This post will be heavy on pictures and light on words. This was my #1 activity that I wanted to do on the island of Maui. This was an all day excursion. From the time that we were picked up to the time we were dropped off was 12 hours. Tiring but so well worth it. Understand before you see all the pics what the Hana Highway is about. It is 112 miles of road that circles the majority of the island. At it's best, it's a 2 lane road. Some places it's about 1 1/2 lanes. Sometimes it is 1 lane. It is up and down hills with tight winding curves. Over 600 of them. It is estimated that any day there may be 500-700 vehicles on it. Not everybody goes one direction. You can start your tour from either end, meaning often times cars are fighting for the same slim road or bridge. Cars are also stopping or parking to see a particular sight (in places where there is little to no parking). There is debate on the internet whether you should take a tour bus which we did (more like a tour van) or go yourself. All I can tell you is that I am glad I decided on the tour. Our driver Kimo (sounds like chemo) was a local who grew up on Maui and has been a tour driver for 2 years. Loved his wisdom knowing when to skip a sight because there's one just as good just down the road that not many people go to. Or navigating thru the traffic rat race. The joke is that it is also called the divorce highway. I just know I would not have wanted the stress of trying to navigate that mess AND trying to see all the sights. I have a full phone of pics because I could just let someone else drive. That ends my tip if you ever get to take this tour yourself someday.
This is the first place we got out for pics. View of lush green valley that rolls down to the ocean.
Second stop was at a state park. On the property is this small church. Built sometime in the 1800's, it was the only thing left standing in the area during a tsunami in the 1940's. Just speaks to my heart of God's faithfulness in the storms of life.
Picture from the coastline of the state park. Quite a bit of surf this day. Could listen to surf crashing on the rocks with vibrant colors like this all day.
After we left the park we stopped at this place. There is a more well known place that had a huge line, but Kimo said we'll go to this one because it's owned by the same family and gets half the traffic. Another thing is that I am not a huge banana bread fan. Can pretty much take it or leave it. But I knew it was a big thing in Maui. I bought 2 loaves here and it was SO good. Especially when we were eating it on the van and it was a little warm still. Washed it down with a pineapple smoothie.
Fresh water pool we stopped at. Some of our group did go swimming. We were told by Kimo that the water is not cold; it is "refreshing". Some kids climbed to the top of the waterfall and jumped. Looked fun by I didn't want to deal with extra wet clothes.
This fresh water pool was just down lower than were we started. People also swim in this one too (next pic).
This is a rainbow eucalyptus tree. So cool but it seems so fake.
This was another state park. The main attraction here is the black sand beach. Like the park for the sunrise volcano tour, the state of Hawaii requires a pass to get into the park. This was by far my favorite spot of the day. So many different viewpoints and things to see. I definitely took all the available time we were given for picture taking.
View from the black sand beach.
This shot sets up the pics to follow. If you look close there are 3 sections of rock. The rock section on the far left has a "blow hole (like a whale). In this picture you can see 1 person standing right by the opening. The surf doesn't crash over the rock, it comes up thru it, again like a blow hole. In the pics to follow I got a really good sequence of shots of what happens.
Waterfall from the bus.
Different waterfall.
I always that Maui was all lush and green. However there are parts that are dry and rocky. This is known as Maui's Grand Canyon.
Side view above the canyon as it goes to the ocean.
This was a couple thousand feet above sea level. We stopped at a small coffee and honey shop. Steph said "This is dumb I don't know why we stopped here". I told her "You see how many of the group got out to get coffee". We may have been the only ones NOT to. (Steph: I overheard the coffee wasn't that great anyway. The OTHER reason mentioned to stop was the bathroom; it was a port-a-potty. :/ And we had just stopped recently. One lady said, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but it needed more…liquid in it………" Oh. Yikes. No thank you.)
This is a pic of us at the first state park. Hope you enjoyed the view. Trust me. I have many more I could have posted as it was hard to self edit. The other thing about the Hana Highway is because Stephanie was sitting on the "coast" side of the bus she ended up taking a ton of pictures too. Usually picture taking is left to me, but she was definitely called to duty today. She will have to have her own Hana blog. (Steph: Nope. Most of those will be for us to enjoy. I may include a couple, but it will NOT be a specific Hana blog.)
1 last blog to go…
Note: Less than 1% of all demonstrators earn the incentive trip each year.
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