Maui Day 6!! The Road to Hana Part 1...

5:30 a.m.

That was the time our alarm went off to get up, get ready, and beat the traffic on the Road to Hana! (Amazing how I can get up that early in paradise to go see cool stuff, but not here at home when I need to go the gym). We didn't want to be stuck in a row of cars stopping every 3 feet or so. Our book said most peeps get going by 8:30ish, soooo we opted to get going by 6:30 or 7 am. :) We're over-achievers like that. 

We'd overheard a few people saying things like "why would I want to spend an entire day of my vacation on a freaking road?" etc... (we eavesdroped at the hotel pool. whatever). We both scoffed like "Hmph... they don't know what they're missing.. we're SO doing the road to Hana." I think deep down, we were both thinking "sheesh, I hope this really is worth it..." Lemme tell you... it SO was. The Road to Hana day was my favorite day of the entire trip! We kept pushing it back a day and then another...and then another...so we didn't get to do it til day 6, but definitely worth the wait... :) And now I shall get to the point... 

If there's one thing I need in the morning, it's some sort of sustenance. (In other words, if I don't eat, I turn into a moody b*tch. Just being honest). Lucky for us, a little fruit stand was just opening for the day as we hit the very first part of the road! My friend, Angela, had just tweeted at me that morning about some amazing smoothies they had on the Road to Hana, so I was pretty much ready to buy a smoothie at the first place I saw one b/c my stomach had heard the word "smoothie" and my mouth was watering... She wasn't kidding about them being amazing... The guy made the entire smoothie fresh right there---fresh banana, fresh mango, and fresh sugar cane! My gawd, I could go for one of those smoothies right now... yum...

Oh and yeah, we also go banana bread... Smoothies and banana bread= breakfast of champs! :) Look at me keepin it classy with my cheesy smile b/c I was half awake... In reality, Eric and I bit into these loaves like they were burritos, leaving crumbs and a hot mess in our wake. :) (more pictures of that later)

The GPS depicts the straight line that is the Road to Hana (sarcasm noted). :) We'd heard lots of people saying it made 'em carsick. We both wondered what was wrong with those people and even chuckled as we drove, feeling rather superior with our tummies of steel b/c we didn't get a lick of car sickness! (Please await the post where I take this "superiority"statement back b/c I almost puked on one of the roads in Maui... but we won't go there right now).  

Our guidebook had a couple of places that said things like "so and so owns the land on the far side, but not the near side so you can enter from there... If you choose to secure permission for entering the grounds, there is rarely anyone monitoring it soooo..." haha.. In other words, "don't be a pansy..." ha! Our guidebook=awesome. (Note me and the random fence. I mean.. it had an opening...*shrugs*) :)

Stop one: Haipua'ena Falls... There hadn't been much rainfall, but this little guy was still quite tranquil and pretty... :)

Stop two: Backtracked b/c we accidentally missed Upper Puohokamoa Falls (where the fence was from in the collage above).... Pretty pretty! I love waterfalls... a lot... You can tell by the cheesy smile on my face...ha!

Don't mind me; just hoppin' a guardrail at 8am....

But, the guardrail hopping was worth it to get this photo of Honomanu Bay just as the sun is starting to shine and welcome the new day! :) We decided we wanted to see it up close, so we referred to the trusty guidebook...  (We picked and chose what we wanted to hike to, etc at first b/c we didn't want to spend too much time at stuff early on and miss some of the stuff towards the end of the road... The guidebook warned us of people doing that.. Our guidebook was definitely for the cool kids. ;) ) 

Our fantastic guidebook led us astray a little by saying the road to the bay Eric's standing in front of requires 4WD clearance. For fear of a flat tire early on, we opted to hike it...and hike it....and hike it... And um, we arrived and saw a Prius down there. The good old Charger rental car coulda made it. Oh well... We forgave the guidebook... :)

Well worth the hike. From the book: "The beach is gravely and the swimming poor, but in the early morning, the sun creates a magnificent golden green on the valley walls, reminding you why you came to Hawai'i.." So true.... (and yes, I am writing this post with my guidebook beside me. I can't spell half these places on my own-sheesh! Don't judge me.)

From there, we passed some falls, but decided we were going to go for the one I'd earmarked as one I REALLY wanted to see, Three Bears Falls. See all the people standing there on top of the bridge ogling the gorgeous falls? Yeah, they didn't have the same guidebook that told them "At the far side of the bridge is a fairly easy, short path..."

 So, following Eric's lead (b/c he's admittedly WAY less clumsy than me), we climbed down to the falls... Well worth it, don't you think? :)

 Probably the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen in real life...

 We played at Three Bears Falls for awhile, snapping pics, gazing at the water, etc...

From there, we passed quite a few little waterfalls, but we could tell they weren't really flowing due to lack of rainfall so we didn't stop. Plus, it has just started to rain a little, thus making a hike a little more treacherous on lava rocks... We were ready to see one of the spots we'd been waiting for... black sand beach... and the sun came out again right before we got there! :)

Housed in Wai'anapanapa Park, black sand beach is freaking gorgeous.... Did you know that black sand beaches are often formed in mere days or weeks?! They're formed when lava flowed into the sea, shattering on contact with the ocean. Fragments formed the sand! That said, black beaches usually have a short life span (few hundred years) b/c once lava stops flowing, there's no more black sand being made...

 Look at me trying to be a cool kid with my hat until....

...I almost got very wet... haha! It's not that I didn't want to get wet, but um... I didn't have any more shoes! Comedy... 

We stayed at black sand beach a long time... and it was definitely well worth the extra playtime alloted :)

 "I wanna climb up there too! (after Eric in the above photo)" This is how a lot of photos went when there was climbing involved... I had to try to look like a bad@ss that was just as good a climber as Eric... No, no injuries were incurred this time..." (the rocks are all a LOT more slippery than they look...and sharp). 

 My footsteps... :)

 Still pretending to be Lewis and Clark, we opted to explore the lava tube cave just off the beach! I pretended to tie my shoe or something so Eric would go first... ya know.. just in case.. ;) ha!

 I make caves fashionable.

 The mouth opened up to the ocean... so cool!

 Thanks for the good times, black sand beach... Jackie and Eric are hungry and ready to hit the town of Hana for some food before more adventures on the back side of the road... :)

See you in Hana, friends.... 

In case you want a dose of the ocean waves for your Monday, here's a little clip from our trip to black sand beach: :) I wanna go back.... *sigh*