08/06/2019

A bit of a late start this morning due to sleeping in on the nice comfy bed at Lahaina Inn. Breakfast time! Right across the Inn sitting on the water is a place called Cheeseburger in Paradise, and it indeed feels like paradise eating a traditional meal of eggs, hash browns, toast, and fluffy macadamia nut pancakes, watching the birds scrounge around while Sheryl Crow’s song “Everyday is a Winding Road” plays.

The song is appropriate because today we are driving the challenging Road to Hana. It’s famous here in Maui for being one of the only ways to get from one side of the island to another and a big tourist thing to do. It hugs the north coast with narrow lanes, 64 bridges that only fit one car across at a time, and hairpin turns with the greenery on one side and the coastline on the other. The whole thing is about 64 miles long and because you have to take it slow, it takes about 2 hours one way and ends at the tiny town of Hana. We were going to drive it to Hana and back to Lahaina in one day. No Dramamine this time! I was happy to discover that driving on turns didn’t make me feel sick.

There’s lots of things to see along the way and I had read about great stops to make, but a more enjoyable way to do the drive I found was to download an app called “Gypsy Road to Hana” that costs about $7. It uses GPS and has a pleasant male voice (whom we named Stewart) that tells you when to pull over to see something interesting and in between the stops, he tells you about Hawaiian history and culture.

Around 1230 PM, I came to the first bridge. Yesterday, our tour guide from Haleakalā had given me advice to not be the lead car on the bridges on this road and now I understood what that meant: when one side of the bridge is waiting with cars, be behind the first car that’s going over the bridge, and you can just follow right behind. If you’re lead car and come to the bridge first, it’s a waiting game of who’s going to cross the bridge first. Following makes it much easier and less nerve wracking.

And there’s so much to see! Waterfalls, cliffs, and lush vegetation that make you feel like you’re in a rainforest. Stewart told us to stop first at Twin Falls, a double waterfall that was a popular stop. However, it was raining pretty hard now, and the parking was pretty full there, so we pressed on. We did see our first Eucalyptus trees, where the bark is multi-colored, and stopped to see them.

There’s a sign to reassure you when you’re halfway there!

Even though it was raining, we stopped at this little setup called Hana Farms, where there were jams and soaps, wood carved art and coffees, even a little sitting area to enjoy your treats. Hana is famous for its banana bread, so I picked up a loaf along with a sticker.

Chocolate chip banana bread

Came to Wai’anapanapa State Park and we visited the famous black sand beach. I was sad that I didn’t get to camp here, because it was one of our favorite places. You have to drive past residences first to get to the park.

Coming in you see quaint little stands like this:

Then there’s views like this:

There was a place called the Nakalele Blowhole that you have to climb up a bit to see, but it’s not too hard. My Teva sandals did the job just fine here, and you’re rewarded with the water crashing onto the rocks and even seeing small rainbows in the spray mists.

A short drive more and just before 4 PM, we make it to Hana. Stewart told us during the drive that this trip is about the journey and not the destination, and he’s correct. Hana is a very tiny, sleepy laid back Hawaiian town, with no grocery stores or things like that. But it’s got churches, schools, small homes, and even a police and fire station.

We stopped at Hana’s Bay Beach Park and noticed that there were a lot of gnats flying around, yuck. Locals were parked there and there were about 4 kids that were swimming in the bay and looking like they were having the time of their lives.

On the way back, we saw baby goats in the fields and mongooses running across the streets. And because we still had time before it got dark, we stopped again at my daughter’s insistence at the black sand beach at Wai’ianapanapa Park to watch the waves catch the sand and explore the nearby cave at the shore.

Coming down the road, around mile 14 is a scary hairpin turn. This is also where the Hana app decided to crash, so Stewart was silent for a bit until I could reboot him. I also realized that I should have stopped on the fruit and food stands that you see on the way up the road going to Hana instead of waiting for the way back; they were all closed. We realized that places close kind of early here in Hawaii.

The Road to Hana was not as scary as I had read and heard about. I had driven a bit up Kaheliki Highway (the northern highway on Maui) the day before and to me that was much scarier! So scary were the inclines that even though I was in a Jeep, I turned around and came back down because my spidey-sense was tingling.

Back in Lahaina, we ended up at Cheeseburger in Paradise again – because we had to try the cheeseburger of course! We ordered the namesake burger which claimed to be a five-napkin one and I got a cherry coke because I wanted one so badly! It was so good to have after the long drive today.

Our server happened to be from the Houston area and grew up in La Vernia, which is a town about 40 minutes from San Antonio. He was fun to talk to about Texas things like Big Red soda and barbecue.

Another Maui Mud gelato for dessert a Hawaii Gelato and it was time to get some rest – Big Island of Hawaii and Volcanoes National Park was our next stop!