Maui #10 - The Road to Hana ... Sort of

This morning, we left good and early - our plan was to made the drive to Hana. Everyone who goes to Maui learns about The Road to Hana. Hana is an isolated location at the eastern edge of Maui. Between Hana and the rest of the island lies the huge mass of the volcano, Haleakala. You can't really go through Haleakala, you must go around. There's a rough road at the south edge of this part of the island, but the general consensus is that it's not suitable for tourists' rental cars. The road that squeaks along the north edge of the island - narrow, winding, surrounded by rainforest, spectacularly beautiful - is The Road. Although it's only about 50 miles long (depending on which section you measure), it takes at least two hours to drive, much longer if you stop for waterfalls and other photo ops.

We started out by getting a full tank of gas and then making a pit stop at McDonalds (not many bathrooms or gas stations after this). The weather wasn't great; showers and very overcast. Other islands east of us had flash flood alerts, but Maui was only expecting a little rain.

As we headed east on The Road, the foliage grew greener and greener and thicker and thicker. We drove slowly through funky Paia, known as the home of some of the state's most idiosyncratic people, and saw some interesting folks. The buildings are older and sometimes ramshackle, but quite picturesque. My favourite store sign was "Pizza Paia."

As we drove on, the rain fell harder. The flash floods causing havoc on the other islands are caused by rainfall in the mountains that rushes downhill, overflowing streams and causing landslides and sinkholes. Maui, although not experiencing the same heavy rain, has many, many streams running past The Road to the ocean. They say flash floods can happen at any time. I was keeping a close eye on the rain and road conditions.

Not too many miles beyond Paia, the road began to snake about (although not as severely as it does further on). I also started to notice small streamlets running across the pavement. I also saw a some spots where the rainwater was puddling on the road quite a bit. This started to concern me; I could envision some kind of washout cutting us off from getting back to our condo. So, at the first opportunity, we made a u-turn and headed back to other part of the island. I'm writing this the morning after this non-adventure and have just learned that there was a landslide later in the day, not too far from where we turned around. The road was closed for safety, so I guess we made the right choice! If we have a chance, we may try The Road to Hana again before we leave for home.

On the way back Kahului, we stopped briefly in Paia to check out the shops. We also went into a postal outlet to buy stamps for our postcards. We asked the clerk, a friendly resident of Paia, about possible nearby public bathrooms. In typical Paia style, he suggested we exit by his back door, go around the corner to a local bar & grill, enter by their back door into the bar area and use the washrooms at the back where "no one will hassle you." Hilary thought this was far too unconventional and was not going to step foot outside his back door. So, we went out the front door of the postal outlet, into the front door of the restaurant and asked the host if we could use the bathrooms. No problem!

We also stopped at Ho'opika (or something like that), a world-famous surfing and wind-surfing location. From a cliff top lookout, we counted and watched 35 surfers catching the waves.

Our next stop was the Queen Ku'uma'ana Mall. If I remember correctly, this Queen was one of the wives of King Kamehameha and became a Christian when the missionaries arrived. Her example encouraged other Hawaiians to believe, as well. She also introduced many laws (such as against murder and theft) and practices (schools, etc.) that changed the lives of Hawaiians much for the better.

We also made a stop at the Sugar Museum, learning way more about sugar than anyone should know - especially someone like me who has no sweet tooth. After that, I just wanted some bread!

We ended our day with some quality time at the pool and hot tub and watching a rented movie.

What did Thomas Magnum say? Just another day in paradise!