Hi there. It's flashback time again. NO, it's NOT over yet. There are still a few more Maui 2015 posts to go-go. (The one after this one was probably the most exciting day, too! REALLY. Stay tuned!).
The day dawned sunny enough and my sea turtles were out frolicking away. However, the weather report predicted rain for most of the day, clearing by evening. We had two things on our agenda we could do--drive to Hana or do this other activity in Lahaina. We decided that the Lahaina activity would be best we optimal sunlight, so that was put off for the next day. Hana was the plan for the day.
We started on our way, having to go all of the way back to Kahului (I could never remember the Hawaiin names--or how to pronounce them. While I remembered Lahaina, Hana and Ka'anapoli, it took me a long time to remember our town, Kihei. Kahului I just referred to as the "airport town" and Haleakala I just called "the volcano". Kihei, for the longest time, was "condo town.") before turning to head south down the eastern side of the island. We passed through a cute little town I would have gone back to visit, had we more time. I think it was called Haiku. I think this was where Ted was talking about going to Sunday mass (I don't think he actually went though). There was a large church and an enormous cemetery there as well as the town. The cemetery was supposed to have someone famous buried in it, Hawaiian royalty I think.
I knew the road to Hana was supposed to be beautiful, with lots of great beaches on the way, garden spots, etc. But it was also supposed to be twisty-turny, too. I had no idea how twisty-turny! As we approached, it was apparent it was very green and jungle-y! Wow!
The rains hit hard and heavy as we drove. The already narrow roads would squeeze down to one lane roads (mostly at bridges) and you had to stop and yield to oncoming traffic. Yikes! It started pouring. A few weeks before the Maui trip, mom had sent me a video taken by some hikers who never encountered any rain, but got caught up in a flash flood at a river that, further upstream, had had lots and lots of rain. Scary. And then, as we approached one of the frightening one-way bridges, we saw this torrential downpour of water from the mountains. It was a waterfall, but the power and the amount coming out were just jaw-droppingly awesome--and terrifying. The photo does NOT do it justice. It was really scary. And stupid people would actually stop on the one-way bridges for a better look!
You can also see a short video clip of it below:
As we drove, we saw a whole lot more waterfalls, with water just thundering down. I was guessing that these falls were far more engorged by the rain than they normally were. Oh my stars! It was all so scary-awesome.
We finally got to Hana and there wasn't much to it actually. The rain stopped for a little bit while we were there, fortunately.
We didn't stay very long in Hana (even though it took us hours on that scary road to get there)! Didn't see any of the beaches or gardens (too nasty of a day). We decided to try to go to that restaurant that Erich really wanted to try, the Halimale General Store, for lunch. They only served until 2 p.m., so we really had to get a move on...and that involved missing a chance to go on a tour of some lave tube caves. Drat! Oh well, we headed back down the Hana Road. It started raining and the roads were really wet in some areas. There had been little avalanches here and there as well, Thanks to Google maps, we were able to take some back roads to the restaurant--way out in the middle of nowhere country roads that I am reasonably sure 99.9% of the tourists who hit Maui never ever see. We FINALLY got to the restaurant and...it was closed. They didn't serve lunch on weekends. ARGH!
But we got back to the condo and, however faint, there was a rainbow. I tried to get a photo of it.
By sunset, the skies had cleared more or less. I caught another sunset picture and that was the rest of the day.
This day had kind of been a soggy wash out. The drive to and from Hana had been an adventure (I drove!). Too bad it hadn't been a nicer day and the restaurant wasn't open. Oh well.
Tomorrow would turn out to be the best day of the trip yet.
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