Travels with George and Marta

View east from Nakalele Point

Dateline: Tuesday November 9th

I’m going to catch up with a couple of additional posts covering some of the other areas we visited on Maui. We decided to slow down and hang out for a bit on West Maui in between our visit to Waikomoi Preserve and Hana. It was a beautiful sunny day on West Maui. A few clouds, a slight breeze and lots of sun. We spent the morning relaxing on our lanai watching the families on Napili Beach. I went for a swim and noticed a crowd around the rocks. Honu! A sea turtle had been spotted. I joined the crowd to watch it eating off the algae on the rock. It would poke its head up to grab a breath and then the tail would come up. It was very large. Much larger than what we saw in the Ocean Center.

Around noon, we headed out to explore the area north of Napili. Napili is pretty far north along the coast. The next big area is Kapalua resort area. This is a beautiful resort that put in a lot of effort to preserve both the marine and mountain areas near the resort. I wish we had had more time to explore some of the areas near the resort such as Kapalau beach and the seaside and mountain trails.

We headed instead up Highway 30 towards Kahakuloa. This is another one of those “don’t take your rental car on” roads. It turns into narrow, one-lane, cliff-hugging road. We had read and viewed videos on the web and knew that it was not that bad of a drive up to the Nakalele blowhole which is only about 8-10 miles from Kapalau. This area is paved and two lanes although there is no yellow or white line.

What a gorgeous drive. It is not as lush as the road to Hana but still very green compared with South Maui. The land is red which contrasts with green flora. The hills are lined with Furcraea which is similar looking to the century plant agaves. There are ironwood trees and lush bananas along the bays. It actually was similar to the drive from Monterey to Big Sur – just a little more tropical looking. We choose a perfect day. Blue skys and a great view across the sea to Molokai. It was pretty windy especially at the blowhole which is near the northern point of Maui.

We traced our route back to Napili and then on to Ka’anapali. We wanted to check out this area even though it really isn’t our style. We found a parking spot in the public parking next to the Whaler’s Village. I wanted to go to the Totally Hawaiian Gift Gallery to look for another Hawaiian quilt pillow. I really wanted one in red but they were out so I found a nice pineapple motif in dark blue.

We headed back to Napili stopping first at the Time Supermarket to pick up a few supplies and a nice Ono filet for dinner. Perfect day in West Maui.

Blowhole at Nakalele Point

Honokohau Bay (note – you can see the road coming down on the opposite side)

Punalau Beach

Honolua Bay

Honolua Bay – A favorite of snorkelers (note – you can see the road coming down on the opposite side)

D.T. Fleming Beach

Ka’anapali Beach – just opposite the Whaler’s

Napili Beach Panorama – View from our lanai. (View Larger)

We finished up our visit to the Ohelo Gulch and contemplated our return. It was only 1 o’clock so we decided see if we could find Charles Lindbergh’s grave. I thought it would be marked but it was not. We totally spaced the directions and drove past Kipahulu. Suddenly we realized we were quite a ways past it and on the country dirt road along the bottom of East Maui! The Piilani highway that everyone warns about and the car rental companies don’t want you to drive. Okay… it would take a bit to go back to Hana which was about 12 miles away. I was up for a challenge – and on we went.

The worst part of the road was at the beginning especially where you drove up along the initial steep cliffs. It was mostly narrow one lane. This tough section is about 20 miles long. Part – about 5-10 miles – are dirt.The dirt part is not actually too bad – it is the semi-paved portion of the road that is very very bumpy. The worst parts are at the beginning from the Hana side. It is also a difficult after the small village of Kaupo. There are rolling hills with limited sights on each hill. You never know if you are going to crest the hill and come face to face with another car on the one lane road.

What a contrast. It is very dry grass scrubland along this hot wind blown area. It looks a lot like Baja California. So different from the tropical jungle like area just 20 miles north. We continued along seeing few other cars and only one store – Kaupo General. Lots of cattle and goats.

The pavement smoothed and we headed back down to civilization for some food and on back to West Maui – 12 hours later! The south road only took us about 2 hours to travel. It takes us almost 1 hour to drive from Kihui in South Maui to Napili so in a way…. it was a breeze!

We knew we had gone too far when we saw this sign!

Narrow Blind Turn on the cliff

Part of the road is dirt

So different from the tropical Northeast portion of Maui

Looking up the Kaupo Gap on Haleakala

Southern slopes of Haleakala

Windsweep land

Sea Arch west of Kaupo around milepost 28

Note the car at the bottom – another reason not to crive too close

So barren and windswept

Definitely very windy

Hui Aloha Church west of Kaupo

One other option for seeing Haleakala is to take one of the guided hikes provided by the National Park Service. The Nature Conservancy has the management rights to the Waikomoi stream which is part of the East Maui Watershed. This area is called the Waikomoi Preserve. Along the stream, are many native Hawaiian trees and plants which provide the habitate for several native bird species. The NPS provides guided tours into this area and we signed up for the one on Monday.

We met up with our guide Michelle and other tour members at the Hosmer’s Grove just past the entrance to the park. She guided us through part of the grove. It is interesting and somewhat sad. Ralph Hosmer, a forester, brought many non-native trees for trail onto the slopes of Haleakala. Only 4% of the species he tried survive. We hiked through this planting which was thick with little undergrowth. The trees were strange and branched – mostly a cedar, eucalyptus, and cypress. We hiked down a jeep path for about a mile until we started down into the stream gulch. The flora changed into more native plants and trees as we desended. And the birds! Two brilliant red native birds, the `apapane and the `i`iwi darted among the the native ōhi`a tree tops. The bird love the red lehua flowers. The tree is a Metrosideros polymorpha. There was also a yellow-green honeycreeper but we didn’t see it as much.

The gulch area is very interesting. The trail decends down the side through the Koa trees and Hawaiian tree ferns. Everything is lined with lichens indicative of the moisture of the clouds. You can stay above at the tree top level and watch the birds or view from the stream bed.

We spent about 20-25 minutes in the area watching the birds and exploring. Then we started our climb back up to the top. We took it slow with frequent stops. I highly recommend this hike. Call Haleakala NPS a week ahead to reserve your spot.

Kula Botanical Garden

I’m behind a day and I’m exhausted so I’m going to do a quick blog about Saturday and post date it. I do want to say that we had a stunning sunny day at Haleakala today. We saw some great silverswords and had a good hike – not too hot and not too windy and sunny. But I’m too tired to pick out photos of today’s hike so I’m just going to catch up with yesterday.

I had called the National Weather Service on Friday and the forecast was for a chance of rain on Saturday but the forecast for Sunday was sun! We changed our plans and postponed our hike a day. Instead we went to Maui Ocean Center and upcountry to the Kula Botanical Garden.

We got to the Maui Ocean Center not long after they had opened. It wasn’t too crowded and we were able to catch several of the talks. It is a well done aquarium with lots of good information about native Hawaiian fish. G doesn’t like to swim a lot so we won’t be going snorkeling – this is the next best thing! We enjoyed the diver talk and feeding in the Shark tank.

We spent about 3 hours in the aquarium and then headed upcountry to Kula area to visit the Kula Botanical Garden. The garden was started in 1971 and has a lot of tropical plants. It is great for a plants person. I really enjoyed the Protea area. It was fun seeing several Banksias that we had seen in Australia.

It was time to eat so we headed down to Paia for some fish at the Fish Market. I had char broiled Ono and G had the Fish tacos. I loved the Ono. We also had a Big Swell IPA from Maui Brewery. It is oh-so-good. It comes in cans and is icy cold. It has a nice citrus overtone with lot of hops. We made a stop at Whole Foods on the way back to pick up a six pack and some Surfing Goat Cheese.

Oh yeah… I also had to have another Lilioki gelato from Ono Gelato which just happened to have a branch in Paia. Love it!

Maui Ocean Center

Kula Botanical Garden

Paia Fish Market