The Road to Hana

One of the must do things on Maui is the famous (or infamous) Road to Hana.  It is a twisty, turny 30 mile stretch of hairpin curves along one section of the coast.  At times it is right along the water and at times it wanders inland a bit.  There are pull-offs for scenic views and state parks, a few food stands, but no gas stations. Years ago it was considered treacherous and people could buy T-shirts that said, "I Survived the Road to Hanna".  You can still buy the shirts but the road now is well paved with guard rails and is quite safe, as long as you drive slowly and carefully.  It is still as twisty as before. There is a section where it turns into a one lane road, where rental car companies tell you not to go.  That is dangerous and we didn't do it, although we did do one section of another one lane road that was quite scary.  It was also hairpin curves and if a driver was coming in the opposite direction, someone had to back up.  There were no guard rails and on one side of the road were drops to the ocean below and the other side was a rock cliff. I know that I never could have driven it, but Claire, our fearless driver, did it with having to back up several times.  We all gave a huge sigh of relief at the end.  The views were spectacular, but most of the time we were too scared to look.

I must admit that this is another purloined post card.  It gives you some idea of the road.

One of the stops along the way was an arboretum.  I absolutely fell in love with this tree.  Here I am giving it a big hug.  Does that make me a tree hugger?

The official name is shown here, but most people call it the Rainbow Eucalyptus tree.

Isn't it amazing?  The thin bark peels off to reveal different colored bark beneath.  I think this is screaming to be used in a quilt somehow.  Imagine the fun I could have with it in Photoshop! I took a lot of pictures.

Here's that gorgeous orange flower again. I looked up "African Parrot Tree" and it doesn't look like this.  Does anyone know what it is?  As I said before there were whole hillsides of them, but there was never a place to pullover and take a picture.  There was a small pull-off where I was able to get this close-up shot.  I can't decide which I like better, the one with the ocean behind or the one with greenery.

Hawaii was formed by volcanoes and the evidence is everywhere.

This is a black sand beach.  Although parts of it were rocky, the sand itself was very fine.  There were three little boys who were rolling their wet bodies in it until they were completely covered.  I neglected to get a picture.  Shame on me!

Please come back tomorrow and I'll try to wrap this up.