Maui Island Touring!
03 April 2018 | Honokahua Bay - D. T. Fleming Park
Helen
Up early and tried to land the dinghy in the snorkel bay next to us as the Guide Book said there was a dock there. However, we dinghied over and there and it was rocky along the entire shore. So, we dinghied to our beach, D.T. Fleming and the surf was very flat. It was easy to get to land and then the task of dragging the dinghy up far enough to tie to a tree was not so easy. It's a heavy dinghy. Mark called a taxi to take us to the rental office. We got our Nissan which did a great job for us today. We drove from our side of the island to the opposite side, for the entire Hana Hiway. We stopped a few places, including The Twin Falls and the Black Sand Beach. We had a pizza lunch at one of the many eateries along the way. They consisted of a trailer for cooking and picnic benches to sit on. Yes, we did sample the banana bread along the way. Yummy! The road mostly fit one car. All the tiny bridges were built for one car and you had to yield to the other side. After Hanna, the hiway was under construction thru the day until 4:30 pm. It took quite a while waiting in line to use their restrooms to change into our swim suits. We took our snorkel gear and towels and walked down the hundreds of steps leading down to the water. At least it felt like that when we had to climb back up. Lots of people at the beach and in the water. There were black rocks to match the black sandy beach and walking out into the very cold water, it hurt the bottom of my feet. We were the only ones snorkeling. There were huge rocks below and above the water line. There were a number of fish to see. We did take some underwater shots. They also had an area with fresh water showers which was nice to rinse off the salt water. As we continued around the island, it was a dirt road and there were a few cars that banded together for the drive. We saw some rain at times. Lots of cows in open rocky hill pastures. In one place there were about half a dozen goats running on the side of the road and then across our path. At times the road was very narrow and thankfully, not too many cars coming from the opposite direction, to have to pass. The terrain changed to very mountainous up and down, round and round. The rock faces that were cut out for the road were impressive. We could see the volcano crater off in the distance as we followed the ocean. An absolutely beautiful drive. It took us all day to drive there and back. The majority of the road had a speed limit of 10 or 15 mph. We didn't get back to our beach until after dark. The park was not quite closed and there is no gate. There were still a number of cars in the parking lot. We found our dinghy and had less of a drag to the water as it was high tide. We got back to the boat, which was minus the anchor light as we thought we would be back before dark. It's quite flat outside and the breeze is lovely. We could not have asked for a nicer anchorage. Again, we have the place to ourselves. Mark did a wonderful job driving us around. I'm glad I didn't have to drive when the road was rough and very sharp corners. Researching what we want to do tomorrow. The wind is predicted to shift Thursday which means we will vacate this anchorage. We will return our rental car tomorrow evening, so we will be ready to leave on Thursday.