Hana, HI

It’s hard to leave the place we are staying. The views are amazing – we’ve seen whales everyday. The ocean breeze is tantalizing – it does not have air conditioning and we wouldn’t use it even if it did. They put tropical flowers in every room and left us fresh fruit from their trees. It would’ve been easy to stay here all day but there were a few things we wanted to do.

Yesterday Jason and Erin each booked a flight with Maui Hang Gliding. They saw waterfalls from the air and the ocean was so clear they even saw whales.

We packed a lunch and spent the afternoon at Hamoa Beach. It’s the calmest beach in Hana.

So far the sunrises have been incredible. The best part is we’ve either watched them from bed or if we feel ambitious, our lanai.

Today we went to Haleakala National Park – not the top of the volcano. The part of the park that’s beyond Hana. Pools of ‘Ohe’o was our first hike. Not very long and probably more spectacular when the pools have more water but they are experiencing a drought here in the rain forest. The water from the pools empties into the ocean across a black sand beach.

Our second hike was 4 miles round trip, uphill mostly the entire way. The payoff at the end was a 400 ft waterfall! A good portion of the hike was through a bamboo forest. When the wind blows through the bamboo it makes the coolest sound. It’s loud. Erin thought it sounded like it was hailing.