1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (110 page)

At the headquarters of the 27,000-acre park, you can get info on Haleakala’s geological wonders and maybe catch a glimpse of Hawaii’s state bird, the endangered nene, or Hawaiian goose. On the road, don’t miss the Leleiwi Overlook, the first place to get a glimpse of the moonscape inside the crater. Another overlook, the Kalahaku, offers up-close views of the rare silversword, which grows only on Haleakala and the Big Island; a striking plant with silvery succulent foliage, it takes as long as 50 years to reach flowering stage, at which point it throws up a tall stalk of hundreds of sunflowerlike maroon flower heads, sets seed, and dies.

At the summit, you get a full view of the crater and also, in the distance, the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island (see p. 937). Tour operators offer hiking and horseback trips that take you down into the crater, and several companies operate bike tours that start from the mountaintop and require only 100 yards of pedaling the whole descent.

Kama’lio’i is one of the volcanic cinder cones inside the massive Haleakala crater.

W
HERE
: 40 miles southeast of Kahului Airport. Tel 808-572-4400;
www.nps.gov/hale
.
H
IKING
: Hike Maui (tel 808-879-5270;
www.hikemaui.com
) offers a strenuous full-day hike in Haleakala Crater.
Cost:
$150.
R
IDING
: Pony Express Tours (tel 808-667-2200;
www.ponyexpresstours.com
) offers horseback tours into the crater.
Cost:
from $169.
B
IKING
: Maui Downhill (tel 800-535-BIKE or 808-871-2155;
www.mauidownhill.com
) offers a sunrise safari bike tour.
Cost:
from $125.
W
HERE TO STAY
: Hale Ho’okipa Inn, Makawao, tel 877-572-6698 or 808-572-6698;
www.maui-bed-andbreakfast.com
.
Cost:
from $95.
B
EST TIMES
: either sunrise (which can be crowded) or sunset (when you can practically have the place to yourself); May–Sept for warmest weather.

Hawaii’s Most Famous Byway

Maui, Hawaii

Besides the Crater Road to Haleakala’s summit (see above), Maui’s other famous road show, and one of the Pacific’s most scenic, is the narrow, corkscrew Hana “Highway” on the island’s lush, isolated northeastern coast
. Beginning at the laid-back former sugar-plantation town of Pa’ia, the 50-mile drive takes two to three hours, climbing and dropping among some 617 curves, crossing 54 one-lane bridges, and passing dozens of waterfalls and vistas before reaching the quiet, old-fashioned, eye-blink town of Hana. Bring a picnic lunch, stop and swim in mountain streams fed by water-
falls, take lots of photos to show the folks back home, and smell the flowers. Travelers who hurry to get to Hana wonder what all the fuss was about when they arrive; it’s about the journey and the incredible display of nature along the way.

Enjoy an early breakfast in Pa’ia and make your first stop just outside of town at Ho’okipa (“hospitality”) Beach Park, one of the greatest windsurfing spots on the planet. If it’s winter and the surf’s up, detour left off the Hana Highway at Hahana Road, where the famous surf site known as Jaws features offshore waves that can reach heights of 60 feet or more. There’s no beach here, just cliffs and waves, so it wasn’t until the development of tow-in surfing in the ’90s that anyone surfed here. Now, highly experienced surfers take off from nearby Maliko Gulch, riding on the back of a Jet Ski to a perfect spot from which to catch the monster waves.

Back on the highway, stop at Twin Falls, or at Puohokamoa Falls farther along the road, to experience the much calmer waters of a waterfall pool, and stretch your legs at the Waikomoi Ridge Trail for an easy three-quarter-mile loop through eucalyptus and bamboo. Great picnic places include Kaumahina State Wayside Park and Pua’a Ka’a State Wayside Park, where a short path leads to accessible swimming holes and waterfalls. The Ke’anae Arboretum features native and introduced trees, as well as traditional Hawaiian plants used in food and medicine. Nearby is the Ke’anae Peninsula, where taro fields dot the landscape, fishermen line the shoreline, and the Ke’anae Congregational Church has been standing since the missionaries arrived in 1860.

Hana Highway hugs Maui’s lush, green coast, offering exquisite views of the Pacific.

A couple of tips before you begin your journey through Eden: Fill up your gas tank, as there are no gas stations until Hana, and drive with
aloha
(i.e., drop the aggressive mainland road manners, and don’t use your horn). There will be a thousand cars on the barely one-and-a-half lane road, so yield to oncoming cars at the one-lane bridges, and remember that locals can drive this road in their sleep, so let them pass.

W
HERE
: 50 miles from Pa’ia (6 miles east of Kahului Airport) to Hana town.
B
EST TIMES
: Leave early in the morning, and plan to stay overnight in Hana. Avoid the 2nd Sat in Sept, when hundreds of runners take to the Hana Highway in the Hana Relays.

Hawaii of Yesteryear

Maui, Hawaii

In a timeless setting of natural beauty, surrounded by dense rain forest, with tumbling waterfalls, clear azure pools, and white-, red- and black-sand beaches within minutes of each other, the tiny village of Hana is a throwback
to the Hawaii of yesteryear. At the end of the serpentine Hana Highway (see above) and nestled next to the shoreline and the bay of the same name, this stronghold of local culture is home to a high percentage of native Hawaiians, as well as a place to get away from it all and
connect with nature. Here you can luxuriate on one of Maui’s most dramatic beaches: Hamoa Beach, a large, crescent shape at the base of 30-foot black lava sea cliffs.

Hana’s main attraction is the unique Hotel Hana-Maui, the island’s most exclusive hideaway, founded in 1946 and today affiliated with California’s famous eco-sensitive Post Ranch Inn (see p. 837). A cluster of hillside cottages on 66 secluded acres sloping down to a rugged seacoast, Hotel Hana-Maui is an ideal romantic getaway, with spacious, airy rooms, bleached-wood floors, and sweeping views of the ocean. It also features a wellness center, one of Maui’s best spas, two pools, and a restaurant whose cuisine highlights the freshest of produce, meat, and fish from the surrounding area.

Three miles from the center of town, at mile marker 32 off the Hana Highway, ocean-side Wai’anapanapa State Park invites visitors to explore an ancient 6-mile trail past green naupaka shrubs, a forest of lauhala trees (used in local weaving), and coastal formations such as blowholes, sea arches, and caves. One striking and anomalous feature is the tide pool of Wai’anapanapa Cave, which turns bloodred in spring. According to legend, this is where the jealous chief Ka’akea killed his wife, Princess Popo’alaea. (The more prosaic scientific explanation attributes the color to the hatching of millions of
’opae’ula,
a small red shrimp.) Farther down the road past the park, in the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s 472-acre Kahanu Garden (home of the world’s largest collection of breadfruit cultivars), you’ll find the extraordinary temple known as Pi’ilanihale Heiau, the largest intact heiau in Hawaii and a masterpiece of masonry. Begun around 1200, it measures 340 by 425 feet, with walls 50 feet tall and 10 feet thick. On the other side of Hana lies the eastern end of Haleakala National Park, at Ohe’o Gulch in Kipuhulu. Also called the “Seven Sacred Pools,” this awe-inspiring area has some 24 waterfalls and pools, descending the mountain like stair steps into the cobalt blue water of the Pacific.

W
HERE
: 50 miles southeast of Kahului Airport.
H
OTEL
H
ANA
-M
AUI
: Tel 800-321-HANA or 808-248-8211;
www.hotelhanamaui.com
.
Cost:
from $425.
W
AI’ANAPANAPA
S
TATE
P
ARK
:
www.hawaii.gov/dlnr/dsp/maui.html
.
K
AHANU
G
ARDEN
: Tel 808-248-8912;
www.ntbg.org
.
When:
closed Sat–Sun.
H
ALEAKALA
N
ATIONAL
P
ARK
: Tel 808-248-7375;
www.nps.gov/hale
.
B
EST TIMES
: end of Mar or early Apr for the East Maui Taro Festival (
www.tarofestival.org
).

They’re Ba-ack!

Maui, Hawaii

Humpback whales are Hawaii’s largest visitors, and when they come, they come in force. Nearly two-thirds of the entire North Pacific population of humpbacks, estimated at 6,000 to 10,000, spend the winter months here
, the majority arriving by December and staying until late March or early April. Measuring some 45 feet long and weighing 40 to 45 tons, the humpbacks migrate from their summer feeding grounds off Alaska, arriving in the warm, shallow Hawaiian waters to mate and
calve—and fascinate human visitors. To protect these magnificent leviathans, in 1992 Congress established the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, one of 14 such national marine sanctuaries, in five areas around the state. Nearly half the sanctuary’s 1,400 square miles lies in the channel between Maui and the neighboring islands of Lana’i and Molokai; smaller portions are located off the north shore of Kauai, the Big Island’s Kona coast, and the north and southeast coasts of Oahu.

If you’re in Maui during the winter, you can book a cruise on a whale-watching boat, hop a ferry to Molokai (see p. 959) or Lana’i (see p. 948), or simply scan the horizon. Calm conditions offer sightings of whales slapping their huge tails on the surface or breaching—leaping completely clear of the water, one of nature’s more wonderfully playful spectacles. The best places for whale watching from land are Olowalu Reef outside of Lahaina and McGregor Point near Ma’alaea (both on the Honoapi’ilani Highway); the Wailea Resort area (where there’s a telescope provided as a public service by the sanctuary); and the 360-foot cinder cone of Pu’u Olai in Makena (at the northern end of Big Beach or Oneloa Beach, off South Makena Road), where you can spot whales for miles.

To learn more about humpback whales, head to the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Sanctuary Education Center in Kihei, with exhibits, artifacts, and displays on whales, turtles, Polynesian canoe-making, and other related subjects. The center also hosts a monthly lecture series featuring whale researchers and other marine science professionals, as well as specialists in Hawaiian culture.