Paradise

Paradise

Tuesday, October 15, 2019 – Kahului to Hana, Maui, Hawaii

Monday was a travel day not worth a blog post. It was a long day of flying. We had been at a friend’s wedding over the weekend near Atlanta, so our routing was Atlanta to San Diego to Oakland to Kahului. You guessed it – Southwest! Despite the crazy routing, Southwest is my favorite airline. They had recently started service to Hawaii so we got a great introductory fare and we have a companion pass, so my ticket was cheap and Chrissy flew for free. We got in late after a long day of travel, grabbed some dinner at a pub near the airport, and crashed at an airport hotel for the night.

Tuesday morning was time to hit the Road to Hana. Between time zone adjustments and excitement for the journey, I was wide awake at 4:30 am. I fought it for a little while, then got up and went for a run. As readers of this blog may recall, I love running in a new place, especially in the early morning as a city or town starts to awaken. My route took me through part of Kahului, along a beach, and past the University of Hawaii Maui College campus. When I got back to the hotel Chrissy was up and we were both ready to go.

Our first stop was in Kahului for coffee. We ordered iced coffees by accident. They were cold brewed and were really quite good. So good that I had another iced coffee later in the day. Who knew I liked iced coffee?

With our cold caffeine we were ready to head to Hana. Our first stop was Twin Falls. It is pretty close to the beginning of the Road and therefore fairly crowded, but manageable. We hiked the mile to the main falls and watched some people swim at the base of the falls. Neither of us were interested in swimming but we enjoyed watching others. When we got back to the parking lot we bought bananas and pineapple from a fruit stand. This would become a theme throughout the trip. They were positively delicious.

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I won’t try to describe the entire drive and all the stops we made along the way. Suffice it to say it was both beautiful and fun. I quickly remastered my hang loose hand gesture as we negotiated all the one lane bridges with the oncoming traffic. One stop I have to describe though is the Keanae Arboretum. We stopped there 17 years before on our first trip to Maui and it was the first place we saw Rainbow Eucalyptus trees. They look like regular Eucalyptus except the bark is rainbow colored. It was great to be back and to see them again. On our previous trip we didn’t have much time so we looked at the trees, and the rest of the arboretum, in the manner of Chevy Chase in Vacation. On this visit we took our time and walked the trail along the creek all the way through the arboretum and into an old taro farm. We continued through the farm and followed the creek up to a waterfall where farmers had diverted water to the taro plot many, many years ago. It was a challenging hike in flip flops, but well worth it. It looked much like the water catchment I saw and helped work on several years before on the hill above Quessua, Angola.

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Shortly after the arboretum we stopped at Uncle Harry’s – “the first fruit stand on the Road to Hana”. Many others have joined Harry since. We were served by Uncle Harry’s great-granddaughters who seem to be doing a great job carrying on his legacy. We had delicious Hawaiian pork tacos to fuel us for the rest of the journey.

As we got closer and closer to Hana the traffic thinned out. Many people do day trips from the more populated parts of the island (like we did in 2003) and don’t make it all the way. They are missing out, but in a way I’m glad they are because Hana shouldn’t be crowded.

The cottage we rented was picture-perfect. It had one bedroom, a large living room, and a well-appointed kitchen. It wasn’t right on the water, but we could look across the expansive front lawn and see and hear the Pacific Ocean 1,000 feet or so away. It was very well decorated and furnished. There was no air conditioning  but with the breeze and fans it was perfectly comfortable. With the windows open and the sounds and smells of the rainforest all around it was paradise indeed.

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There aren’t many restaurants in Hana. There are food trucks and stands that are open during the day, but not too much to choose from at night. So we stopped at a small grocery store and got a couple of steaks to grill. A great end to a great day.