The Road to Hana, Hana, Hana. Did I mention Road to Hana?

11.9.17

The road to Hana is undoubtedly the most famous road in all of Hawaii and was a must-do for the Deputy and I. The magic of the road to Hana lies in the journey, not the destination. Hana Town is a quiet, sleepy little town located at the end of the Hana Highway and is a turn around point for most.
The road is a winding labyrinthine of twists and turns through a lush tropical island paradise and is loaded with heavenly delights around every corner. With 600 curves, 54 bridges, and countless amounts of waterfalls, it is certainly not for the faint of heart (or stomach for that matter). We grabbed our farting snorkels, yes I said farting (they kept making farting noises making us laugh hysterically) and headed for the road to Hana, Hana, Hana.
Top down, spirits high we gassed up and headed to Hana. The Highway is only 64 miles long but we anticipated it taking us about 6 hours (boy were we wrong, but I'll get to that fun little part later).
A few miles along the road we saw some folks gathered around a man and a bunch of brilliantly colored birds and thought...why not??

Enter: Bud the Birdman! Bud is a showman and has been working with trained parrots and macaws for over 30 years. He has actually built a sanctuary for these retired show birds and others like them and we had a ton of fun with him. Thanks Bud the Birdman for such a fun start to our day!!  http://www.mauibirdman.com/meetbud.html

 

As the road twisted and turned we were treated with new and exciting topography. With so many places to stop we used our Maui Revealed Guidebook and tried to visit some of the more remote sights. We decided on a hike in the bamboo forest along side lanky bamboo trees and through a towering, painted rainbow eucalyptus forest.
As the wind chimed through the bamboo, mother nature sang her sweet song and...wait...did someone say sweet? Sweets!!! We were both starting to feel that familiar rumble in our stomachs...it was time for something sweet. Ever since we decided to take this trip Honey has been talking about trying the World Famous banana bread on the road to Hana... Well it was time to take the test.
Aunty Sandy's here we come!  Aunty Sandy's did not dissapoint! They had already run out of fresh baked Banana bread so they offered us "Day Old" bread for free! What??? We loved it. I am pretty sure that I inhaled the entire loaf before Honey even pulled out her napkin, but they were more than generous and gave us another free loaf to take with us! Ahhhmaaazing.
Our bellies were overly stuffed (is there such a thing as Banana Bread sweats?) and we now had our sights set on the Garden of Eden.
 Music blasting, vocal cords straining, we sang along to our favorite songs as we headed to The Garden of Eden.

The Garden of Eden boasts abundant, lavish, and meticulously maintained gardens and arboretum, located just up the road at mile marker 10.5. Taking our time to explore this romantic retreat amidst the jungle, we both felt the electricity between us grow and pure vacation bliss set in. This place really seemed like heaven on earth. We even got to feed a few hungry peacocks!!! They really seem to like my trail mix...

Henry the Peacock

Nahhiku community seemed like the best place for us next. We followed an ominous road down about 3 miles to a remote bridge where we had to stop and park our car and walk the rest of the way. The Maui Revealed Guidebook actually describes this location best as "when plants go to heaven, Nahiku must be their destination." Simply stunning. The overgrown forest with vibrant green vines tickled our senses as we meandered down to the cliffs. What a spectacular sight, and we had this place all to ourselves. We stopped for awhile and just took it all in. What a gem. What a moment. What a day. So happy.

We spent the rest of the daily slowly creeping down the Hana Highway and before we realized what time it was it was starting to get dark. OOPS!!






My plan the entire day was to make sure that we had enough daylight on the drive home so that I didn't have to drive that treacherous road at night. We got caught up in the magic of the day and were now about to pay for it. I decided to take the back road to our Hotel and if it wasn't for Lez 733 ( the extremely slow car I was stuck behind for hours on a one lane road), we may have actually made good time. I was seeing red by the time we finally made it home and the exhaustion set in. What an epic day we had!!!! Tomorrow was an early start as we had a Sail and Snorkel trip to Molokini planned! Yessssss Queeennn!!!!!! See Ya Hana!

 Aloha-The Savvy Nomad