I survived the road to Hana!
I survived the road to Hana, which has 617 turns and 54 one-lane bridges. The trip takes all day (about 10 hours) and goes completely around the entire island of Maui. The winding road to Hana even has its own motto:

There will be absolutely NO: whining, crying, eating, sleeping, reading, restroom stops, complaining, moaning, horsing around, blackmailing, sickness, or turning back!

10 hours on a mini tour bus on a road with 617 hairpin turns, 54 one lane bridges that you have to pull over before entering for on-coming traffic to pass, and some of the tallest cliffs in the world on either side of the bus at all times… now doesn’t that sound like a fun journey?

Before I left on my vacation to Maui, my co-worker’s who’ve been to Maui before told me that I had to take the tour to Hana. They said it would take all day, but it was extremely beautiful and worth it. I think they were right on varying levels. The road to Hana is an experience I’ll never forget.

According to our Hana tour guide (who narrated the entire 10 hours on the road to Hana and never ever shut up) the road to Hana is not a trip, which has a destination, but a journey a time of discovery and reflection. The road to Hana was also a 10-hour journey into the philosophical mind of our tour guide. We were his captive audience.

Under his tutelage we learned the meaning of the Aloha spirit of the Hawaiian people. The Aloha spirit represents: Sincerity and the present moment. According to our tour guide, the Hawaiian people had gotten away from the Aloha spirit for a while, but were starting to come back to it. This was probably a result of the influence of the mainland, he surmised. As we continued around hairpin turns on our philosophical journey, we also learned that: “Frustration is the brother of anger” and we should all be more forgiving like the Hawaiian people. We also learned that our tour guide had lost his thriving business when 911 happened and had moved to Maui to start his life over. (I personally think he hates what has become of his life. He used to be a chemical specialist of some kind and now here he was stuck driving a tour bus to Hana everyday.) We also discovered that he had a unique way of dealing with life’s little crises’. At one of our stops along the road to Hana, which he called “Photo Opportunities”, ‘E’ and I told him we were getting carsick from all the hairpin turns. Our tour guide’s response:

“Suck it up, deal with it, and accept it! There’s nothing else you can do about it.”

I guess our tour guide meant business when he recited the Hana road motto to us before we began our journey.

It was at this time that I began to wonder if our tour guide had ever been in the military, which I later found out he had. He was also militant about keeping us on schedule; too much lingering at the photo opportunities was not tolerated.

Our tour guide also taught us Hawaiian history about wars that raged on Maui between ancient Hawaiian Kings in an attempt to unify the Hawaiian Islands. We learned that Jim Nabors and Oprah Winfrey were great benefactors to the Hawaiian people and the island of Maui. We also learned that Jurassic Park was filmed on Maui. The helicopter scene where they drop thousands of feet next to giant cliffs was right in the area we were driving. We learned about the local Hawaiian people: their superstitions and their cultures. That it is an ancient custom for the Hawaiians to plant red Taro plants around their houses to ward off evil spirits and that pineapples grow in fields on the ground not in trees. Our tour guide also explained what was ‘endemic’, ‘indigenous’, and ‘introduced’ to the Hawaiian Islands and Maui in particular. Before Captain James Cook came along in the late 1700's and mapped out the Pacific… there were no mosquitoes, rats, mongoose, cows or goats in Hawaii. All of those were ‘introduced’ to Hawaii and Maui. It’s nice to know that the white man continually changes God’s great creations with their explorations and discoveries of uncharted waters and lands. We learned so much I can’t even begin to remember it all. After all, I slept through some of the titillating information. I don’t think our tour guide shut up or paused for breath the entire 10 hours we were on that bus with him. He didn’t care if we were tired, sleeping, hungry, or bored-- he just kept right on talking.

I will say this though about the road to Hana… you will never see anything more beautiful in your life. You pass through tropical rain forests filled with so many different shades of green, its unimaginable. And hundreds of rainbow colored eucalyptus trees that reach up towards the heavens. Giant waterfalls, tropical flowers and red Taro plants, and some of the tallest cliffs in the world with beautiful ocean coastlines at the base of the cliffs.

Also on the road to Hana you’ll find the most beautiful black sand beaches in the world. Looking out at the green tropical brush, black rocks, black sand, and the blue blue ocean with white surf rushing in to touch the black sand against the light blue sky and white fluffy clouds… I had to stop, stand still, and soak in this moment-- this place, so beautiful I don’t even have the proper words to describe it. God must have spent a moment longer in this sacred place-- brought out his special colors to paint the scenery with here. He must have known this was a place he would want to visit again and again. I stood there in awe. Aware of the very breath in my lungs. With wet black sand between my toes, watching children run into the white surf. Knowing this was a place that God had truly blessed. And I was thankful that I was allowed to see it. I was thankful that there was a road to Hana with 617 hairpin turns and 54 one-lane bridges and a tour guide that never shut up that brought me to this black sand beach. This beautiful sacred place, the most beautiful place I’d ever seen. I never wanted to leave. I wondered if there had ever been a wedding at this sacred secluded spot. I pictured a beautiful Hawaiian bride standing in a flowing white gown against that black sand, blue ocean and blue sky with long dark hair blowing in the wind and bright Plumerias in her hair… what a special moment that would be. I envisioned young lovers playing, running, falling in the surf and black sand, kissing as the water washed up around their bodies, making for a perfect romantic Hollywood movie moment.

I reached down and filled an empty water bottle with black sand. I wanted a little piece of God’s colorful hidden treasure to take back home with me. I wanted to run my fingers through that black sand and remember-- return over and over again to this moment, this place of rest and beauty in my mind.

And if the black sand beach wasn’t enough to take your breath away… the road to Hana also takes you to the 7 Sacred Pools. Water from waterfalls that has collected in giant lava rock formations creating 7 pools that people marvel at and swim in. The road to Hana takes you completely around the Haleakala volcano mountain and has the best banana bread I’ve ever tasted-- baked fresh all day long. And just like the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow… the road to Hana has a winery with pineapple wine at the end of its journey.

My co-workers were right. You can’t go to Maui and not see all the beautiful sights there are to see on the road to Hana. It’s the journey… not the destination. However, unlike my co-workers, I had survived the road to Hana with our ever so special tour guide and that made the journey even more memorable. I commemorated my Hana journey by buying a I SURVIVED THE ROAD TO HANA T-shirt, which I will proudly wear and remember fondly.  posted by Matildakay at 10:30 PM