In no-mans-land...

Saturday February 20. Beautiful day.

We took a quick look at the mountains and the current weather and decided to jump in the car and drive to Hana. Hana is the mysterious place on the far side of the volcano that holds great fascination for many people. Tales of Black Sands Beach, the Seven Pools, solitude and tranquility seem to be the attraction.

It is an absolutely horrendous drive with over 600 curves in the road and 50 some odd bridges, mostly if not all One-Way-Bridges. We started off at 9.00 and returned home 7 1/4 hours later with 128 miles on the odometer. I have driven it maybe five times and each time I say that is the last time. I say so again.

The weather was perfect, we only ran into light rain while coming into Hana and a torrent on the way home above Kihei, where we live. The rest of the time we had bright blue skies.

The spooky part is not so much the drive as the 'no man's land' just past Hana where the U-drive contract says 'thou shalt not drive!' If you do not chose to drive in the no-drive-zone, one has to go back the same way as you came in, with the 600 curves and 55 bridges to do again and it becomes very annoying.

We chose to defy death and the consequences associated with the rough bit and push on. The really really bad road is not so bad, as long as we travelled at the appropriate speed. The appropriate speed is sometimes 3 MPH, walking speed. My concern was the low undercarriage and the blind curves where locals with pick-ups and gigantic tires seem to enjoy spooking tourists like us.

We survived, as we got past the lumpy bit, about 13 miles that took us over an hour the road gradually improved until we were on a beautiful highway buzzing along at 50 MPH.

Long day but great to see all the various faces of Maui, from a dense bamboo rain forest to barren volcanic canyons. The passengers probably had a more scary ride than I did but nobody complained and Ian thanked me for a very comfortable ride.

Near the end of the run, Kihei is about one hour down the coast ahead.

Again, past the lumpy bit and glad to see half decent roads.

At Hana Bay, not a lot to see there, but a first for us.

Picnic lunch near Hana.

The weather was perfect, this is approaching Hana.
Hark is that a decent road ahead?

Volcanic canyons, formed by centuries of flash floods.
We could be in Scotland, looking at this picture.

A bit of the lumpy bit.

As a matter of interest, Hana gets about 65 inches of rain a year, same as Vancouver. Up the road a bit in the rain forest they get 300 inches a year, and the West Maui Mountains at the north end get 600 inches per year. Needless to say water is not scarce, just expensive.