...the highway to Hana

Traffic congestion on the narrow highway to Hana, Hawaii.

One of over 60 one lane bridges on the highway to Hana.

Fields of taro along the road.

Hasegawa General Store in Hana.  It was sort of the equivalent of M&M Market in Nikiski.  A laid back place with a little bit of everything.

Laura stands on the volcanic black sand beach at Wai'anapanapa Park.

Emily at the entrance of a lava cave that leads down to the water.

Laura and others at the end of the lava cave near the water.

Laura at the opening near the end of the lava cave where the water came in.

The crowd at the black sand beach when we exited the lava cave on our way back.

Laura and Mrs. Huffy with one of the numerous waterfalls along the road to Hana.

If you drive to Hana--hold on to the steering wheel.  There are over 600 turns on the narrow twisting road which makes for great excitement if you like to drive.  And, I do.

So, I was filled with tremendous anticipation as we left our condo and made our way across the island to the start of the Hana Highway just past Pa'ia.  I think the experience would have been enhanced had we been driving a convertible, but the Mazda 3 rental car did just fine.  Mrs. Huffy was the navigator and read from the guide book as we rounded corner after corner and crossed bridge after bridge.  Laura listened to her iPod in the backseat and Emily either napped, looked out the window, or asked question after question.  I steered into the turns, pressed the gas, crunched the brakes and enjoyed what can only be described as driving nirvana.  We made many stops along the way to look at waterfalls and various other points of interest.  We had hoped to hike to Waikani Falls, but a No Trespassing" sign thwarted our plans (we later found out that such signs are often placed by an irrigation company that has no authority to do so).

One noteworthy stop was at Coconut Glen's Big Dumb Coconut Stand where we drank from a freshly harvested coconut.  It was such a momentous stop that I intend to detail it in its entirety in a subsequent post, hence I won't divulge much about it here.  Check back regularly for that story.

Upon our arrival in Hana we went to Hasegawa's General Store.  It's the Hawaiian equivalent to M&M Market here in Nikiski and it serves as a catch-all store and social meeting place for residents.    We enjoyed looking around and used the ATM before we left to visit the black sand beach at Wai'anapanapa Park.

The beach at Wai'anapanapa Park is about 100 feet wide and, according to the literature, was formed when lava flowed into the sea nearby.  As we were standing there looking around we saw an entrance to a tunnel through which people were coming and going.  We followed it for a short distance to an opening where the waves from the ocean were washing in and out.  We took some photos and marvelled at the water moving through the opening before turning back and following the tunnel back to the beach were a number of tourists had arrived.

We walked through the remainder of the park and eventually made our way back to the rental car and onto the road for our return trip.  We stopped less on our way back which made for some twisting and turning driving and tremendous fun on my part.  As we neared Pa'ia we stopped at Momma's Fish House only to find that we would have a very long wait if we wanted to dine there (it was Christmas Eve and everyone was out celebrating), so we continued to Lahaina where we had a wonderful dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company.

After dinner we returned to the condo, parked the Mazda 3, and collapsed into a world of dreams of driving (a convertible) on...the highway to Hana.