Maui: Day 4

We really enjoyed our time in Hana. There's just a different feeling there - more relaxed, more lush, more beautiful. This was the amazing view from our lanai.

 

We loved our hotel room. There was no T.V. and no jacuzzi, but we could hear the sound of waves from our room. It was so peaceful.

We had a full kitchen, which was great. We enjoyed our breakfast on the lanai.

Then we headed out for adventure. The great thing about staying in Hana is that very few people do, so we really had the place to ourselves for a few hours before the rest of the island showed up. We drove further on Hana Highway, stopping to admire a couple of waterfalls along the way.

We wore our swimming suits because we planned on frolicking in waterfalls and pools - which we did!

 

More fruit everywhere. I don't know what these were, but the air was sweet and delicious.

 

 I got in the water this time, but it was too cold to go into the waterfall.

After many one-lane bridges and sharp turns (we were sure glad no one was coming the other way), we arrived at Haleakala National Park. First stop was Ohe's Gulch, also known as Seven Sacred Pools. We swam in this lower pool, which was actually really big and deep.

The water was a little cold at first, but we got used to it, and it felt very refreshing. Here we are sitting under the waterfall. There were a few other people there, but not that many. When we drove by the parking lot a few hours later, it was totally packed. I'm glad we went there early!

Then we started off on our 4 mile round trip hike to Waimoku Falls. It was a gorgeous hike - lots of pretty views along the way.

 

 Here's another banyan tree - not nearly as big as the one in Lahaina, but cool.

We followed a creek and saw bunches of waterfalls all along the way. The only problem with this is that my arms and legs got eaten alive by mosquitos. Some nice people let me use their bug spray when we got to the big waterfall, but the damage was done. Dave didn't get any bites. I've got such sensitive skin that they all swelled up to golf ball size and bigger! It was not a pretty site.

 One of my favorite parts of the hike was the bamboo forest. It was gorgeous, and it went on forever!

 Here we are at Waimoku Falls! It's so big it was hard to fit it all in one picture.

Dave took his GoPro into the waterfall.  

 Here's a picture from the GoPro - pretty cool.

 

This picture looks like we're standing inside the waterfall, but we're actually standing right in front of it. The only problem with having other people take our picture is that they are either zoomed in too much or not enough, too dark or too light. Oh well, at least we have them. Spencer can take better ones next time.

 

After the hike we found a shady picnic table and ate lunch. Then we headed back to our hotel. This time the road was crazy because  there were so many cars. It was a little scary passing all those tour buses on those narrow roads! On the way back to Hana we bought fresh ahi from a fisherman and some fruit from a little fruit stand. We also checked out the other dinky grocery store in town, which looked like an old, dilapidated barn. This is dragon fruit - we knew our kids would love to see it!

After we rested a bit at our hotel, we headed out for some snorkeling. Dave read in the travel book about a little cove with excellent snorkeling a short hike away from Hana Bay. The whole time we were going there, we kept wondering if we were going the right way because it wasn't much of a trail. There wasn't a beach there - just a bunch of rough lava rock. The cove was calm, but the surf right next to it was really rough, so I decided not to get in. But Dave did, and he loved it! The water was clear, and he saw some things he hadn't seen anywhere else.

There's a sea cucumber. Spencer couldn't believe he didn't touch it, but Dave didn't know what it was. We've touched them at the aquarium - they feel really soft and squishy.

It started to sprinkle a little, so we headed back. Dave was done snorkeling anyway. Then the rain stopped, and we walked along the beach behind our hotel as the sun set. It's a steep, pebble beach, which made it sound really loud when the waves came in. Then when they went back out, it sounded like people clapping. It was really cool.

We loved these flowers around our hotel. Later Ellen told us it's ginger. Who knew?

That night we had coconut crusted seared ahi. Go us! We had gotten some baked coconut candy from that little fruit stand, and we chopped it up and put it on the fish. We also cooked some with just salt and pepper. It was all very tasty!

We really liked the purple sweet potatoes we had at Pineapple grill, so we got some of that at the dilapidated barn grocery store. And of course we couldn't get enough sweet pineapple while we were there. Check out that dragon fruit - it tasted sweet but a little odd. At one point I said, "I have dragon seeds in my teeth," and that just sounded cool. Sorry about the flash - it was very dark by the time we ate. We couldn't see the beach, but we enjoyed listening to the waves. Other than the mosquito bites, it was like a day in paradise.