Hawaii

November 5-28, 2011

hawaii - november 13

South Maui, Lahaina, and the Luau

South Maui

After an early breakfast we packed up camp and headed out on the Piilani Highway along the southern part of Maui. The warnings in guide books about the terrible road conditions were quite exaggerated and given that there was almost no traffic we really enjoyed the narrow road along the arid southern flank of Haleakela with great views out on the ocean. We left South Maui and headed to West Maui... in particular to Lahaina where we were booked for a luau that night.

7am: PB&J breakfast at the Kipahulu campsite.

The kids sporting their hand crafted hula skirts made from hala leaves.

Sam in her "hula skirt".

As we head west around the southern part of Maui we start to see why the road often sees closures during and after bad weather with all the nets covering the cliff sides.

End of the Hana highway and the start of the Piilani Highway.

As scary as the road looks, we had expected (and have seen) much worse.

There are a couple of tight squeezes... :P

St. Joseph Church. Established 1862. In remote and sparsely populated Kaupo, the church only holds services if there's a fifth Sunday in the month.

View of St. Joseph Church looking out over the ocean.

As we head along the Piilani Highway the landscape changes completely and we're glad we decided to come this way to experience this instead of going back along the Hana Highway.

Not sure if these are graves or memorial sites.

We haven't seen any signs of civilization on this highway and suddenly we come upon a cattle crossing sign.

We finish a gravelly section but even the paved road is still pretty narrow at times.

View of the beautiful Pokowai sea arch along our drive.

This was the most 'engineered' part of the Piilani Highway... they must get some pretty big runoffs and rock slides during bad weather to warrant this!

The new section of the road... it's not the widest but then again, there isn't a whole lot of traffic to share the road with!

Beautiful reds of the cinder cones against the blue sky.

These cacti with giant flower stalks were everywhere... I think they might be a type of agave.

The first sign of habitation along the south side of Haleakela.

Kanaio Natural Area Reserve.

Lots of lava fields and cinder cones.

These lava fields are pretty old but they are still pretty barren.

A roadside stop? We didn't see any signs of life so we moved on.

Beautiful flowers along the road.

Close-up of the flowers.

As the Piilani Highway comes to an end up on the slopes of Haleakela, we see the resort area of South Maui but unfortunately there is no road connection built that way.