Road to Hana (Part 1)

The Road to Hana is a famed Maui adventure and is formally known as Hana Highway.

You start out on one side of the island in Paia and take all the twists and turns that would look comfortably at home in an Indiana Jones film. This crazy road leads all the way to Hana.

It’s a 68 mile adventure. But can take hours.

As a wedding gift, Joe bought us tickets to join a bus tour to get there. A wise choice, because as newbies to the island, we would have ended up over the cliff.

So we began our journey in Paia, watching the early morning surfers. Did I mention our tour started at 7AM and went until 7PM? Yeah, we were in for a long day.

I guess the turtles weren’t in the mood to wake up yet either as we saw this guy lounging beachside along with a few others.

But then we were back on the road, stopping every now and then for necessities like apple bananas.

Our tour guide picked up some of these for our little bus group… I present to you, the apple banana! A small banana that kind of, sort of tastes like an apple.

Only seven miles in, we stopped again to check out the painted trees.

We all ooh and aahed over the pretty trees.

But then we moved along to one of the numerous black sand beaches on the island.

We felt a little bit like we were adventuring through Jurassic Park.

In fact, does this look familiar?

They filmed the scene where actor Wayne Knight (Newman from Seinfeld, anyone?) falls down in the rainstorm and loses the dino DNA right here.

We then headed to a little beachy area again. But I should say more like rocky area.

The winds were high and the water color a stunning blue, absolutely gorgeous.

The journey feels other worldly. Surely, we’re no longer in America anymore…

But the thing is, you are still in America, exploring this beautiful tropical island.

Before we knew it, our tour was approaching Hana.

Exhausting. We reached Hana at barely 11AM. Nearly 4 hours after our tour had started.

So it was time for a pick me up.

Who likes ginger ale? Or ginger beer depending on where you’re from?

I personally love the stuff. So I was so excited when we stopped at a little local spot where they make it fresh.

Behold….

So fresh and crisp. A few of us on the tour eagerly purchased these and happily sipped away.

Hana Farms stand also of course, sells their own grown fruit and vegetables. However, since we had a few more days left at our hotel, we didn’t need to snap up any produce.

So this is where I’m leaving off the Road to Hana, Part One.

We’ve reached our destination… so where will we go next?

Stay tuned!

xx Kelly

What do you think of the tour so far? We’re still only four hours in! Eight to go my friends!