The Road to Hana

The Road to Hana is a road that leads to a town called Hana on the north side of Maui.  The trip is beautiful and passes many waterfalls.  Here’s the catch – the road has 120 hairpin turns, most of which are on the edge of a mountain overlooking the ocean.  Some brave souls take their rental cars on this journey, and some (even braver souls) trust a professional bus driver who knows the turns well so takes them a bit faster than YOU might!  I’ve heard the latter ride described as “terrifying” by a fellow traveler.  By the time you travel up to Hana, spend a few hours, and head back, it’s an 11 hour trip.  Given that Karen won’t drive on the freeway, and I am terrified of heights, we did NOT take the road to Hana.  But I believe we hit the first part of the road – unintentionally.  It started innocently.  We just wanted to see some surfers so the Concierge gave us the name of a couple of beaches “a little north” that the locals go to.  So we jumped in the Jeep Cherokee and off we went!  We went less than 10 miles I would say, when, the roads got steeper, the roads got curvier, and the next thing you know I’m going around a curve on the side of a mountain – holy crap!!!  We went from “Where is the beach?” to saying the Lord’s prayer...at least I did.  The moment I saw a place to turn around, we did.  It was still scary to turn around, but if we went off the edge we’d hit land instead of the ocean, which I thought would be better.  Back down the hill we went.  Turns out the “beaches” aren’t clearly marked and we had driven right by.  And no, there were no surfers.   Realizing we’re the resort type rather than the adventurous type, we purchased a bucket and shovel and went back to the beach and built sand castles.  Yes, we really did.  And it was a blast!

Honolua Bay

The only sign for Honolua Bay (NOT on the road)