musings: Hawaii Trip (Part 1-Maui)

So, finally decided to go on a trip to Hawaii in September, 2017.

We started our trip by driving from Tucson to Phoenix to pick up one of our friends, Kundana. All three of us started driving to San Diego. We met Prasad in San Diego and caught a flight to Maui the next day morning.

For the first time, we tried airbnb for accomodation and all of us were presently surprised. The condo is pretty good and it has a wonderful view of the beach from the patio.

View from the Balcony...

Day 1:

After waking up, we decided to drive to Kaanapali Beach and Napili Beach. On the way, we had a stop at a scenic point and drank fresh coconut water. The coconut was soo huge, it was more than sufficient for two people. Later, we had a stop at the Banyan Tree park. The place was very good to hang out with good shade. We spent most of the time there that day until around 3-4pm. Later we started to the beaches. Had a nice view of the Napili beach and later finally got to the Kanapali beach for sunset view. I expected a lot I guess for the sunset. However, it was not very great compared to some wonderful sunset views in Tucson. After dinner, we went early to bed as we had to wake up early the following day.

Sunset at Kaanapali Beach

Day 2:

This day was reserved for viewing the sunrise from Haleakala Mountain. We had to wake up around 2:30AM and start to Haleakala. The drive has many curves and we had to drive carefully. It was super cold on the top. We had to stand for about 30 minutes on the mountain above the clouds to view the sunrise. And finally, when the sun started to rise above the clouds it was an amazing experience. I loved this and would definitely recommend this. Later, we started down to the hotel.

Sunrise from Haleakala

Day 3:

We planned to do the "Road to Hana" on this day. The drive was very good and we had stops at the Keaneu Arboretum, Keanue peninsula, Wainapanapa State park. Visiting the Arboretum was kind of ok. It was like hiking as we do not know much about all the different plants in there. The peninsula was good. The view was nice and we had banana bread in one of the stalls there. It was delicious and all of us liked it. The best thing in Wainapanapa state park was the black sand beach. We get to see some picturesque locations there. Later we went to the final stop. The goal was to hike to have a look at Waimoku falls. On the way, we came across the bamboo forest which was spectacular. Never did I see such tall and dense Bamboo trees. Finally, after hiking about an hour and 15 minutes, we reached Waimoku Falls. The falls was awesome. It was falling from so much height and it was the tallest falls that I have seen so far. So, it was spectacular and the hike was worth it. Finally, we started back after staying there for about 30-45 minutes.