The Adventure Package, Part II

Today we made a second try at Malukea Beach in Wailea.  While we arrived earlier and swam out farther, there was still too much surf action and the water was too murky.  We tried moving a little further up the coast to Palauea Beach.  While the beach was much wider and a better swimming beach, we tried looking at reefs at both ends of the beach, and while they were there, it was still too murky and pretty much impossible to see them.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring better snorkeling...

After beach time we headed over to West Maui, the last Mauian frontier, at least for us.  We had lunch at Aloha Mixed Plate, which seems to serve the exact same food they have at the Old Lahiana Luau.  (The fact that they had people in Old Lahaina Luau shirts taking big catering carts of food away all afternoon gave us the hint.)  D's food was pretty good, but my pig was over-salted (it still had salt crystals on it).  Too bad, because the Haupia was really good for desert.

After lunch, we decided to save the tourist-trap parts of Lahaina for tomorrow, and kept going north.  Rumor had it that the road all the way around West Maui would be tight in a few places, but was passable.  Sounded like a plan.

Along the way, we stopped in Kapalua to crash the Ritz-Carlton for some cool lava formations.  ( I swear, it's true.)

We also passed by Honolua Bay (the namesake of the surfware company) and saw a pretty impressive blowhole (the water-spouting kind).  The landscape was very different from the rest of the island; mostly scrub-type plants and low shrubs.

The road changed from a wide two-laned road with reflectors and lane stripes (and guardrails) to a bumpy road with a faded, dashed yellow line down the center to one-and-a-half miles of a very narrow one-lane road.  Did I mention that the road is in fact two-way?  Supposedly, if we met another car coming the other way, one of us would have to back up until we found a place to pass.  Sounds like a fun challenge.  Especially since it was raining!

We started down the single lane road which hugged the side of the mountain and rounded down through a cove and back up again.  All told, it was pretty uneventful.  No oncoming traffic (at least here).

Once through the tricky part, we came into the village of Kahakuloa, which is not much more than a few houses, a church, a banana bread stand, and a friendly dog with a limp.  Unfortunately, all of the banana bread was sold out, although we did get some tasty dried mango instead.

From here, just another 10 miles on a bumpy paved road to civilization.  It was great though to see parts of the island that the vast majority of visitors never see.

We got back to Kihei just in time to see a great sunset.