Maui in a Weekend

This weekend I hopped over to Maui to explore the Valley Isle.  Neat fact about Maui: if you drive around the whole thing (which I of course did) you can catch a glimpse of 4 of the other 7 main islands - Big Island, Lanai, Molokai, and Kahoolawe.

 

I spent Saturday driving the beautiful stretch of highway known as the Road to Hana, which is a windy road comprised of ~620 curves (no typo, that’s six hundred and twenty), 59 bridges (almost all one lane), and countless waterfalls, road side vendors, and coastal views.  It is a slow, serene drive, with no real one destination, but more of lots of little things to enjoy along the way, like ancient sea caves and black sand beaches.  As my guidebook put it, “fulfillment lies in the journey, not the destination.”

 

The first 58 miles from Kahalui to Hana was mostly through lush rainforest and took about 4 hours.  Lucky me, I arrived in Hana on the very day of the 22nd Annual Taro Festival!  Taro is a root vegetable that has forever been a staple in the Hawaii diet and culture.  The festival attracted thousands of people to this tiny town.  There were vendors selling everything from flower leis to wood carvings, huli huli chicken to taro burgers (yes, I tried one).  And the band was truly awesome.

 

I spent about an hour or so before heading back to my car to get back on the road, and in that short hour, a gigantic tree had fallen to block the only entrance/exit to the parking lot…  Luckily no one got hurt, and it was actually quite amusing to see the locals come out of the woodworks to start chain sawing and clearing the way.  Only in Hawaii to people operate a chainsaw with no shoes on.

 

The second stretch of the drive took me through Haleakala park, and the rain forest converted to cattle country.  For some reason, they let their cattle roam wherever they want, like right onto the road…

 

Maui has A LOT of beaches, so I spent Sunday checking them out.  My favorite was Slaughterhouse beach (sounds beautiful, doesn’t it?) which was tucked away at the bottom of a cliff, and provided some perfect waves for body surfing.  I also traveled to the Olivine Pools, several natural tide pools located on barren lava along the ocean’s edge on the back-side of West Maui.  The pools were much calmer than the ferocious waves crashing around it, which made for a unique and serene setting.  And of course when I saw someone jump from the ledge, I couldn’t pass on the opportunity.

I had some delectable food in Maui!  Here are a few of my favorites: Asian short rib tacos with pickled veggie toppings, taro burger (see the purple “meat”?), a banana-berry-lilikoi smoothie, coconut-lime banana bread from a road side vendor (with chunks of toasted coconut), fresh fish ceviche with chips to dip, and porkie sandwich (Hawaiian pork, mango salsa, and pepper jack on toasted on rye with sweet chili dipping sauce).  That last one was from a place called Cafe 808.  I went in at 9am for breakfast, but when I saw the sandwich menu...

 

As always, Mahalo for reading! Only 10 days left on this Hawaiian escapade, so be sure to tune in next week for my final post, as I’m sure I will be offering my corny fortune cookie style thoughts about being adventurous and living life to the fullest… (I know what you’re thinking, you can’t wait!)