Day 5 in Hawaii: Maui

November 15, 2010

2:32am read the clock this dark morning as my DH and I awoke to get ready for sunrise at Mt. Haleakala.

We dressed in layers for the anticipated cold. For example, I had on my bathing suit, sweatpants, a tank top, a zip up sweatshirt, a North Face jacket, socks and sneakers. (We were NOT returning to the boat before the rest of our day... ). We walked off the boat and to our car easily. We left the parking lot at 3:00am. The GPS led us right to Haleakala. It was an easy drive, but PITCH DARK! You will see many signs letting you know you are on the right route.

28 miles to go

22 miles

Entrance

Once you get to the entrance of the park, it is $10. However, since no staff member was awake and at work at this hour, it will not give change! You must pay exactly $10. We were unaware of this so we had to sit at the payment counter until another car came to switch a $20 bill for 2 $10s. When we got to the entrance our ticket read 4:09am.... We did not arrive to the parking lot until 4:34am. On our way up the volcano, we stopped once quickly turned off our lights and you could see NOTHING! I have never seen dark like this... It was insane.

We arrived at the parking lot, only a few other cars with us at this point.

The parking lot, not full yet!

We got out of the car to stretch and use the restrooms. In the parking lot, you can stand to the right of the bathrooms for a beautiful viewing site or hike up some. We decided to hike up. Neither of us thought about how dark would be and trying to hike was nearly impossible!! We ended up using the flash from my DH's blackberry to guide our way up. Everyone around us did the same! It was pretty stupid of us not to think ahead of this. It was only about a 2-3minute walk/hike once we got the top. Still it is so dark and FREEZING that we could not do anything, even in my many layers I was cold! I should of added a second pair of socks.

Notice the pure darkness in the back of the picture.

Layers and FREEZING

Sunrise was scheduled for 6:35am. While it was freezing and boring sitting up there waiting as we watched the parking lot fill up we realized it was a smart move as the parking lot is not very large. As each 1/2 hour passed, it would lighten up every so slightly. At one point you could make out what looked like tree tops. I told my DH that I thought this was where I read we are above the clouds. He called me crazy and said they were tree tops. Well, he felt pretty silly as it brightened more and more... he was quickly proven WRONG! Sunrise occurred almost to the minute as the ship daily said... It was absolutely beautiful. By far the best sunrise I have ever seen.

Once the sun had fully risen... the clouds in the crater

We were ABOVE the clouds

The parking lot with a TON of traffic.. the clouds had setting into Maui

Another view of the parking lot that we parked in

Road down

Couldn't stop taking pictures *I think I have atleast 50 once it rose*

Silverswords

We watched it all than began to hike back down. We were back on Crater Road by 6:55am and on our way to the Road to Hana.

Hana Highway

Everyone told us that we could never do Mt. Haleakala and Road to Hana in one day, well we proved them wrong... KIND OF! First of all, The Road to Hana is CONFUSING! I had everything printed out, mile markers listed and all. As I said yesterday, we bought the CD and map. While we knew it would be slightly off because we did not start at the exactly point where we should of due to not starting in Paia, and starting from Hana Highway from Mt. Haleakala. But it should still work I was assured. It worked sometimes and others we just let it run and listened..

The Road to Hana is very WINDY and green. At times it seem almost like a rainforest.

Road to Hana Views

Water running down the fern engrossed wall

Road to Hana Views

Road to Hana

We got on Hana Highway and began to drive. First MM2, Twin Falls, we were told to skip they were lame, so we did. MM3, Kalaulanapueo Church, SAW NO CHURCH. MM6- Trail to 4Falls ... No Entrance seen... You get the idea... From the descriptions I thought these sights would be near the MM signs and close to the road... While some listed "hike shorting to..." others just says the description. We did NOT see these sights!! We few places, we stopped and my DH hiked a little to see if we were in the right area... we were NOT! :(

Let me describe what we did see on the Road to Hana:
-MM6: Painted Bark Eucalyptus Trees: Very Cool!

-MM17 Views of Ke'anai Peninsula

-MM17 1/2 Halfway to Hana Road Side Stand: amazing Banana Bread

-MM19: Take stairs to the top, see village below you. This is the village that was destroyed by a tidal wave in 1946 and everything except the church and baseball field was destroyed. Views of Taro fields below.

-MM19 1/2 Upper Waikani Fall "Three Bears" - By this time is was raining outside and our attempt with a 3Bears Falls and us in the pic, failed as a fellow tourist only took a pic of us, no falls to be seen!!! GRRR

-MM29 Nahika Marketplace: We passed this, we did not stop to eat. Apparently has great pork tacos and smoked fish.
-MM32 Wai'anapanapa Black Sand Beach, freshwater cave: BEAUTIFUL!!!!

-MM?? Red Sand Beach: I must RANT here. First I followed the directions that I found on Cruise Critic... "Parking at Uakea and Hauoli Road. The trail head begins at Hotel Hana-Maui's Sea Ranch Cottage. Short ten minute walk to red cinder sand in secluded cover. Warning- Swimsuits are optional."

By this point our swimsuits are on, flip flops are on and we are ready to relax on the beach.... off we go!! So we found the parking lot at Uakea and Hauoli Road. We park and we get out. We walk toward the Hotel Hana to try to find the trail start. No where to be found. We see a local child and another tourist couple. They are asking the same thing. He tells us he will show us! First we walk through a field (something out of a scary movie in my opinion), then down this nature made trail aka dirt has formed a path from people walking on it and branches/roots have formed steps, next he tells us we can go down to the rocks and ocean OR up to the branches and trees. Both seem not ideal so we choose down. We walk the rocks and ocean.. it was okay. Then you must go up again. We walk up, grabbing on branches and roots to help us up! Then we turn the corner and I was so scared! I am not afraid of heights but the path narrows and below you is NOTHING but rock and a ROUGH ocean!! So my DH says he will continue and check it out for me to stay there. I said okay. But I lasted about 2 secs before I was more nervous just to stand on the narrow path alone.. I caught up to him. The path slopes and you can step down onto the red sand beach. I FINALLY made it to solid land without thinking I would die! The beach was amazing and odd all at the same time. There were NO beach goers on this secluded cove, so bathing suits were STAYING ON! Yet we were not getting in that water, it was way too rough for me... We stayed a little and admired the sand. Then we headed back up the crazy path and got back in our car. My advice if you do this, prepare yourself it is NOT leisurely and WEAR SNEAKERS! I thought flip flops + beach= OKAY, not on the path to the beach.

Red Sand Beach

Red Sand Beach

Beautiful once you get to it

Our "trail" down

Our other tourist friends still debating the hike down

Roosters and chickens run wild on Maui. They are everywhere.

I am not sure if the local child took us a different way because no guide book or road to hana description said it was a rough or tough walk but the trail I experienced was. Back in our cars and we are headed back to the airport to drop off our rental. We are driving, chatting about the scary hike we just did and we see a cop waving at us. We pull over and he asked for our license and registration!! OMG what did we do? The road is too curvy to speed so I know we couldn't of been speeding. He proceeds to tell us that we were speeding in a school zone! A SCHOOL ZONE!? I am a teacher, I would NEVER do that. How on earth did we miss the flashing lights, and painted words in the street... Oh I know how BECAUSE IT'S NOT THERE! The cop told us "Here in Hana we are removing all lights... and we barely paint in the streets..." So no warning! Then we asked "Why is it a school zone it is only 11:30am?" The cop says "Here in Hana school zones are active from 8am-3:30pm." This sounds like a TOURIST TRAP!!! We received a $97 ticket....The rental car companies do NOT inform you of this rule. So be careful!!!

Now that we have calmed down from the crazy hike and getting a ticket we are back on The Road to Hana and going back down. I decided I would drive since my DH drove up. That was a BAD decision.. It is the WORST drive ever. I got sick to my stomach. I just wanted to speed down to get it over with but of course you cant go above 25mph or you will end up off the cliff. It's crazy! Once back on the Hana Highway, it was a beautiful scenic route. We stopped at Hookipa Beach Lookout, which is Maui's #1 windsurfing beach. We did not see any windsurfers as there was not much wind at this point in the day. It was so beautiful. We took some pictures and got back in the car. We could of relaxed at the beach but we didn't want to be late to get back on the boat.

Hookipa Beach Lookout



Hookipa Beach Lookout



A couple windsurfers in the distance



We got back to the Budget Rental Office. We had did the prepay gas option as gas was $3.88 if you got it at a gas station. The gas option was $48.66 for a full tank. I am not sure how many gallons it was but I believe we only paid $3.67 a gallon by doing the prepay option. A shuttle was ready in minutes and off we went back to the ship. We were back on the ship by 4:30pm, everyone MUST be back on by 5:30pm. It was PERFECT!

We headed back to our room to shower, change and take a short nap. We woke up and had dinner reservations at Little Italy. This is a speciality restaurant and it was a $10 surcharge per guest.

We ordered a bottle of red wine to enjoy with dinner. I believe it was $25. Anti pasta was delivered first. Next, was calamari our appetizer and finally our entrees. I choose Chicken Parm and my DH had a fish dish. We both enjoyed our dinners fully.

Dinner and Wine at Little Italy

However, this night I could feel the boat moving, so while we were waiting for dinner my DH ran back to the room to grab me some Dramamine as a precaution! We enjoyed our bottle of wine, appetizers and dinner. However, by the end of dinner, I could NOT keep my eye lids open. I felt really weird. Mr. H just thought it was the tiredness settling in so he suggested we walk around the boat. We did this for a while then we went to the Lounge to watch the night show. I lasted about 10 minutes before I was sitting in the chair with my eyes closed :( We headed back to the room. The next morning I read the bottle... it read "If alcohol is consumed with this medication, it will act as a TRANQUILIZER!!!" OPPS!!! 

**After completing The Road to Hana, I DO NOT believe I would do it again. We were both glad that we did it and saw what we did, but I do not think it is something I would do again.**