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March 25th, 2021

Day 2: Chasing Waterfalls on the Road to Hana

Today was supposed to be an early start for our Road to Hana day trip… But we didn’t get up as early as we intended. After we got ready, we headed over to Baked on Maui in Haiku for a quick breakfast that was supposed to be eaten on the road but ultimately eaten on the patio there. For breakfast, we enjoyed their ham and tomato eggs benedict and cinnamon knot (as they didn’t have any cinnamon rolls available). We scarfed both down and quickly started our trip, hoping to get as much of a head start on everyone else as possible before traffic and crowds picked up.

What we had read about the Road to Hana was that it was literally a road trip to the town of Hana, located in the southeastern part of the island, a trip that usually takes up an entire day. Usually, people make tons of stops along the route to Hana to see the scenery, which consists mostly of waterfalls and other tropical island sights, and to try different foods from different stands and food trucks along the road.

Our first stop of the day was at Twin Falls, located just a short drive south of where we were staying. When we got to the site, the owners of the private property on which the waterfall flowed said that access to the waterfall was closed. So instead of being able to walk right up to the waterfall, we enjoyed a view of it from a distance before moving along to the next stop, which was the Bamboo Forest Hike to the Na’ili’ili-haele Four Waterfalls.

When we arrived at the location marked as the Bamboo Forest Hike, we found a lot of cars parked along the road so assumed it was the right place to be. I found a spot to park in but was wary of it because there seemed to be a large hole in the ground between the road and the trees that looked troublesome to park next to. However, in the next moment, I saw some tourist heads pop out of the hole. Must be the entry/exit point to the hike! We stepped down into the hole in the trees and found ourselves standing beneath a canopy of bamboo trees with a muddy dirt path leading through the forest.

We followed the path and the tourists in front of us as we wove down a hill and through the trees until we reached a creek. At the creek, we spoke with one of the other tourists on his way out of the area. He informed us that there was a waterfall hidden further into the forest that was definitely worth seeing and that it was only a short hike away. With that information, Cynthia agreed to cross the creek and follow the trail a little further until we reached the waterfall. We crossed through the creek and hiked a bit further, slipping past thick brush and climbing over fallen bamboo trees until we spotted the waterfall located upstream of the creek we had just left. We again crossed the cold creek at a deeper upstream area until we had a good view of the waterfall from a distance.

Cynthia and I took a short break on a boulder to enjoy the views of the waterfall and surrounding area before we turned back and retraced our steps back to our car. Supposedly, only afterward did we find out that we only saw the first of about four waterfalls (Na’ili’ili-haele Four Waterfalls) that fed into each other in this area, not realizing that there was more to be discovered at the end of the hike before turning back. Oh well. It was already hard enough trying to hike into that first waterfall in flip flops. Don’t think it would’ve been possible to push much further with better footwear.

Our next stop was at a roadside grove of Rainbow Trees, also known by its real name Eucalyptus degulpta or by its common name, the Painted Gum Tree. These trees are well-known and well-photographed for their colorful tree trunks, which look like they have been painted in a myriad of colors, from lime green to rusty orange. A very unique sight indeed.

Because we couldn’t get much closer to the trees than to see them from a distance, we quickly returned to the car and drove off toward the next stop: Waikamoi Waterfall. Instead of hiking to the waterfall, we drove past the trailhead and arrived at a little parking area located a couple hundred feet away from the waterfall. The first thing we noticed when viewing the waterfall from the car: lots of people sitting around the edge of the plunge pool and other people standing above the pool near the ledge of the waterfall preparing to jump in! This totally reminded me of cliff jumping and canyoneering in Cebu and I started to get excited!

Cynthia and I hiked down to the plunge pool and stood there for a moment, enjoying the sight of people happily jumping from the cliffs into the water probably 20-30 feet below. For a few minutes, I wasn’t sure if I was going to join in on the fun. One, because the water was a bit cold. And two, I was a little nervous since it’d been a little while since I stood up to my fear of heights and jumped off a cliff into the water. But after standing there for a few moments and going back and forth about whether to jump or not, I finally decided, what the hell. Why not! I’m in Hawaii on vacation and what better time to jump from a cliff next to a waterfall than here and now? So I left my shirt and flip flops with Cynthia and climbed up the rock path to the ledge. I stood there for a couple of minutes as I watched a father and son duo jump ahead of me. Again, I was a little nervous, so standing there for a moment allowed me to catch hold of my tucked away courage before I jumped. I could feel my heartbeat beating a tad faster than usual as I got ready to jump. And just like that, I jumped, feet first into the oh-so-cold water below! Even though it was nerve wracking, it was also thrilling and fun, just as I remembered it being when I jumped so many times in Cebu that one day a little more than a year ago. At first, the cold water was cold but it quickly became a refreshing escape from the humidity and heat above. As I swam back to the rocky shore to meet Cynthia, I couldn’t help but be pleased with my decision to jump.

After briefly drying out in the sun, we continued our road trip and made a brief stop to check out the free admission Ke’anae Arboretum. We did a quick one mile stroll in and out that was highlighted by more Rainbow Eucalyptus trees. But other than that, there wasn’t much else to see there. So we left and drove only a short distance before we hit our next stop, which was one of our most anticipated stops of the day: Aunty Sandy’s Famous Banana Bread shop.

We had read online about how good banana bread was in Maui and found that many travelers especially enjoyed the fresh banana bread made at Aunty Sandy’s, located right off the Hana Highway. Because some time had elapsed since our last meal, we made a quick pit stop here to enjoy their fresh, warm loaf of banana bread. And it hit the spot! Though it was a hot day, the warm banana bread was delicious and we really enjoyed it, even if it was lacking a scoop or two of ice cream to complement it. Cynthia and I only made it through half of the banana bread before we drove off down the side road to check out the Ke’anae Lookout Area where we watched the crazy waves beat against the rocky coast for the first time this trip. But we didn’t stay too long, knowing that there was still a lot of distance to cover before the end of the day.

Our next few stops were all waterfalls. Upper Waikani Falls was the coolest of them all, with three good-looking lower waterfalls next to each other that you could appreciate from the road and a veil-like waterfall streaming down from above that looked pretty cool too. We also saw Pua’a Ka’a Falls, Hanawi Falls, as well as Makapipi Falls, which was also cool in a different way.

The last stop that we made before reaching Hana was the Hana Farms Roadside Stand and Restaurant. We checked out their merchandise and pondered buying a cookie (that we ended up not buying) before finally driving into Hana. We tried to visit the Hana Cultural Center to culture ourselves but unfortunately they were closed. Instead, we stopped at a little parking lot where a few food trucks were parked and bought ourselves a late lunch at Ae’s Thai Kitchen. Lunch was not Thai food (since it didn’t look great) but fish tacos and fried chicken quesadillas from the food truck, which weren’t terrible but not fantastic. To refresh ourselves after a heavy lunch, we bought a nice smoothie made of liliko’i, mango, kale, honey, and coconut water which we enjoyed in the hot, humid weather.

Rejuvenated, we drove through town to the Road Past Hana to check out one last site: The O’heo Gulch and Pools of O’heo. This site was located within the southernmost part of Haleakala National Park so we had to pay for our entry ticket (which would be good for tomorrow as well) and see what we needed to see and leave the park by 5:00pm. So we quickly hiked in to see the O’heo Gulch, which was pretty dry, and hiked back out so we wouldn’t get fined for leaving late. Funny enough, as we walked to our car and were about to drive off, I spotted two people with familiar faces hidden under their masks walking by us. It was Peter Nguyen and Karen Nie, my former residents at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center! What a small world that we would run into them randomly on the way out of a national park in the most isolated part of an island during a pandemic at closing time!

We only caught up briefly before Cynthia and I headed back on the road to slowly make our way back to Haiku. By this time, the sun was starting to set. Because we wanted to avoid as much driving in the dark as possible, I really made an effort to drive as quickly and safely as possible to get back. We only briefly stopped by Wailua and Paihi Falls on the way back to take a couple of photos before driving two hours back to the AirBnB with the occasional car-side glimpse at the other waterfalls we had visited or missed on the way in. For much of the trip, we were stuck behind slower cars but I guess it was good since it made me drive safer.

By the time we arrived back in town, it was getting late and food options were slowly dwindling. Because we really wanted poke and most places that offered it were already closed, we ultimately decided to grab some of that pre-mixed poke and rice we saw yesterday at Safeway. The food wasn’t bad and we finished it up at home before cleaning up and preparing for a very early morning at Haleakala for sunrise.

5 Things I Learned/Observed Today:

1. Liliko’i is the Hawaiian passion fruit. It is slightly different from the passion fruit we most commonly know because its outside is yellow compared to the purple passion fruit that is normally seen in various places. The lilko’i flavor is seen and used everywhere in Hawaii, especially as shaved ice flavoring and in smoothies and drinks.

2. On Maui and on the Road to Hana, they sell a product called the Hana Tonic that is a drink or elixir with the active ingredients of organic ginger, pineapple, B vitamins, lemon, and cayenne that supposedly helps with the motion sickness associated with zooming through the Road to Hana. I wonder if it works...

3. Jeep Wranglers are the rental car of choice in Maui. And they come in all colors, from red to yellow to blue to black! Must be fun to drive in but I’m sure it’s way more expensive than my little compact car...

4. There are tons of honor code fruit stands dotting the roadside along the Road to Hana and in Hana itself. At these fruit stands, you pick up fruit and you leave money. I hope that we tourists have been trustworthy!

5. Even though the Road to Hana is all the way out there and not a prime tourist area, beware of the police. Even though it’s so far away from most big towns and cities on the island, there are still police that lurk in the area finding reasons to catch you off guard and ticket you. Don’t be that guy we saw who got ticketed for parking his car right in front of a waterfall and a sign that read “No Parking.”

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