To Hana At Last...

I am ashamed to admit that it took us a year and half plus multiple vacations to Maui to FINALLY venture over to Hana. It's embarrassing. Hana is the GEM of Maui. It brings you back to what a secluded beautiful Hawaii used to be. It's luscious and green everywhere. Basically like the island of Kauai but like Hanalei for the entire Eastern end of the island. Waterfalls everywhere. Nifty hikes hidden. Not a dead plant in sight. The road is tiny, meant for one car but once another car comes you squeeze on past each other. Daily rainbows. Different sand colored beaches. Waterfall pools. Bamboo trees. It's just beauty GALORE!

So... why haven't we been? Well the drive there is extremely windy and both Jon and I both get car sick. Plus the many one lane roads and bridges can be rather dangerous. Plus tourists driving in cars they aren't used to... it just didn't seem to set us up for success. But when a table would ask me what they should do on Maui while their vacation, I rant and rave about Hana... even though I had never been... hehe. We've been close a few times! But nerves took over, and we didn't want to waste a day to car sickness and the 6 hour plus ride there and back. 

BUT! Our friends Warren and Shelly finally kicked us into gear and we went out to explore one morning. Up at 6:30am, meeting at 7am, then the day was ours. We got home around 5pm. The thing about Hana is there's not actually much going on IN the town of Hana. It's all about the drive to Hana. Hana is at the tip end of the East side of the island. There are 2 options to get there. Going the South route or the North route. The North route is how all of the tour buses take vans full of tourists and how all of the books guide you through the road to Hana because it has a beautiful cliff side that is a need to see for one's first experience of the road to Hana. But I went with the locals. A couple who have hiked every trail and spot in Hana. I trusted their opinion. 

Warren thought it'd be best to go early in the morning coming from the South side, that's how they usually do it. Another thing about Hana is that most people take the beautiful road, get out every couple of miles, do a small hike, take some photos, then end in the town of Hana and get a room the stay over night. Then do the other side or come back the same way the next day, covering spots they hadn't hit yet. Warren and Shelly do it all in a day. To Hana and back with 2 or 3 hikes total. No point in wasting money by getting a room when if you start early enough you can be back home just in time for dinner. Starting early also cleared the road for us. We were the only car on the South bound Hana road for miles. The only people we passed were locals (or who passed us because they in a hurry..). Also going South was beautiful on a clear day with the sun hitting the water and cliffs just right. We could even see the Big Island across the ocean at some points. 


We stopped at the Pipiwai trail which ends in the 7 sacred pools, for those who are framiliar with Hana. The trail took us past a bunch of waterfalls, an amazing banyan tree, through a claustrophobic bamboo forrest, and up to a 400 foot waterfall.


Here is our journey...

You you're "out there" when there are wild cow running through the streets

Zoomed in

Zoomed out

The 200 foot high waterfall that we had to trespass to get to the top of

Naughty

Naughty

On the left of the waterfall (facing the waterfall) is where Jon is standing in these next few photos

It's a long way down!

Jon's view

Water cave

The tops of bamboo trees, the bamboo forrest we are about to enter

"Thou Shall Not Pass!!"
Jon became the bridge keeper

 We were instructed that the tide was too high to play in the 7 sacred pools so we skipped that and went up the road a little bit to the Hana Bay Beach to have lunch from our home packed meals. This is one of the black sand beaches. It was really cool. I imagined it to be more rocky like pebbly, and that's what made it a black sand beach, but it was literally softer sand than a lot of our beaches on the West Side! I wanted to roll around in it, I loved it! But that would have been unfortunate to cover the car with black sand so I resisted the urge... We were planning to take another trail along the cliffs that overlook Waliea (I think that's what it looked out on) but the weather wasn't cooperating so the look out wouldn't have been very clear. So we headed home.

Black sand

Seeeeee! Black sand!

It was a long car ride but Jon drove and I didn't throw up! I did not feel very good in the slightest :-/ but I imagine if we do it again and stay the night in Hana, I won't have to be stuck in the car as long, ergo have a more enjoyable car ride through beautiful Hana :)

Maui No Ka Oi