7. June 27: Maui - Road to Hana

We got up Friday morning and drove from our hotel near Kapalua airport (north-east of the island) to Kihei where my Mom and Marilyn were staying. We had a nice breakfast together and then took them to the airport on our way to Road to Hana. It was nice to get to see them one last time and have some quiet one-on-one time (or two-on-two as it were).
.The Road to Hana is a twisting, winding, gorgeous drive which rivals any I've ever seen (think California's Highway 1). My Lonely Planet guidebook claims it has more than 600 twists and turns. It was a lot of fun just to drive it and soak in the scenery.
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Our first stop was Twin Falls which was nice enough but a bit disappointing after yesterday's waterfalls. After the 1/2 hour hike each way to the falls, my tired new bride was a bit grouchy so at the next stop we both agreed that I would hike the 45 minute Waikomoi nature trail while she took a cat nap.
.We continued on, stopping at various scenic points. We also stopped at a local stand for lunch and one of the biggest coconuts I've ever seen. It harkened me back to Papua New Guinea and the great coconuts I had there. We drank the coconut milk then ate the flesh and got back on the road.
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At the end of the road is the southern part of Haleakala National Park which contains the absolutely stunning Ohe'o Gulch which we hiked around on a bit of a lark but were very glad we did.
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It was here that our plans had to be revised due to some unforseen circumstances. First we learned that if we wanted to see the sunrise at Haleakala we would have to leave our hotel around 2:30 am. Then we found out that we couldn't continue driving around the island as we thought because the road was closed so we had to double back and redrive the entire Road to Hana in the dark as it was just past sunset. My wife is not only beautiful but smart, too. She realized that since sunrise is so early that we could manage to go to Haleakala on the day we left Hawaii before our flight. That took off the pressure to get back to the hotel quickly and essentially gave us an extra day to do what we wanted, sleep in a bit, and relax. So I took a deep breath, made a U-turn, and retraced the 600 twists and turns arriving back to civilization around 9 pm. We had a really tasty Italian dinner near the main airport. I was so tired from a whole day's driving that I could have fallen asleep in our little booth. Thankfully dinner rejuvenated me because there was still one surprise left for the day. If you look at the map of Maui you can see northwest part looks like a circle stuck onto the main part of the island. Because we thought our hotel was near Lahaina, we drove the southern path from the airport the day before and since Kihei is south, we drove that southern road again in the morning. Coming back from dinner, we figured it would be closer to take the northern road. In fact, I'm sure it is a shorter distance but what we didn't realize was that it was another "Road to Hana" with scores of twists and turns but this was completely rural and only one lane most of the way. What we thought would be a 45-minute drive, turned out to be another hour and a half. After the unexpected excitement, we finally got back, showered and collapsed into bed, happy with the knowledge we could finally sleep in and relax the next day.