Hawaii 2012

Part 2

To Maui on a small plane of Island Air.

Our cabin on Maui at the Royal Lahaina Resort.

Nice place with its own golf course.

A waterfall on the Road to Hana.

The flora is different from what we see in NJ.

Many overlook spots on the winding road to Hana.

We stopped at an arboretum

.

Flowers everywhere.

And some nice views.

Each gorge carved by a river meant another sharp curve with a narrow bridge. Fun to drive.

Interesting bark. Keeps the bugs out I guess.

Another waterfalls.

Every curve gave us views like this.

We were quite high.

Lots of folks liked to dip in the waterfalls.

The Black Sand Beach at Hana.

Produced by the lava rocks being ground up by the surf.

After lunch at a small resort in Hana we decided to take the southern road back.

This is a very good stretch of that road. Much of it was unpaved and very narrow.

A typical view. The road here is in very good shape too.

One of the switchbacks.

There were many very large fields of sugar cane growing all over the island.

Some of the roads near the ocean were carved out of the lava.

To keep falling rocks from hitting cars they “fence” the cliffs.

The view as we got near our hotel.

The next day we headed up to Haleakala National Park. The mountain is over 10,000 feet.

The view was hindered by clouds. We are about 7000 feet at this point.

We saw hundreds of bikers coming down. Only 3 going up!

We did get a peek at the lower regions occasionally.

The Visitor Center part way up had some interesting plants. This is the silversword.

We made it to 9000 feet and turned around. Too many clouds. All we could see was grey.

The view was simply not going to be as wonderful as we hoped.

Above us was not too great either.

Landscaping is a different process than it is in NJ.

Many homes were built up off the ground.

After coming down we looked over Kahului and then drove up into the ‘Ioa Valley.

Stopped at the Fabric Mart to see Hawaiian fabric.

Stopped here to see an aquarium.

Many colorful fish.

Their big tank was nice.

Some real cuties.

That evening we went to a Luau in Lahaina.

There was a really huge banyan tree in the town near the luau site.

We saw many homeless in Hawaii.

The luau was not a buffet as most of them are.

We were right on the beach to enjoy the sunset and then the entertainment.

Lots of dances.

The next morning we flew to the Big Island and landed in Hilo where we were to stay.