We took a driving tour of Maui called the "Road to Hana." Hana is a little town on the opposite side of Maui. It's not the town that's the fun part, it's the ride to get there. One of the fascinating things about Maui is that half of the island is tropical rain forest with 370 inches of rain per year and the other half is near desert with only 10 inches of rain per year. The mountains of the islands trap moisture laden winds and create this unusual weather. The dry side of the island is irrigated from rain water collected from the wet side.
Dottie decided that the best way to see the rain forest for me would be for them to rent a convertible for the day. Unfortunately Dottie can't drive a stick so that limited the kinds of vehicles she could rent. She decided upon a '97 Jaguar!
We stopped along the way for some food and had a picnic lunch at a Zen Buddhist temple and cemetery that was right on the coast. The cemetery is immediately on the water front and is being eroded by the sea and some of the tomb stones have actually collapsed into the water. The temple was pretty but no one was there and we couldn't get in.
The actual way to Hana is Hwy 360 but you can only drive 20-30 mph because of the roads properties. It's listed as having 600 curves and 52 one-lane bridges. Of course, all of this follows the coast and the ravines of the mountains.
It rained on us several times but usually only light showers. The plants were also lovely, including bamboo forests, rainbow eucalyptus forest, and hundreds of flowers and vines.
Rainbow Eucalyptus Forest
We made several stops along the way to see waterfalls and volcanic formations in the ocean with our final destination the Pools of Ohe'o which used to be called the Seven Sacred Pools.
Inside
a basalt cave.
At Ohe'o, I was crossing some water to get a better view of the Pools when I slipped and fell in. I was immediately reminded that this is a mountain stream as the water comes from Haleakala and is Very Cold. From then on I decided to just go for a swim and play in the waterfalls.
The drive back was rather long and tedious though. As we turned around, darkness was just starting to fall and we had to traverse all the curves and bridges in the dark. It's rather nerve wreaking doing hairpin curves in the dark. Your lights are shining either in the ocean or a cliff and you can only guess where the road is going to be. It was fun driving the Jag through this though!