Tuesday Summary
It had been two years since our first trip to Maui and our first time along the Road to Hana. As we did the first time, we chose to take a guided tour rather than make the drive ourselves, which meant more time watching and learning about the road and the beautiful surroundings and less time focusing on the driving.

It was still early in the trip for us, maybe too early for the tour. After being stuck on a plane for 9 hours a few days before, a 10 hour bus tour might have brought back some fresh memories. In any case, it was still a nice tour and we took a lot more photos of the sights along the road this time. We even brought along our GPS recorder so we could actually show people on a map where these awesome places were.

We chose a different tour this year, going with Discover Hawaii Tours rather than Roberts Hawaii. Our main deciding factor was price, but the outcome of how much better Discover Hawaii Tours turned out to be had a lot to do with our tour guide, Jonathon the Professor. There was so much he had to say and teach about the islands, the history and all parts of the road to Hana that it was hard to remember it all. And at each stop, he knew everyone there, was helping out at the fruit stand, things like that which made it feel that much more fun.

By the time the tour was over, we were pretty much wiped out. We stopped at Safeway for a decent sized sub sandwich large enough for the three of us and enjoyed it in our room. It was lights out soon after that. A fun day, but still a long one.

Itinerary - Tuesday, April 15th

• Early morning pickup by Discover Hawaii Tours
• Brief drive through Paia
• Stop at Kaumahina State Wayside
• Halfway to Hana in Keanae
• Hanawi Falls
• Drive through Hana
• Stop at Tropical Flowers nursery
• Wailua Falls
• Red Sand Beach
• Ono Farms Fruit Stand
• Lunch at the Hana Maui Hotel
• An hour at Waianapanapa State Park (Black Sand Beach)
• Stop at the Ke'anae Lookout
• Photo-op of Honomanu Bay
• Deli sandwiches for dinner

Tuesday Timeline

6:13 AM HST

Sitting on our lanai just before sunrise, blogging about yesterday's activities.

Still able to get up bright and early because of the time difference. Came in handy since the shuttle bus for our tour was getting to the hotel before 7am.

7:14 AM HST

Riding the shuttle bus to Kahului

It was nice riding along the road to Kahului from Lahaina rather than driving for a change. It was too early for me to be in the mood for pictures, but seeing the different beach parks and waves along the road was nice. Also, there was quite a bit of haze once we got near Kihei and Kahului, which we learned from the shuttle bus driver was volcanic fog, otherwise known as "vog". It came from the erupting volcanoe on the Big Island courtesy of the southeasternly winds.

7:30 AM HST

Nibbling on a breakfast burrito before the tour.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at a nice little shop while we waited for the other groups. There was only three of us on our shuttle bus, and we sure beat the crowds when the other two buses arrived.

It was still early, but probably a good thing we didn't fill up on the complimentary breakfast because of the winding road that awaited us.

1:50 PM HST

Finished eating at the Hana Hotel. Only spot with a reception so far.

There was a big (and later obvious) gap between posts here, due to the fact that I couldn't get a connection on my PDA to make updates along the tour. My GPS recorder worked fine, so all the photos were able to be geotagged, but making notes of various stops was out of the question.

As for lunch at the Hana Maui Hotel, it was really nice. The hotel only has about 90 rooms or so, but the views are spectacular and the staff at lunch was so nice. Compared to our previous experience which was just a cold sandwich at a picnic lunch at Waianapanapa State Park, this was definite plus. In fact, lunch was included in the tour price, which made it even better.

5:37 PM HST

On our way back to Kahului

At last, we were on our way back to Kahului, in order to jump on the shuttle bus back ot Ka'anapali. The shuttle bus was playing HAPA's "Maui" CD, which was pretty cool. We'd be seeing them the following Saturday at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.

6:50 PM HST

Back in Ka'anapali, driving out to Safeway to grab sandwiches for dinner

We were pretty hungry come dinner time, but didn't feel like driving or going out. Safeway was the next best thing. We picked up a pretty good sub sandwich that we all shared, ships, desert, the whole nine yards. We ate it back at our room and had desert on the lanai.

9:11 PM HST

Blogging about what we did on Monday (I'm still a day behind).

Exhausted from the day's activities, I was still able to hit the blog and post about Monday.

Related Links

• Blog Post - Our Return to Hana
• Road to Hana
• Discover Hawaii Tours - Road to Hana
• Photos - Road to Hana '08