Maui and Kaua’i Day 5: The Trail is Dangerous

We started off our day a little bit early and headed for Hāna. Catherine had downloaded an app that got good reviews for an updated guide to the road. It was very useful. At the start of our day, we saw people surfing at a beach outside of Lahaina.

Catherine in the car with her plumeria of the day. Daniel gets her one every day we’re in Hawaii.

Our first major stop was Mile Marker 7, where we could see...

The amazing rainbow eucalyptus. It is really an incredible tree. Their colors and size make them stand out so much among the tropical rainforest landscape.

Our Jeep in the forest.

Some views along the road.

This looked like kahili ginger, which is very common in the Azores (where people eat the sap). We didn’t eat any sap today, but it seems like the same plant.

We stopped at the first rest stop looking over the Keanae Peninsula. Last time we had lunch there but it was a little earlier this time so we waited.

Instead, we ate on the peninsula itself and had a car picnic in the back of the Jeep.

The ocean from the Keanae Peninsula.

A pandanus tree, sometimes called “tourist pineapple.”

More of the peninsula, which is home to an old Congregationalist church as well as...

...Aunt Sandy’s Banana Bread stand! There is a constant dispute between supporters of Julia’s and Sandy’s banana bread. Now we have two loaves of each!

We also saw another stand, called Uncle Harry’s, which advertised malasadas. We bought some.

We also got shave ice.

Some ocean views along our way.


Our next stop was the Kahanu Garden.

The garden has various types of plants that were staples to the Polynesian peoples, such as taro, banana, and coconut.

It also has reconstructions of traditional Hawaiian buildings.

It also has actual historic ruins, including the remains of the largest temple in Hawaii, the Pi’ilanihale Heiau, built in the 16th century by the Maui chieftain Pi’ilani. It was fascinating to see something that remains from such a different era. The Kahanu Gardens were one of the major highlights of this trip, and we can’t recommend them enough.

But be warned! Coconuts can fall. Catherine felt that this warning sign made it seem like the coconuts deliberately target people.

Next we arrived in Hāna, and decided to skip the black sand beach (which we saw two years ago) and go to the Red Sand Beach (Kaihalulu). The trail is dangerous, and a woman driving by warned us not to even attempt to go there.

The trail was along the side of a cliff, and could be very dangerous in wet weather. However, we were very careful and felt pretty safe.

We arrived at the red sand beach, which was amazing. The colors of the sand and the water formed an incredible contrast, and it was pleasantly shaded by the cliffs above. The water was nice and felt like a wave pool. It reminded us a lot of the piscinas in the Azores.

After swimming for about twenty to thirty minutes, we walked back up towards the car.

The trail was dangerous, but we conquered it!

We headed back from there. We had thought about going all the way around, but we’ve done that before and it was starting to rain. We saw some amazing sites on our way out.

We stopped for dinner in Kahului on our way back to Ka’anapali. They were out of veggie burgers (which we usually order despite not being vegetarians) so we just had regular ones. They were pretty good but very filling.