Maui Part 2: The First Day and the Road to Hana

 After our overnight flight, we had another short 30 minute flight to Maui. We arrived around 7 or 8 am I think. Then after we got there we had to find get a rental car, but we were so happy to finally be there that the waiting didn’t seem so bad. The Maui airport was mostly outdoor and we could feel the humid warm air and see the palm trees swaying in the breeze. 

After squeezing into a small rental suv we went to our rented condo for the week. I left Leland and the kids to immediately go to the pool while I went to the grocery store to get our food for the week. We stayed at a condo with a full kitchen which was really nice. We saved money by only eating out twice and getting dessert a couple times. The rest of our meals were quick convenience foods made in the condo or packed picnics for the beach. I had heard food in Maui was expensive but I was not fully prepared for the grocery store prices. 😳 

After I got back we made everyone lay down for a nap. I had worried quite a bit about the jet lag on this trip, but because of our crazy overnight flight, we all arrived with messed up sleep schedules anyways so it didn’t prove to be much of an issue. There was a 4 hour time difference to Utah time, and we ended up adjusting about 2 hours while we were there. Our schedule was usually that everyone would wake up early, 5-6am, then we would all take an afternoon nap, and let the kids stay up until 8/9 or so. (Keeping them awake past 8 was a challenge, even with the naps, but  we couldn’t have them waking up at 3am!)

After our nap we heading down to the beach for the first time. Our condo was in Kehei and I really liked it. It was definetly tourist-y like I imagine most parts of Hawaii are, but there weren't big resorts or anything near where we were. The first thing we noticed on our walk down was all the flowers! Hawaii is so colorful with flowers blooming and greenery everywhere you look. 

I didn't realize there would be so many tide pools at the beaches!

The walk down to the beach ended up being a little long but it was fun to walk. We went to a park with a beach and we were really impressed with how soft the sand was. The waves were just right and the kids had a blast swimming and exploring for a few hours. We ate our picnic dinner on the beach and then we got shave ice after. This was our only time getting shave ice and we weren't too impressed. It was the same as the stuff in Utah (full of food dyes). Around 7 we headed back to our condo and I think Moses and Sorrel both fell asleep in their swimsuits on the walk. 

The next day, Thursday we braved the Road to Hana. I had heard that this was one of the most worthwhile things to do on Maui. We planned a full day and left as early as we could, about 6am. The roads were VERY windy and it did take us half a dad to get to Hana, and past to Mount Haleakala National Park. We took some preventative measures against car sickness and no one ended up getting sick luckily. We also paid for a guided audio tour called Shaka Guide. I HIGHLY recommend these guides. It was really informative and entertaining and the trip to Hana wouldn't have been the same without it.

 We made a few stops on our way to the national park, we stopped for banana bread at the halfway to hana shop. We also stopped by a waterfall or two and a couple other bathroom breaks. We saw bananas on a side of the roadside stand and tried those. They were SO good and I don't even like bananas! 

By the time we got to the Pipwea trail in the National Park the kids were SO tired. We went through with the hike, it was about 3 miles RT though a bamboo forest. The kids probably did worse on that hike than any hike ever ha. I thought it was really easy being at sea level, when most of our hikes are 6000+ feet above sea level. We were all disappointed that you couldn't get very close to the waterfall at the end, but it was still amazing to see, at least to me. 

This gigantic banyan tree was a favorite place to play on the Pipiwai trail. 

We saw many waterfalls on our way up to THE waterfall. 

The second half of the hike is through a bamboo forest, it felt very foreign and interesting. The way the bamboo knocked together when the wind came through sounded awesome. 

Lots of mushroom pictures so we could identify them later. 

Waimoku Falls 

This waterfall is so tall, Around 80 Feet if  I remember right. 

After that we made good time on the way back. We stopped and got pizza's from a food truck for dinner. Moses slept on my lap and couldn't be woken to eat. 

The whole day I had really wanted to swim in a waterfall. I didn't do so earlier when we stopped at one because I didn't bring my swimsuit and I didn't want wet clothes for the whole day. Well now I was losing my chance so at one of the last waterfalls on the way out we stopped for a swim. Leland, bless his heart, took terrible pictures, (no waterfall included in the pictures, just us standing in random water😅) but it was a really fun experience nonetheless. The water was cold and the air was getting chilly but I have no regrets. 

Here is a picture of the waterfall from google. This was Pua'a Ka'a Falls and one of the prettiest places to swim along the road to Hana that we saw. 

We got home after dark and everyone was SO exhausted. It was a long day for kids, and even for the adults. We were in the car about 7 hours total I think. In hindsight it would have been better to not go so far and spend time at the first few waterfalls, skipping the hike and turning around much sooner, but I'm still glad we went. It was a really memorable day, even if a certain child still asks me to this day, 3 months later, WHY I made them do the hike on the road to Hana.