The Long and Winding Road

Wave frolicking

The last time I went to Hana, I was about 8 years old and very prone to motion sickness. The road to Hana back then was NOT paved with gold, it was not paved at all but rather filled with muddy potholes. Needless to say that as a young girl bouncing around in the back of a giant Suburban, I got, er, sick. Very sick. Now, twenty years later, the road to Hana is paved, practically with gold because for someone like me who still can be prone to motion sickness, having a paved road is like driving on gold. (Especially because in Michigan, the roads are terrible). The drive to Hana from Kahului takes about 2 hours if you don't stop for any photo ops. We drove straight there in an effort to get ahead of the tour busses and tourist crowds (not that we aren't tourists here, but I don't often consider myself one while here visiting). We arrived at the coastline section of Haleakala park around 10:30, and walked around to the Pools of 'Ohe'o, aka the Seven Sacred Pools. When I was a kid and we came here, the public could swim around all of the pools, cliff jump, and overall enjoy the water. Today, too many injuries (and fatalities) have occurred so on high water days one can't even walk down to the pools, but only admire them from a distance. So that's what we did, admire them from a distance. After the 'Ohe'o Pool admiration, we hiked up an extremely muddy trail, then scurried back to stay ahead of the tour busses that usually arrive at 2pm. We left the park, and headed to the beach to frolic in the waves, then got back on the road to Kahului around 3:30. A beautiful and wonderful day along Maui's southeastern shore.