Sugar cane
This day, as you might expect, we drove around the east side of the island - after we filled up the car with gas at Costco.
Driving through the central valley on the way to our starting point, I noticed miles and miles of fields of one of Maui's major crops:
Sugar cane
The first part of the drive, around the northern side of the island, is known as the Hana Highway (w), because it leads to the town of Hana, on the far eastern shore. Past Hana, coming around the south side, the road again degenerates into a narrow, poorly maintained one lane road, and is dirt and gravel for several miles. Yet another Almy road.
This drive didn't have as many specific Points Of Interest. The main attraction of the day was the magnificent scenery. Waterfalls (LOTS of waterfalls), beaches, moutains, and as always, green, green, GREEN!
I can't count the number of waterfalls we saw, and according to the guidebook, there were several more that we didn't see, because we didn't stop the car and go hiking to find them. In addition to the waterfalls, there were many places where water was cascading down the rocks or hillsides along the road. It's like the whole island was flowing. Here are some pictures, in no particular order:
In those last two pictures, the road crosses the stream just above the waterfall, so you can lean over the railing at the side of the road and look down on the waterfall from above.
Many of the waterfalls are named, although I didn't always take note of the names. Here's one that I did - Wailua Falls:
And one particularly impressive set of three falls right next to each other - Three Bear Falls
And here are a few more pictures of scenery along the way:
We passed this place:
...although the guidebook said we were actually about 2/3 of the way.
At one point, we turned off down a side road which took us through some extremely lush scenery, to the little town of Nahiku, where I took a picture of this church:
Just past Hana, we stopped for lunch at a place recommended by the guidebook called Braddah Hutts. It turned out to be a food truck with tables:
...and excellent food. While we waited for our food, I took pictures of some local vegetation: coconut palms:
...and a banana tree.... uh, no... wait...
Not a banana tree
And then we proceeded on our way. A little while later, we pulled into a church yard in the town of Kipahulu, to visit the grave of a famous person: Charles Lindbergh. Apparently, Mr. Lindbergh spent the last few years of his life in Kipahulu, and chose to be buried there:
...and he chose a very scenic spot for it - here's the view from the churchyard:
Kipahulu is also known for the Laulima fruit stand:
One of the things I enjoy about world travel is the opportunity to try new and different foods. At this stand, we sampled three exotic fruits. Apple bananas are like regular bananas, but smaller, with a distinctive taste, sweeter than regular bananas. Ice Cream Bananas are larger and thicker than regular bananas, with a creamy texture. And Abiu (w) is a round tropical fruit with a custard-like consistency and flavor.
Past this point, as I described before, the road got rough for a while, After that, the scenery was still impressive, but less tropical. We got this impressive view of a canyon:
And I was greatly amused by the alteration to this road sign:
After we finished the drive, we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then went back to the resort and went to bed.
Here's a map of the day's wanderings:
