DAY 2

Day 2 of our trip started at 6:30a. We were eager to get going.
This is our cute studio we were staying in.

And the view out our door. So green!

We were concerned (since it was the weekend) about crowds and tried to think of a good activity. We decided to try driving to Hana the back way. Not via the Hana Highway, but along the upper Haleakala Highway, the Kula Highway, and the Pi'ilani Highway that goes across the south side of South Maui. Everything we could read, including our car rental agreement, didn't specifically say you couldn't take your rental on that road. So, we went!

Here is the view of the island from Haleakala.

A beautiful tree (with purple flowers) with Molokini (the small island) and Lanai (the bigger island) in the distance.

It was threatening rain during the drive.

Another view of the island from the Pi'ilani Highway.

The farther we went, the quirkier it got. For example, check out this up, down, zig-zag road. It was a roller coaster ride!

More threat of rain. But, it was beautiful watching those dark clouds roll in off the ocean.

The paved road turned into . . . a patchy-paved road. It got pretty bumpy!

There are a lot of memorials around the island. A lot! Usually at a curve, with a sharp drop beyond.

It seemed like every beautiful photo opportunity was interrupted by power lines! There are a lot of power lines along the roads! And I have a lot of beach pictures with them marking the blue sky.

We got sprinkled on a little, but we went through an area where we could tell we had just missed a DOWNPOUR. It made everything glisten green and smell earthy.

Ahhhh....

Eventually the road turned to gravel, which was a lot less bumpy. We ran into three road closed signs, which we drove past. After about 90-minutes, we hit this road closed sign. A little more exacting than the rest with the boulders and all.

So, we got out and walked to try to determine how far we were from Hana. We were a little more discouraged than I am letting on. This side of the island has some beautiful spots, but overall it's pretty desolate and deserted. But, it was fun to get out and see the banyan trees up close. Amazing.

At this point of the day, unable to drive to Hana, we drove the all the way back the way we came. We looked for something for lunch, but didn't find anything and soon we were in an area where food wasn't really readily available. We snacked on granola bars and pistachio's from Costco. Yummy lunch, eh?

We ultimately decided to go explore West Maui, since we still didn't want to face the weekend crowds at the beach. We also had determined at this point it would be great to become broadly familiar with the island. It just makes it easier to get around.

We stopped by the Waiehu Beach, which was unimpressive. It was a very windy area. Then we kept driving counter-clockwise along Highway 340 which circles West Maui. There is some BEAUTIFUL scenery in that area.

Along with the a narrow, windy, gravel road that is much more scary than the road to Hana, although that's the one you always hear about!

"I survived the Road to Hana" T-shirts were everywhere. Ha! We survived Highway 340 twice!

We picked up some fresh cut pineapple and coconut candy about here, which we ate as part of our snacking lunch.

We explored the Nakalele Blowhole, which looks like a geyser, but is caused by the tide pushing under the rocks and through a hole in the lava. Pretty cool.

Then we hiked to the Olivine Pools and took a dip. So much fun! We loved this place. It was cool to sit in the pool and have waves crashing behind, spraying mist everywhere.

We hiked around the Olivine Pools for a long time.

Olivine Pools

Olivine Pools

We hiked out, and continued our drive down past Lahaina. There were a lot of rainbows in this area. We saw a full one that went into the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.

We stopped in Kahalui and ate dinner at Be-La. We got back to our studio about 7:30p, and of course we were exhausted. It felt like 11:30p to us after getting up at 2:30a. We were definitely still on Utah time.