Maui - day 2 Road to Hana

On Maui day two, we woke up to an incredible view. My brother lives "up country" on the side of the Haleakala volcano. I felt like we were above the world. 

Our main purpose in our visit to Maui was to photograph a friend of a friends wedding. We have wanted to visit for a while now, but it was nice to have an excuse, and one that didn't involve the children.  We ended up spending sometime with said friends, several days. On day 2, we met up with Laura and David and drove the road to Hana. Now, the road to Hana is an all day event. It is a thirty-something mile road that has something like 600 bends and curves and some of natures most amazing places. There are a number of bridges and each and everyone has some sort of waterfall nearby. Some were a trickle, some barely a Downhill stream and others, massive falls. The road to Hana has tons of stops and hikes and things to see, hence the all day journey. They say that Hana is not the destination, the drive is the destination. (That is said in my mind with a slow calm tone and a "brah" or " ladie" at the end)

Since we were there for a wedding, Laura and David had to be done before 530. This was excellent since I did not want to spend all day driving from site to site. Our trip to Hana was perfect, I would do it the same again and again. Here is how we did it. 

We met David and Laura at 7 am to begin the journey. That seems a little early since most places in Maui don't open til 9 anyway, but I will explain why that was perfect in more detail...

Our first stop was keinai. Now this is not the first available stop, we bypassed the bamboo forest and twin falls. We came back a few days later to see those since we had little time on this day.

The Palm trees on the road to Hana were so neat. They were tall and lush. 

The real pull to keinai is this little local shop aunts Sandy's. I had been told by multiple family members to go here. We arrived at 8:20 to find out they don't open til 8:30. We waited and looked around. We bought, as instructed by my family, coconut candy and banana bread. Since we arrived before they opened, the banana bread was fresh out of the oven. It was so fresh that it burned my hand while unwrapping it. When we were done here I thought there was nothing too special about it, that I probably could get banana bread and coconut candy like that anywhere on the island. WRONG. You must stop here. And you must buy enough coconut candy for a life time supply. Trust me I looked over the whole island for more. There is none that is as good as the coconut candy at aunt Sandy's. 

We continued our drive and found an ice cream store that I was instructed was a must stop. It was only 9 am but, what the heck, ice cream for everyone! After all, it was organic and vegan, probably healthier than most breakfast I eat daily.  Sadly coconut glens was not open, but we hung around long enough that the owner came out and scooped us some ice cream that he had made himself. Awesome eh brah? (Yep I speak Hawaiian now.) 

Fitting that Jared would try to break into a coconut with a rusty machete with ice cream in hand at coconut glens. 

There were only a few things I really wanted to do while on vacation. Seriously the list was short...1. Sit on the beach and do nothing. 2. Swim in the fresh water caves that legends tells a princess hid from the king and he found her and killed her. 3. Sit on the beach and do nothing. 

Well on the road to Hana, I crossed number 2 off of my list. I would say that swimming in the caves at waianapanapa was one of the highlights of my trip. If you find yourself here, bring a flashlight that you can swim with so you can see inside the caves. 

Also at Wainapanapa was the black sand beaches. We didn't walk down to them, but the view was pretty great. 

Our last stop before heading back out was hamoa beach. This beach has been voted one of the best beaches in the world. It was nice. Lots of Palm trees, clear blue water, big waves. Just like you imagine Hawaii. I got "trashed" in these waves. I felt sick after playing in them and loosing my sunglasses to the sea. (I know day two and they were gone)

Saw our first gecko. Saw maybe a hundred thousand after this one.  

Came home and saw a beautiful sunset. The first of many many. 

Then we made dinner. It was completely made with Maui organic ingredients. I loved it.