Leaving Hana

After a peaceful night in Hana, we woke up early (though not as early as 3:30 am as we have been doing the past couple of days) and headed to Ohe'o gulch further south past Hana. On the way down, we passed by Wailua Falls, just off the side of the road, pictured to the left.

The Ohe'o gulch (formerly advertised as the Seven Sacred Pools- there are actually 24 pools) is part of the Haleakala National Park, so we've been making good use of our Haleakala parking pass, which is good for 7 days.

Normally there is very nice swimming in the pools at Ohe'o gulch, but all of the rain over the past couple of days had to go somewhere. The water levels were very high, so swimming wasn't allowed, but the hiking trails were still open. We took the short loop trail from the visitor center to see the Ohe'o gulch, and then we hiked partway on the Pipiwai trail to see the Makahiku Falls.

 

 

We did some off-trail hiking for a little but in order to see the top of the Makahiku Falls, or the "infinity pool" as it is described in the Maui Revealed guidebook. It is normally calm, but all the rain made for some very fast-moving water. Still, it was well worth it.

We stopped by Hamoa Beach on the way back to Hana, which has been described often as one of the best beaches on Maui. The sand was soft and fine and water was warm-ish though there were medium-sized waves which the boogie boarders were enjoying. We enjoyed our time on this beach, relaxing and playing in the water, until the bus from Hotel Hana Maui arrived and two overweight haoles plopped down their lounge chairs right smack in front of us. We wanted to kick sand in their designer beach bags, but that is not in the Aloha spirit, so we packed up and headed on our way.

We stopped at the Red Sand Beach (Kaihalulu) near Hana (we had to use a rope tied to the muddy hillside to get down to it!) and ate lunch at Tutu's snack shop on Hana Bay. Back on Hana Highway we passed Hanawi Falls, Pua'a Ka'a State Park, and Ching's Pond. We ate guri guri (strawberry/pineapple sherbet-like yummy goodness) in Kahului and made our way to our condo rental at Punahoa Beach Condos right on the water. Exhausted, we picked up some fish and chips for takeout for dinner and ate back at the condo. The picture below was taken near Kahului on the way to Kihei.