As you may have noticed, if you are following me on Instagram, I have been in Hawaii recently. Didn’t bring my laptop, so no updates from the middle of nowhere. Came back last Sunday night, but this week has just been franticly busy (and absolutely amazing if I may say so myself) so here is a delayed Aloha from Hawaii. I though I should share some pictures with you in a couple of posts.
We stayed in Maui and Oahu, for 10 days total and it was total bliss. Just relaxing, swimming, hiking, tanning and shopping. And eating. We did a fair bit of eating. Ribs. So very delicious! I love ribs. Nomnomnom. But hey, I side track. Let’s talk about Maui.
What a beautiful island. We drove the Road to Hana one day, and actually a little further than Hana too, to a place called The 7 Pools. We didn’t actually go to the pools, but went inland, through a bamboo forest (amaaaazing) to a big waterfall (ehm, not so big and not so impressive for a Norwegian viking, but hey, you might have different standards). It felt a bit like you at any point would spot a dinosaur chewing on the tree tops in the distance.
The Hana Highway (HI-360) has 620 curves and 59 bridges. The road leads you through flourishing rainforests, flowing waterfalls, plunging pools and dramatic seascapes. There are plenty of opportunities to stop and enjoy the lovely views so I would recommend leaving early, because it takes quite a while to get there. We stayed in Kihei and for us it was an all day adventure. I should also mention it is a good idea to bring some food along they way, as there are limited options to buy anything. We came prepared with iced coffees that lasted for ages, fresh fruit, peanut coconut butter (you must try it) and local seed and nut bars. I am only telling you this because we bumped into a shop assistant in Honolulu a few days after that told us she had gone on a day trip from Honolulu over to Maui and driven the Road To Hana on the same day as us and she didn’t bring food. She told us she nearly died of hunger. The moral of the story; always bring food.
We parked at the Kipahulu visitor centre and walked inland from there. The trail is easy to find and well maintained. I am not quite sure how far it was to the waterfall, but maybe 2.5km in each direction. The best part was definitely the bamboo forest. It got really dark and quiet and all you could hear was the bamboos playing music in the wind. Go there.
Enough with the chit-chat, here are some pretty pictures from the road. Look at that amazing Banyan Tree:
How beautiful is that. Doesn’t look like what you think when thinking of Hawaii, right? Well, we did stop by a beach on the way back after sitting in the car for way to long. The beach was called Hamoa Beach and has pretty dark sand. There is also another beach along the way called Red Sand Beach. Check them out.
I want to go back now. So beautiful.Oh well, I’ll just stick to Melbourne beaches for now…
Have a great Saturday.
Awesome Ashild, xoxo