Hawai'i Day 4 - Day 2 of cruise [Maui - Road to Hana] ⋆ Superb Vacations

Don’t try this at home… Well at least not the entire loop of Haleakala like I did today.

Google Maps timeline…. yes I did drive around Haleakala

Today I arrived in Maui. I took a taxi to the airport ($15) to pick up the rental car. I reserved an open air Jeep for the two days in Maui.

The Jeep. The roof panels above the driver and passenger can be removed.

After removing the top I started the road to Hana. Now the point is not to arrive in Hana, but to explore along the way. To help with this I purchased an app called ‘Shaka Guide’ which provided narration based on GPS location.

At the first stop we hiked to a small waterfall called Twin Falls, but there was only enough water for one waterfall. There was quite a lot of bamboo in the area.

I bought some banana bread and coconut water (no alcohol) after the hike at the stand by the gate.

The next waterfall hike (Na’ili’ili Falls Hike) was more adventurous and I was able to see two without too much effort, but the third waterfall required going up a ladder… so I skipped the third and fourth waterfall.

Had to step from stone to stone to cross the water

Waterfall #2. There was a rope swing and you could swim in the pool.

Flower that I found while hiking to the waterfall

A lot more bamboo… it reminded me of Kyoto, but without all the tourists

I continued to stop along the route at a couple of pullouts to take pictures of the view.

I took the detour to the Keanae peninsula. There was a nice seaside park with waves crashing on the lava rocks.

The app told me about a lava tube along the road. Without the app I would have walked by it. I could easily stand inside the lava tube.

Inside the lava tube. It was maybe 10 feet high inside

I stopped at the Waianapanapa park with the black sand beach. It was like walking on sand blast grit. Not painful, but not soft like normal sand. It was very pebbly.

There were some large volcanic rocks (too large to be called sand) on the beach. Was like gravel for parking

Another lava tube which opens to the ocean

I drove into the town of Hana, but there wasn’t much there.

I took a detour to Koki beach. There was a nice little island just off the beach.

I stopped along the road at Wailua Falls. You have to stand on or near the one lane bridge for the photo, but parking was nearby and plentiful.

I continued to the Haleakala National Park (Kipahulu area) to swim in the 7 sacred pools of ‘Ohe’o gulch. I bought an annual National Park Pass ($80). The water was silty (brown) and very cool. It also required crossing the stream to get to the pool by the waterfall. It was worth it though.

The pool is near the small waterfall. I had to wade across the water – which was very difficult because there were large slippery rocks under the murky water – and I was carrying items that were not waterproof…

More wading, although at this point I set down the items that weren’t waterproof and it was much easier to enter the pool. Very cool and refreshing water even though it isn’t very clear and looks more like mud than water.

Now for the mistake. Google maps said it was quicker to return by finishing the loop. However the road was intermittent, bumpy and usually 1 lane, which required moving to the side of the road to allow traffic to pass. There were a lot of blind corners, but I survived

After returning to the ship the port had no parking, so they told us to park at a nearby hotel. Another Uber and I was back for dinner.

I had dinner in the main dining room again. I had the Parmesan-crusted pork chop for my main and the Thai spring rolls for the starter.