Muse by David Teitsma

My attempt to understand and be understood.

I forgot to mention two events that happened yesterday and Monday. On Monday, when I was reading by the pool, my Native Dash XP sunglasses were on my head and feel down behind my back. I didn’t realize this, so when I leaned back I broke the frame. I was very disappointed especially as I had barely put any pressure on them before the broke and I also used this sunglasses everyday last summer when I biked across the continent. Why did they break now!? Fortunately I realized that they have a lifetime warranty, so they’ll fix them for a $30 processing fee.

I planned ahead and brought two pairs of sunglasses on the trip, just incase anything like this would happen. So, I have my bases covered right?

Then yesterday as I was finishing the zipline tour, I realized that my backup pair of Nashbar NoFrame Sunglasses developed a crack in the bridge and then fell apart several minutes later. Wow, I used both of these so much last summer and didn’t loose or break them, now when I basically doing nothing they both fall apart!

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Today we left early to drive the Road to Hana. All the guidebooks say that this can be a very busy trip so it’s best to leave early. There isn’t much in Hana, but the purpose is in enjoying the journey.

We also stopped at the big stores in Kahului and bought several items. This included a new guidebook as I forgot to pack the books that I checked out at the library back home to bring. Also, I bought another pair of sunglasses at Kmart, which have been surprisingly good!

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Basically this is a very windy 30 mile road (over 600 turns) has many beautiful and varied stops along the way. It took us over two hours to drive, where we averaged under 30 miles an hour. Basically you’re never going straight,  but instead constantly turning. I would have gotten motion sickness if I was in the back so I stayed in front and drove some of the time.

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Also, there are over fifty bridges. Almost all of them are one lane so you have to be alert about what traffic is coming from the other way.

Our plan was to drive all the way to Hana and then take our stops on the way back. However by the time we came back it was to dark to stop.

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About two thirds of the way there, we stopped here and looked at this waterfall. Thankfully we had the new guidebook, Maui Revealed, we purchased this morning otherwise I wouldn’t have known that there was a more beautiful waterfall up the hill.

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I had to find this small muddy path that leads up the hill. After following the river you come upon an irrigation canal.

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Which flows over the small valley. There’s a narrow walkway on it that I used to cross to the other side. After taking a wrong turn afterwards and crossing another viaduct by mistake I turned around and found the right path.

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This lead to this beautiful waterfall that flows into a huge basin. I wish I would have gone swimming here. It looked absolutely beautiful.

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We made it to Hana, walked the small beach and then continued on to ‘Ohe’o Gulch. These roads were even narrower.

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There is a two mile hike at ‘Ohe’o Gulch that I really wanted to take but my parents weren’t going to. They were fine with waiting for me, so I quickly went ahead, enjoying the sights but also kept a brisk speed to not have them wait too long.

The waterfalls and jungle were wonderful.

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Huge banyan trees were along the trail.

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And many many cascading pools that make you just want to jump right in!

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The highlight was walking through this bamboo forest. Thousands of this skinny tall plants reached very high. When the wind caught there leaves, they would hit each other created a wonderful noise. It seemed out of place compared to the forest earlier on the trail.

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The trail ended at this huge waterfall cascading hundreds of feet. After enjoying the view and taking several pictures, I left still trying to make the hike quick so as not to keep my parents waiting.

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Surprisingly, just as I started back I noticed my parents. After I did a double-take, they told me that they started the hike and were going to turn around but decided to keep going ahead.

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I love this picture. If you could turn the picture around you would also see the valley created by this waterfall spilling out into the big blue ocean.

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The landscape oceanside was very low grasses, but still very green.

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I went for a swim in one of the frigid pools. There were huge rocks that you couldn’t see which didn’t make it too conducive for swimming, I only stayed in for a minute.

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Then we headed back on the road to Hana. It was getting dark, so we couldn’t stop at some of the places that we saw earlier. This was a big disappointment, especially as it was hard to drive by these wonderful places with the idea that we would stop on the way back.

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We drove back in the dark, driving through several spots of rain. We stopped and had dinner in Paia had a smaller cafe.

Then we went back to the hotel and I probably walked down the walkway down the beach along the other hotels listening to the waves and enjoy the temperature and atmosphere. A perfect way to end the day.

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