Monday was another drive to the east side of Maui for a Costco shopping venture. Before Costco we continued on Hwy 36 to Hookipa Beach. We had read it was a great surfing area with a good lookout point. We were not disappointed.
Next, we stopped in Paia to visit Mana Foods. The health food store looks like a shack on the exterior, but the interior is full of every kind of health product you could want. We have been on the hunt for White Flower (a Chinese liniment) and were directed here. We had read Paia was a sort of “hippy” town; again, we were not disappointed…lots of interesting people.
Gotta love Costco when it comes to some great deals – 4 pack LED bulbs came to $1.79 with the Hawaiian government rebate – we will be bringing some home with us.
And they had a UPF 50 wide-brimmed hat for $12.99 (that is an amazing price!).
After we returned to the condo unit, we walked into town (for some exercise and for me to purchase some jewelry I’d had my eye on…). After the purchase (Plumeria pendent and earrings – very Hawaiian), I treated Todd to a couple beers…
Our happy hour bar this trip is the Hard Rock – great prices and great staff. Murph is our usual bartender – originally from Chicago, he has been loving Maui life for 9 years.
Tuesday – so excited – Whale watching tour with Captain Steve’s! We arrived 40 minutes early…and we weren’t even the first ones at the pier. Unfortunately, the water was REALLY, REALLY rough. One woman we talked to said they have been on this tour multiple times over the years and 5 times this vacation and it has never been this rough. We got soaked as the large zodiac skipped across the water. Swells were over 4 feet…not great for our inaugural whale watching trip.
We did have a few whale sightings.
But it was really difficult getting good pics with the vessel bopping over waves and the salt water spraying onto the cameras.
We couldn’t keep our cameras out and ready for the breaches, pectoral fins splashing, and tail slaps…it was a continual “ohhhh, did you see that”, camera out of plastic bag, shoot picture, camera back in plastic bag for protection….
Looking back at Lahaina, we saw a brush fire.
When you book a whale tour, you never know how the water conditions will be or how many whales you will see….luck of the draw, but it was a great experience and we would do it again (and bring the underwater camera and some towels…). *Trips were cancelled for the remainder of the day…
Wednesday we decided to drive the infamous Road to Hana (42 miles, 600+ turns, many of them hairpin turns and 54+ one lane bridges). We actually drove past Hana to the National Park to do some hiking and see Waterfalls and the Pools of Ohe’o (aka Seven Sacred Pools). Unfortunately, it has been a fairly dry winter, so the falls were not that spectacular.
The plan was to drive straight through to the National Park and do stops on the way back, which turned out to be a great idea as we missed a lot of the crowds at the stops.
We both clearly remember Black Sands beach at Waianapanapa State Park from our drive in 2005. At that time, only us and a couple of other people occupied the park and beach area.
Our first view of the beach looked quiet as we remembered the way it was in 2005
Unlike 2005 it was very busy today !
There was people climbing up a rock pedestal and jumping into the ocean.
One of the few stops at a waterfall that actually had water was Upper Waikani Falls (Three Bears).
We made a slight detour to Ke’anae village to Aunt Sandy’s snack stand for some of her famous banana bread (mentioned in numerous travel books and websites) – sadly, she was closed by this time (late afternoon). Thirsty and having our fill of the twists and turns, we headed to Paia to stop for some food and a cold one…no parking anywhere (guess there was a lot of thirsty people). 9 hours later, we pulled into the condo just in time for sunset.
Todd did a time lapse photo video of our sunset !
We have done the Road to Hana drive twice now…don’t think we need to do it again…
Booked another whale tour…hoping it will be better…
Thanks for sharing your trip. Looks amazing keep the blogs coming.