The Road to Hana - Dave and Patty - Thursday, March 31, 2022

April 02, 2022

When you win a trip with Hunter Douglas, you often have a choice of excursions to choose from at your expense. Dave and I looked through them all. What seemed the most appealing to me and right up my alley was The Road to Hana. The road has 617 turns and 54 one lane bridges. We decided to go with a tour company. Nick and Dorothy drove it on their own! We learned a lot of history and we took a lot of photos. We stopped at a Lava Tube and went inside the Lava Tube with our flashlights. We learned that one side of the island (Hana) gets up to 400 inches of rain a year and the other side (the side where we were staying) gets about 4 to 10 inches of rain a year.

We learned that Kahelaka Island is off limits because for years it was used for target practice and now there are unexploded bombs throughout the island. Boats can't even get within a certain distance of the island. We learned that Monkey Pod trees were built for the sugar plantation workers to shade them as they worked. We learned that if you want to eat at Mama's Fish House you better secure your reservation 4-6 months ahead of time. My favorite tree was the African Tulip tree. We learned that there was a pretty big tsunami in 1946ish so we would often hear they rebuilt this after the tsunami or this church is the only building that withstood the tsunami or this section never reopened after the tsunami.

We made it all the way to the town of Hana and saw the grocery store, the post office and the bank. The bank is open from 3 pm to 4:30 pm.

The kids had a beach day. We all had a luau that night. Ours with Hunter Douglas and theirs was a different one. Theirs unfortunately got canceled. Here is a photo dump.

This church withstood the tsunami

African Tulip tree (they bloom at the top)

Twin Falls

Selling from the back of his truck at a pullout on the Road to Hana

Lava Tube

This made me laugh. But you know
if they needed a sign, it must have happened

Entering the Lava Tube

Looks like chocolate kisses on the ceiling

Our lunch on the Road to Hana

A panoramic view

More beauty

Black beach (black sand) because of the volcano
If I come back in 160,000 years, it will be white sand

Stopped here on the way down
for some Banana Bread

When we got back, we had 30 minutes to head to our luau. The kids went to theirs and got these great photos and a couple of drinks, before theirs was canceled. For us, this was a "farewell" dinner as some people had early flights Saturday morning.