Road to Hana and Beyond

One of the perks of being in a suite is being able to have breakfast and lunch at Cagney’s. This morning, however, the table service was slow, and the cold buffet was limited. Luckily, our tour meet-up time was not until 0830am.

Breakfast at Cagney's

 Maui wore the mantle of being the most visited of the Hawaiian Islands. As such, there was abundant choice of tour companies. We opted for Holo Holo Maui Tours mainly for their “All the way around” full day tour, a tour which essentially circled around Mount Haleakala, the largest dormant volcano in the world. It ended up being a great choice. Our guide for the day was Georgia. She was knowledgeable with the history, culture, flora, geology, fauna, and music of the islands! This would later set us up to better appreciate the differences between the various islands. We also loved being able to see the stark contrast between the wet rainforest of the windward side of the mountain and the “desert” side after the town of Hana where most visitors stop and turn around. We were glad that we chose to drive all the way around.

Some of the unexpected highlights include lunch at the food trucks along the way. We were generously given free fresh coconut juice and fruits on account of Georgia knowing the local vendors. Bonus! We also learnt about Charles Lindberg and Sam Pryor (founder of Pan Am), who we soon learnt were buried on Maui! We were also glad Georgia was here when we swam at the black sand beach in Waianapanapa State Park. There was a sharp drop off and the surf was tricky. I would not have wanted to venture out without her prompts of when to actually start swimming out and when to duck under the surf! My father was fascinated to know that Sun Yat Sen's brother lived in Maui and was active with funding his revolution in China.

Just a beautiful beach?

Maybe not...

What looked like rocks turned out to be turtles!

We spotted one swimming in the water too!

A surprise for us to see this! Rainbow eucalyptus

Chickens chickens everywhere....

Amazing banana bread!

We thought Georgia over ordered when she bought 2 loaves. It didn't last...

Fresh coconuts

A very happy child

Fresh fruits served on sugarcane

Dramatic landscapes

Simple engineering with channeling water to have self watering taro fields

Georgia introducing us to the flora

Enjoying the sweet nectar!

Black sand beach of Waianapanapa State Park

Waterfalls everywhere! 

Just by the side of the road...

Grave of Charles Lindberg

The dramatic scenery change on the "other side"

Maui's Grand Canyon

A little honey farm on top of the hill

We stopped but it wasn't worth stopping...

Sun Yat Sen Park

 By the time we returned to the ship it was well past 6:30pm and so we dined at the Aloha Café buffet. The food offering was decent with good variety and reasonable tasty food. The crowds were not too bad either.

We finished dinner in time for the Polynesian show. It would have been very entertaining were it not for the fact that we had already seen a luau! There were many similar elements chronicling the journey of the Polynesian people across the islands of the Pacific. It was still a pleasant way to end what was a busy and enjoyable day.

Dinner at the buffet