Ah, the road to Hana. T-shirts exist that say, "I survived the road to Hana." People talk about the trip in awed tones. We assumed it would be epic. Turned out it was beautiful, but not any more difficult driving that Corsica or even parts of France! We read LOTS of guide books and online forums about whether we could drive the ENTIRE road all the way around and got varied responses. Some said the road past the town of Hana was dirt- impassable. Some said that it was fine except for after floods. We got to Hana and just didn't want to turn around and go right back- we wanted to see the other side of the mountain/ island- so we decided to push on through. Turns out there was some dirt road, but it was no worse that the dirt roads in Kodiak. The south west side of the island was pretty brutal- dry, no vegetation, rocky beaches, cattle roaming everywhere, but the sunset was gorgeous, we did the final hour with a little group of 5 or 6 cars, and all in all, it felt good to have made it...
Eilidh spent most of the way counting bridges (most of them were one-lane!). I think she counted into the 80s. The adults spent most of our time looking for and at waterfalls- we must have counted 20 or so. Bella spent most of her time looking for the elusive rainbow eucalyptus, of which we counted a little grove right at the beginning of the drive and didn't see any beyond that... A great day, all in all!
A hidden treasure- in the middle of a botanical garden is an ancient Hawaiian temple that we didn't read about until we were just a few minutes away! Huge, discreet, quiet- we shared this gigantic botanical garden with one other couple. What a treat....
At first we thought this monk seal was dead. Turned out he was just sleeping- the beach ended up being cordoned off so he could enjoy his beauty rest. Monk seals are called as such because they are monk-like in behavior (solitary).
The amazing rainbow eucalyptus.
Sunset on the SW side of Maui after heading through Hana...
Fishing!
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