Kosher Travel with Fran and David: Hawaii Part 10

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days, but we have been quite busy taking in all the sights...amazing place.

On Tuesday morning, we went to one of the many beaches (there are 32 miles of beaches in Maui) that dot the coast. Fran took a lawnchair and an umbrella and read while I went snorkeling. It was a relatively calm beach with a lot of marine life, both coral and fish all over the place. I saw the most magnificently colored fish and really did not have to go very far off shore to see them.

After lunch we went to the Iao Valley which is near Kahului and it is a lush, verdant, green valley surrounded by very high mountains and is really breathtaking.

It was mostly sunny and clear all day but by the time our hike in the valley was ending, the clouds moved in and totally covered Haleakala Crater which is where we wanted to go to see the sunset. So we will leave that for another time.

We scrapped that idea, came back to the condo where it was totally sunny (not a cloud in the sky) and ate dinner while watching an amazing sunset from our balcony.

What we are learning very quickly here is that it may be totally overcast on one part of the island but drive 20 miles to the other coast and it is sunny and clear.

Yesterday, (Wednesday), we woke and checked the weather report for our Road to Hana day...it said 70% chance of showers, tho' only occasional, and mostly overcast. Then we looked at the forecast for Thursday and it was the same. So, we decided to go for it anyway....it's a must drive and a little rain should not deter you from doing the drive.

Well, "accuweather" is not so accurate! We left at 7 AM and reached the beginning of the Road to Hana before 8 AM (good idea if you want to miss most of the traffic) and there was not a cloud in the sky. That was the way it stayed until just before the end of the drive at 5 PM. A perfect day for doing the Road to Hana.

It's a truly an amazing drive. We have done the A1A down the coast of California (from SF to LA) and last year we did the Amalfi Coast drive. This drive ranks right up with the best of them. You drive for about 35 miles, very narrow twisting roads with over 600 hairpin curves and about 60 one lane bridges to cross. You are hugging the coast for much of the time and you pass numerous turnoffs where you can park your car and take photos of beautiful waterfalls, coastal vistas and waves crashing into the shore. You could probably do the drive in 2 hours (you really cannot do more than about 30 miles an hour), but it took us 7 hours to reach Hana, half an hour for lunch and another hour and a half back by coming thru the southern coastal road where about 10 miles are totally unpaved, a little gravel and many bumps in the road.

It is a long day but one you really should not miss when you visit Maui. The problem now is to sift thru the hundreds of pictures that we took.

This morning we drove north and visited the Dragon's Teeth lava formations near the Ritz Carlton Hotel and then went further north (almost as far as the road goes) to the Blowhole that sits right on the shore amidst a very rocky coastline.