Road to Hana {Maui, Part 3}

It's really no surprise that when people think of Maui, they think of the Road to Hana. It is one of the most beautiful drives we've ever taken with over 600 curves along the way. Thanks to a great deal we scored (thanks SWA!), we were able to rent a convertible and never was it more appreciated than on this day! 

There are literally hundreds of ways to organize your day, but this is what we did:

Mile Marker 9 (before Road to Hana starts) – Get an early start and head straight to Ho'okipa Beach. We saw a beautiful ceremony here. A surfer had died and a huge group was spreading his ashes out a sea.

Mile Marker 2 – Twin Falls. There is a stand for juice and fruit, but if you hike past this for a mile or so, you actually reach the falls. Be prepared to wade in thigh-high water to get there, but it was definitely worth it!

Mile 7 – Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees. Right off the road, easy to spot.

Mile Marker 10.2 – Ka Haku Smoke Shack. We had the BBQ chicken and pork combo with rice. Jason says this was his favorite meal of the entire trip! It doesn't look like much, but it was finger-licking delicious.

Mile Markers 14 - 16 - Good lookout points and family farm stands everywhere!

Mile Marker 19.5ish – Upper Waikani Falls

Mile Marker 17 1/3 – Halfway to Hana. Good stop for Banana Bread!

Mile Marker 23 – Lava Tube. This is right on the side of the road. No one else was there, so we felt like we were in on some secret adventure (rare on the Road to Hana). Make sure you have your phone's flashlight. It's pitch black in there!

Mile 27 1/2 - Coconut Glen's Ice Cream. Absolutely delicious (dairy-free) Coffee Toffee and Chocolate Ice Cream!

Mile Marker 32.2 - Waianapanapa Black Sand Beach & Lava Tube

Hana - We literally didn't even stop. There is apparently a red sand beach there, but we missed it!

Mile Marker 42 (Past Hana) - Ohe’o Gulch aka Seven Sacred Pools. We hiked up the Pipiwau Trail. It is a one mile hike (straight uphill), but the views are awesome. Just a tip: If you keep your receipt from your visit to Haleakala, you get free entry! (It's all part of the Haleakala NP system.)

We ended our day driving behind Haleakala, through Upcountry Maui and back to Wailea. We hit this last stretch of the drive when the lighting was just perfect. It was just stunningly beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. If you do the Road to Hana, PLEASE make sure you drive all the way around!

Up Next: Our final Maui post. It will be about all things South Maui - Wailea & Kihei!

Pineapple Wine & Haleakala {Maui, Part 2}

Upcountry & North Maui feel totally different from anywhere else on the island. It's a good step back from all of the resort areas and tourist-laden beaches.

Our big splurge of the trip was dinner at Mama's Fish House. We arrived in the adorable town of Pa'ia and explored the beach for a bit before our 5:45 dinner reservation. The atmosphere was just perfect - old school Hawaiian at it's best!  Each service they print out a new menu with the fish available (and who caught them), so these suckers were fresh. Our server told us that 90% of the food is locally sourced - love that!

We started with shrimp won tons and a few drinks. For the main course, Jason got the macadamia crusted mahi-mahi stuffed with crab and lobster and I got the Panang curry with mahi-mahi and ono. Wow, my mouth is watering just thinking of how awesome this food was! We finished with a celebratory scoop of coconut ice cream. What a perfect meal to celebrate Jason's birthday and our (belated) anniversary.

 

Another day, we drove to one of our favorites from last trip - Tedeschi Winery. We had a lovely (free!) pineapple wine tasting and stocked up on vino for the rest of our trip. Our favorite is the sparkling wine - Hula O'Maui. They also have "regular wine" made with grapes.

Naturally, after drinking wine, we went hiking! If there was one thing that was on our 'must-do' list, it was to see the sunset atop Haleakala. Most people go for sunrise, but I thought sunset was pretty spectacular (and waking up at 2am is not what I want to do on my vacation). We didn't feel like we missed out at all going for sunset.

We did a bit of hiking to a few lookout points, but we also tackled the Sliding Sands trail. This took us a good hour and a half RT and we got to go down to the closest crater you can see below. You can go a lot further (there are multi-day hikes), but we wanted to get back up to the summit to catch the sunset.

Now don't judge, but we definitely hit up the Costco in Kahului a few times. This Costco has rows and rows of alcohol (even their own label), fresh poke and sushi, and the cheapest meal you can find in Maui (pizza). It was a great and easy stop for us. We were able to get drinking supplies for all of our pool/beach days which saved us a ton of money!

Up Next: Our recap of the Road to Hana.