On the Road to Hana

< Pandanus on the shore at Ke'anae
Today we headed out on the road to Hana, located on the extreme eastern end of Maui. It's a long drive on narrow winding roads, with numerous switchbacks and one lane bridges. We didn't plan on going all the way to Hana, and in fact we turned around after reaching Ke'anae, a little over half way.

On the way to and from Ke'anae, we stoped at a number of places, particularly the Waikamoi Ridge trail, the Garden of Eden arboretum, a sort of private botanical gardens, and at Ke'anae itself.

The vegetation changes as you progress along the coast, from sugar cane country, through bamboo thickets, to (bizarrely) groves of large Eucalypts, and then to forest that starts to resemble rainforest. Ferns abound.

< Torch Ginger flower on Waikamoi Ridge
The roads - apart from being narrow and winding - are almost totally lacking in signage - so it's very difficult indeed to find the features (waterfalls etc) that are shown on the maps. One strange phenomenon that this generates is that if someone stops along the roadside for any reason, other cars also stop, in the hope the the first car knows where to find one of the attractions on the map. Parking spots are extremely scarce, too. It's not an easy drive!

But the scenery is worth the effort. We stopped at the Waikamoi Ridge trail, and went for a wander along the shorter part of the trail (about a mile overall). The vegetation verges on rainforest, with Swamp Mahogany (Eucalyptus robusta) and giant Melaleuca trees, introduced from Australia, as well as the native trees, shrubs and ferns. Banana and ginger plants occupy most of the understory, along with a dozen or more fern species. A very worthwhile stopping off point. See photo of a ginger plant, at left. An amazing bloom, nearly 6 inches across.

We then headed to Ke'anae, a small coastal village with gorgeous scenery, waves crashing onto black volcanic rock. (see photo, above left).

< Palms at the Garden of Eden
We've put up a new gallery of the day's photos. The ones included here show the wonderful coastline at Ke'anae, with Pandanus palm (top), a Torch Ginger flower we saw on the Waikamoi Ridge trail (middle); and Palms at the Garden of Eden arboretum (bottom).

Lunch was a large chunk of Banana Cake and some wild Strawberry Guavas, from a small roadside stall. Delicious. It didn't satisfy L's need for protein, though...

Then on the way back we stopped at the Garden of Eden - a small private arboretum. It did finally give us a view of one of the waterfalls we had failed to find while driving along the road!

For dinner we went into Pa'ia, but as usual, parking was nearly impossible, so the restaurant we wanted to go to had filled up by the time we had walked back from the car park. Maui is infested with cars. Everyone seems to have at least two of them...