Maui Explored

Wai'anapanapa State Park cabins

These cabins are the shelters offered by the State of Hawaii. The cabins were fairly sparse, infested with small critters, and the beds weren't too comfortable. However, they were a bargain, especially compared to the cost of the island in general. We stocked up on food in Kahului (near the airport) to save $ and headed out to the cabins near Hana via the Hana Highway. The cabins were our destination.

Upon arriving at cabin #5 we frightfully encounter our first bunk mate. His dominance over the front entry became clear as we manuevered around his web, lest we encounter his blood thirsty wrath. As the week passed, we came to a belief that his deathly intentions were for the moths and flies that inundated our cabin at night. Given a steady supply of winged creatures, he would avoid feasting on us. To pay homage, we began to turn the entryway light on at night to draw meals to his web. After paying respect and providing food for him, we be believe we thwarted his venom!

Common Entryway Spider, non-venomous (according to park caretaker)

The cabin was basically a wooden shell with some plumbing, electricity and for the most part a roof that kept the monsoon at bay. It was after the first day in the cabin that we thanked the Hawaiian gods that we got the cabin and didn't opt for a week in a tent. Turns out we decided to vacation during the "rainy season." Rainy apparently is a relative term. The meek offerings included some bunk beds, some plates, pots, and towels. Not all of it was clean but for only $45/ night, we were satisfied with what we got. The cabins allowed us to avoid the crowds traveling to Hana Highway sights by placing us in the heart of the sights with a 2 hour head start of those heading from South or West Maui. Our cabin was situated about 100ft from the coast (see the pics in another entry) providing us with the consistent background noise of waves beating the bejesus out of the rocky coast line. Although visually pleasing, the sounds at night gave the impression of a naval cannon battle just beyond the surf. To be honest, the word tsunami bounced around in my head repeatedly during the quiet nights. Katie found it soothing (city girl?).

View of Cabin

Make shift "king size bed"

Kitchen

Bath area

The bathroom was also the temporary dwelling for a less menacing looking spider, whom, at Katie insistence, got the boot via a broom.

It wasn't until the second night in the cabin when we were formally introduced to our other bunkmates. A family (pod, herd, pack?) of geckos claimed the ceiling above our bunks and the kitchen (essentially the same room). Our fascination with the lizards started the first night as chirping was heard multiple times during the middle of the night. I wrote if off as the mongeese that freely roam the lands outside our cabins:

"Chris did you hear that?"
"Yeah, sort of sounded like the chirping of squirrel, must be the mongoose."
"Okay, but it sounds like it came from IN the cabin."
"Don't be silly Katie, I want to get to sleep."

The next evening we noticed the geckos standing guard by a light on the wall. We quickly became keen to their moth, mosquito and fly catching skills as the insects buzzed near the light. That night Katie and I had the same conversation. The following day, Katie witnessed two geckos fighting/arguing and discovered that the chirping came from the geckos and not the mongeese. My bad.

Spotted, daddy gecko

My love for the gecko and my fascination with them lasted the entire week at the cabin till we checked out. It was a calm saturday morning, the sun was breaking the horizon, the waves doing battle with the shoreline and I awoke a bright 6:45 am. As I stumbled around in a pre-coffee haze looking for my glasses and trying not to wake Katie, this bastard shat on my shoulder. I feed him to the cats.

It didn't take us more than one meal before we met our protectors of mongoose. Three hungry looking stray cats who looked to us for table scraps. Being dog people, we figured cats would be acceptable for a short period. Their meals of leftovers included shrimp, steak grizzle, sweet potatoes and more sweet potatoes. To humanize their suffering we assigned each a name (please excuse our lack of political correctness). There was One-Eyed Willie (he only had one eye), Hawaii 5-0 (black and white) and Martin Luther Cat (all black).

One Eye, Hawaii 5-0, and MLC

With the lava rock sea cliffs and pounding waves less than 100 yards from our cabin, we were very pleased with the living situation and spent hours exploring the cliffs and taking pictures. You'll be see these in other entries.

The rain eventually let up and we were rewarded with a pretty sunset!

Sunset from our porch!

Another perk of the state cabin was the proximity to road side vendors that provided copious amounts/ types of fruit. What, Chris Peterson, a fruit eater??? Yeah, when in Rome I suppose. Katie is more a fruit person than me. I also found that fruits wedged onto glasses with Mai Tai's, Volcanoes, Chi Chi's, and Blue Hawaiians provided an excellent excuse to eat more healthy... Anyhow more on that later. The parcel of land around the cabin gave us coconuts, papaya, and guava. Not knowing when to pick any, I only picked and ate the guava (the only fruit accessible from the ground). Birds beat us to the ripening papaya and coconuts were beyond abundant, but I wasn't about to shimmy up a tree nor did I trust eating one from the ground.

Panning view from our porch

Road to Hana

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Ahhh, the road to Hana. Long and windy. Green and blue. Waterfalls and calm beaches. And probably caused the most near death experiences of our trip. Lets make it clear that "highway" in this instance implies death defying cliffs more so than a high speed expressway.

As a preliminary statement, we will give a lot of credit for activities, hikes, and restaurants to a travel book entitled Maui Revealed. The book presents an untainted review of what to do and what not do on the island. Apparently there is a guidebook for each major island (don't quote me, Katie did most of the navigating and reading as we drove along). For the most part we stuck to the book. Thank you to Katie's cousin, Adam, the book was an excellent call.

The drive to Hana is how we choose to spend our New Years Eve. The road has to be one of the most picturesque drives in the US; offering views of black, red, and brown sand beaches, from sea level to 1000' cliffs overlooking bays. There are countless waterfalls and lush green mountain sides. I think I reached a state of eye orgasm on this road. It is also the only road to Hana, offering narrow roads full of gawking tourists, driving 30 mph around hairpin turns that would turn Mario Andretti's knuckles white. We embarked upon the trip in a torrential downpour, driving an oversized, four-door Jeep Wrangler, twice the size of my Mazda. It was a fun ride in and of itself. The road is stocked with picture perfect waterfalls. We saw about half of them on the way out then saw many more on subsequent commuter drives to other sites.

Here is an example of the rain we saw! Soggy Wet!

There were a number of cars doing the drive with us which made pulling over for a picture a bit difficult and dangerous. Often the road was very narrow (literally one lane) with many switchbacks while overlooking a turquoise beaches. We found that the rainy weather made for some great views, blanketing the mountains and trees in misty clouds, but cutting out some of the blazingly sunny views.