Maui: Day 3

Day three started after a night of terrible insomnia. Unfortunately, this is pretty common for me when on vacation. Disrupted sleep schedules and new surroundings often give me insomnia. Not fun.

Since I was awake anyway, we decided to get up at 3:45am and drive to the top of Mount Haleakala to watch the sunrise.

On the drive there we were googling information about the volcano and everything said it was freezing cold at the top. We both had a jacket, but that's about it. We got to the top about 1 minute before the sun peaked. Good timing, no? And yes, it was cold, but not freezing like we expected, thank goodness.

Hey, Lady! You look like you got up at 3:45am.....

After the sun got a little higher in the sky we could see the valley before us a little better. All those things that look like mini volcanoes, are actually called "cones." The view of this valley of cones changed every few minutes as the sun got higher and higher in the sky.

We then drove a short bit to the other side of the mountain (volcano) and saw this space observatory that looks like it came straight out of Star Wars.

While driving around, we noticed this crazy silver alien looking plant that was so shiny it was reflecting the sunlight. The Ahinahina plant, we learned, grows for 50 years, flowers once, throws 50,000 seeds then dies. Awesome.

Little baby plants growing.

These are the flowers at the top.

After the volcano, we drove back to the condo, passing Oprah's house somewhere along the way, Hey Oprah!

We went back to the beach and the waves were crashing down again.
Stick boogie boarded, and I watched from the safety of an umbrella.

A guy and his girlfriend sat down near us and he immediately strapped a GoPro to his head and headed for the waves. Stick and I looked at each other and said, "That guy is going to lose his GoPro, he must not realize how hard these waves are coming down."

And I kid you not, fifteen minutes later it was gone and he and his girlfriend were trying to find it in the water. (They didn't find it.)

Then we felt bad 'cause we could have warned them. (Sometimes it's hard to know how much you can butt into complete stranger's lives.)

After lunch, we drove up the west side of the island where all the big fancy hotels are, then around the north side which is super desolate and gorgeous.

We knew that somewhere along the northern coast was a natural blow-hole.
At one point we stopped the car to check the map and luckily were right there, at the blow hole.

These pictures do not do it justice at all. It was incredible.

On our way home we ended up driving on the Kahekili Highway.
Have you heard of it? Perhaps you know it by it's other name, the Death Road of Maui.
Here's what the website dangerousroads.org says about it:

Kahekili Highway is a strip of one-lane paved road framed by rock on one side and sheer cliff drops on the other with a length of 20 miles from Kapalua to Wailuku. It’s a legendary road known for its snaking turns, narrow passages, and dangerous road conditions, though nowadays that last factor is gone, since the road was completely repaved not too long ago.

This challenging road, which hugs the rugged northern tip of Maui, the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands, needles around hairpin turns, careens over one-lane bridges and teeters beside treacherous cliffs. It’s one of Maui’s most adventurous drives, and undisputedly its most challenging. Perhaps it's for the thrill of driving on the edge of a cliff, but more likely it's for the incredible beauty of the views available on this drive.

If I could sum up the road in one word it would be: horrifying.

If Stick could sum it up he would say: exhilarating.

I'm pretty sure we were in the car together, but somehow we had completely different experiences.

I did not get any good pictures, I was too busy contemplating how exactly we were going to die on this road.

Fortunately, Google has a picture for your viewing pleasure.

Was it beautiful? Yes, gorgeous.
Do I ever want to drive it again? Absolutely not. Never. No way. Been there done that.

I'm happy to report that we survived and we can check the Kahekili Highway off our bucket lists.
(It was never on our bucket lists.)