Thank God for a good day in Maui 3/28/17 Day 2 Road to Hana/Pipiwai Trail.

Psalm 23:4 NKJV

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me 

Aloha! Day 2 is here! Let's get started!

Tasty Crust

 

 

Had to try this local delish out due to yelp and internet recommendations. I had the mini local moco and my brother and his wife had the rest. The food was good. Something to start your day with. I heard they are famous for their pancakes but I didn't try it out. I should had.... oh well.

Food to go: Sam Sato's

 

We ended stopping by here which is also close to Tasty Crust for take out for our hiking trip. We bought some thick assorted noodles to feed the three of us. 

Road to Hana/Pipiwai Trail/Seven Sacred Pools at Ohe'o

Road to Hana Scenery

 

So the overall objective was for us to get to the Pipiwai trail on this day. In order to do so, you must go through the dreaded Road to Hana. This road is full of curves, 54- one lane bridges, and loads of narrow roads. It took nearly two hours for us to get from Wailuku/Kahului side to arrive to our destination. To make matters worse, once you thought you were done with the Hana Hwy, there are a few more one lane bridges and narrow roads in order to get to the Pipiwai Trail. Move out early because Maui is full of mainland tourists that the roads become very jampacked after 10AM. This even goes for the Road to Hana. It also doesn't help that the locals drive like maniacs even on these roads. The good thing about this road is that there are lots of waterfall pit stops for you to take pics. There are also hidden gems if you do researches online but that wasn't my goal for the day. 

Pipiwai Trail/Waimoku Falls

 

 

 

 

 

We finally got here. The Pipiwai trail is part of the Haleakala National Park establishment. The parking here is $20 and make sure you save the receipt because the receipt is good for three days and you can use it on other Haleakala monuments. It was a very hot day but the trail was nice. You will encounter a Banyan tree, a nice, serenading Bamboo forest, mini-stream rivers, and eventually the Waimoku Falls. Sadly, I was disappointed because due to heavy rain a few months ago, getting up close to the falls was closed off. An old man actually entered despite being warned by some bystanders. I thought about it too but since people were looking and I had family with me, I decided to not do it and not get fined. Just google search Waimoku Falls and you will see people swimming in the falls and taking pictures up close. Man, I was really bummed. 

Kuloa point trail/Seven Sacred Pools at Ohe'o

 

 

 

So if you took the Kuloa Point trail, you would had come across another swimming area known as the Seven Sacred pools at Ohe'o. Due to some land/rockslide, the pools were closed off. The Ocean is also close to here so take nice landscape pictures. We had our Sam Sato lunch afterwards. Thank Jesus that this hike day is over. Or so we thought.

PokoWai Sea Arch

Sadly this didn't happen. As much as I wanted to see this place, it wasn't feasible. Me and the gang tried to get here but it is in the back roads of Hana heading back towards town. Now I know why your GPS/people would tell you to take Hana Hwy. Believe it or not, Hana feels much safer. Over here the roads are even more narrow and if it is wet and muddy, you need 4WD. After a few miles, we decided to head back to Hana Hwy. I told my brother it's not worth it. Anyhow, if you are interested, here's a link to the pic:

Pokowai Sea Arch

Wai'anapanapa State park

 

Also known as the black sand beach. I've been here several years ago, but I didn't realize there was a hike to left side of the beach. By the time we got here, there were many people swimming and sunbathing here. There is also a blowhole here so some people got splashed which was funny as they were trying to get away from the spout no matter how hard they tried. 

Tamron Zoom lens pics

 

 

 

I took this chance to use my 70mm-300mm lens. I wasn't really satisfied. I took lots of pics but I think these came out the most decent. Many came out really blurry. Even the darn state park sign is "soft" looking if you zoom in. There were even turtles swimming in this area but I had difficulty snatching a good shot. 

2009 revisit

 

 

 

This was me and the fam back in 2009. This is how the shoreline looks like without being condensed with people. I'm not sure if we were here too early or if Maui wasn't a popular tourist attraction then. Anyhow, good memories.

Homebound and dinner

Thank you to Christina Hu for the dinner pics.

 

 

We got home nearly 5-6PM. We had a very long day so we went across our hotel to eat. We tried going to Bistro Cassanova  but they were busy so we went to Ichiban. The food was delicious! I never had Japanese food for a while but this was awesome! Let the pics fill your stomach. Afterwards, we went to a place called Plantation Grindz to get Ice Cream. I was a little disappointed because this place used to be called Treats and Sweets. The dessert in Plantation Grindz were very limited. I didn't take any pics because the Ice cream melts so fast. 

2009 Treats and Sweets bonus

 

My mom

Really sucks that Treats and Sweets is no longer there. Ah memories.

Day 2 over

That was it. Went back to the Hotel to shower and my brother rented Deep Water Horizon to finish off the night. Thank Jesus for a wonderful day and day 3 coming soon. TY TY.

Day 1 Maui 2017