 minutes. The bay is all big, round rocks, so it was a little challenging getting down into the water because it was slippery. The water was also kind of cold at first but it warmed up. We started on the left side of the bay and we went pretty far out, pretty much to where the bay opened up. On the way out the dull rocks changed to beautiful coral.

We saw a big green eel and a large school of fish, that was pretty cool. After the school of fish I spotted our second turtle in Maui! So cool, how did we get lucky enough to see a turtle again?!

I got a crazy cramp in my foot and had to stretch it out in the water for a good 10 minutes. Once I was good we decided to swim over to the right side of the bay. On our way we saw another turtle, although it could have been the same one.

The right side of the bay was awesome, lots of colorful fish and coral. We saw a huge sea turtle and it was eating. It didn’t care about us or anyone around it at all. We watched that turtle for a long time. We saw a lot of turtles here, maybe 6 different ones. It was amazing. We even saw an octopus! It was scurrying along the sea floor and once it reached a rock it changed colors instantly to camouflage itself. It was amazing and so quick! We also saw a small, almost iridescent sea snake. The snorkeling at Honolua Bay was amazing and by far the best snorkeling we have done in Hawaii so far.

Octopus!

After Honolua Bay we made our way to Kapalua Beach. Kapalua Beach is the beach just North of Napili Bay (our beach). There is a parking lot for this beach near the golf course. The beach had a lot of pretty coral and fish. There were even a few schools of fish, but no turtles. It was sandy and rocky and pretty good for snorkeling. We saw another small eel. So far snorkeling in Hawaii is in this order: Honolua, Napili, Kapalua, then Hanauma.

We didn’t spend as long here and  it was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to get back to our room. We got cleaned up and decided to try to see the Nakalele Blowhole. I was really nervous about driving here because the road looked a little crazy on the map. The drive was a bit crazy because it was near a cliff and curvy. There were some awesome views and when we got to the blowhole it was a pretty crazy hike down to it. I wasn’t really expecting a hike and I was getting worried it was going to get dark soon, but we decided to do it. There were a lot of other people making their way down also. The views everywhere were spectacular and the blowhole was pretty cool. Don drove on the way back so I could take in the views. We stopped at a view point and realized we were looking down on where we snorkeled earlier at Honolua Bay. Once we got back to town we ate at China Boat, most places were closing. It was pretty good Chinese.