Last year, we took a nice honeymoon in Hawaii, it was our first time there. Back then, we only had a week in Maui and went through some of Maui a bit quickly, and definitely missed some parts :)
Our first anniversary celebration was a chance to try this again and explore what we missed last year.
After the late lunch, we did the road to Hana. Google maps was very optimistic about the road to Hana, 1:09 is a bit fast, even for me :)
Garmin was more realistic with 03:11.
We stopped by the Garden of Eden and did the nearby hike around the waterfall, which got us back into the park from the side. The peacocks and especially the duck were very friendly if you had food :)
1H09, maybe if I floor it with no one on the road :)
waterfall trail by the garden of eden
By the time we got to Hana, it was of course raining
The next morning, we went to Hahanu Gardens, with the great opening hours of 10:00 to 14:00 M-F. Despite the hours and resulting difficulty to visit or to even find at the end of an unpaved road, it was worth it.
there were lots of dead lobsters that got washed on the 'beach'. Too bad none were fresh :)
We then went on our way to the seven sacred pools, which were closed due to water contamination (someone with HepC cut themselves and put blood in the water, it takes a while to flush). That said, it wasn't a biggie, we had already been in the pools last year and instead we used the opportunity for a nice quiet picnic by the water that no one was in :)
Then, we finally went for the entire Pipiwai trail with its very nice waterfall at the end
We then finished the loop around South Maui and made it to the Tedeschi Winery in 1h20, which I'm told is a good time for that road :) We made it to the Winery just in time to visit it before they closed :)
nice roads :)
they also have nets to catch fallings rocks, which is good (the north west side is missing those)
fun 'straight' road
we were able to see Molokini from the road
and we then finished the evening Upcountry Bed and Breakfast for a nice sunset in a jaccuzi :)
Then, was time for our hike on Sliding Sands trail. Everyone made a big deal on how it was a tough hike, but we hiked a sustained 2.2mph on the way down and up (actually speed was almost just as fast on the way up). We were up and down in 2H, including some stops for pictures.
It was actually a nice easy hike:
After the hike, we stuck around to watch the sunset, since we had done sunrise the previous year. What was interesting was that we were actually sitting on top of a rainstorm which I drove back down to after the sunset.
By then, we had moved our base back to Kihei, where Jennifer found a nice condo just by the diving boat ramp. Jennifer was very happy with the kitchen :)
The next day, we had a dive-free day we used to go visit the south side of the Island on the Kihei side, aka the end of the road on that side of the island, a mere 5 miles from the higher up road going to Upcountry. Too bad the old makena road linking the two was closed to the public years ago after some idiots had an accident and sued the land owners (die in hell, idiots!).
Anyway, going to the end of that road to hike to the south side of the Island from La Pérouse Bay, was fun.
lava rocks
this looked like a water pipe going to a few houses, apparently it wasn't worth digging the conduits in :)
The next morning, our last day, we went to Kaanapali to try their ziplines. While they are overpriced in my opinion, they were quite fun.
A couple of videos:
Maui North West Loop: Blowhole and Olivine Pools
And to finish the day, and our trip, we did the north west loop that Jennifer wasn't feeling too well for last year: the blowhole, and olivine pools with lovely 5mph one lane road at the end.
the road is nice at the beginning :)
the blowhole
and the Olivine Pools
full of life
After that, was the 5mph one lane road full of blind turns back to Kahului. Thankfully everyone we caught up with was nice enough to pull over and let us pass: my strategy was to gun it in the straights and be very careful on the blind turns. This got us out of it in record time.
The next morning, we were on a plane back to SJC (flight time was a mere 4.5H thanks to a nice tailwind).
If you wish, here is a link to a big georeferenced map of our Maui trip.
