Hawaii Day 5 - Maui (Today there are pictures in hats)

The Road to Hana: our first day of not diving. It was supposed to be a relaxing day, mostly driving. We did drive about 6 hours, but somehow I managed to beat my walking record for the day. This wasn't on normal terrain, a lot of it was practically rock climbing. Some actually was... We don't relax on vacations...

Our day started off getting lunch at the recommend getting lunch spot, that I've forgotten the name of. They had sandwiches. They were good. But the store had this gelato: goat cheese and passion fruit. To make it even stranger I had it with a shot of espresso. It was good. 

Our first real stop was Twin Falls. This was supposed to be an easy walk, see the waterfall, and leave. It was before 8am when we got there, but it was soooooo hot. The walk was awful because of that, and the falls weren't even that impressive. You couldn't get that close, unless you swam or were Tarzan.

On the way back we found this little path with mostly overgrown branches. Of course we had to follow it. At least it had shade.

When we got back the little food place was open. I got a pineapple popsicle on a sugarcane stick. It was tasty and cold, both were appreciated. I remember sugarcane being a thing you can sort of chew on, but being frozen that didn't work. I didn't feel like holding it while it thawed, so that didn't happen.

The next stop cool enough to mention was a botanical garden. We took so many pictures. It was even more miserably hot. My two favorites are the 100 year old mango tree. And the Koa tree, but only because that is what the Ukulele we got is made of. 

 We found a deserted waterfall. It was deserted because to get there you had to practically be a mountain goat. The path barely looked like a path. When we got there we had the whole place to ourselves for almost a half hour. We solved the being hot problem by swimming. The water was cold. Also being wet in a car with air conditioning is cold.

Our next stop was a quick park with a nice view. I think there were some waterfalls if you wanted to hike 4 hours. We took a selfie and a panorama, and left.

This is the waterfall that I had a postcard saying it was Twin Falls. Someone is confused, not sure who. This waterfall did involve some actual climbing. I'm not convinced there is an actual path. We had to climb down the side of the bridge, walk under it, and scramble over a trail that was mostly large rocks. It was nice when we got there. The leftmost waterfall had a rock behind it so you could sit and watch the waterfall from the other side. On the way back up we climbed up the other side of the bridge, which was basically a short vertical wall of rock.

Almost to Hana was a black sand beach. The blocked off the beach, and most of the park. We were still able to take some pictures. 

Luckily, black sand beaches are not rare. They sound really exotic and fancy, but they mostly look like wet dirt. This is Hana Bay. Proof that we made it all the way there.

We wanted to see a red sand beach. The guidebook, and the cd both had confusing directions. It seems you have to walk though a hotel that doesn't like you walking through it. Also the parking was difficult, due probably to the hotel. We gave up and found a reddish beach down the street.

A random view on the way back.

Banana bread seems to be a thing on the Road to Hana. We got a selection to try later.

When we were mostly back there was an amazing sunset. By the time we got to a place to take a picture it was a lot less amazing, but still really nice.