Tales of the South Pacific - Kahului, Maui

Cruise Day 12

Friday, October 10, 2025

Today we are docked on the north shore of Maui in the town of Kahului.  The only other time we visited Maui we anchored outside of Lahaina on the south shore of the island and tendered in, but because much of Lahaina was burned down or damaged in the devastating fires a few years ago, here we are in Kahului today.

We had an early excursion planned today so we were up at 6:00 and at the World Stage by 7:30 waiting for our tour to be called.  Our tour today is called “Hana Road Adventure and Picnic”.  The Road to Hana is a famous drive along the northern Maui Coast to the small town of Hana.  On our previous visit to Maui, we had rented a car and had intended to drive the Road to Hana, but we were told it was a long and slow drive, so we gave up the idea as we were afraid of not getting back to the ship in time.

We arrive at Maui

Into the breakwater before docking in Kahului.

It took a while for the ship to be moored and the gangway opened, but finally our tour was called, and we headed out through the terminal building to the meeting place where two vans were waiting for us.  It turned out that only twelve people had booked this tour, and one had cancelled so there were only 11 of us for two vans that held twelve each.  Six of us were assigned to the first van and the other five to the second, so we had plenty of room.  The van was very nice and comfortable with very good air conditioning, and we were soon on our way.

We drove through the town of Kahului and the surrounding area until we reached a signed marking Mile 0 on the Road to Hana.  We also entered a pretty dense jungle area.  Our first stop was at a small park beside a beautiful cove.  It was mainly a bathroom stop, so it was brief, but the area was very scenic.

Picture from the bus.

We made a short rest stop here, but it was a very scenic spot.

 

After that we began to see why the road to Hana takes so long and is difficult to drive.  It is an extremely winding road with very narrow and sometimes one lane stretches of road.  It was a beautiful drive through the jungle with view of the coast as we drove.  It was also a heavily driven road so there were many cars, and our driver / guide Genaro had to be very alert through the narrow and especially one lane sections.  He had driven it many times though and knew just what to do while all the time giving us an excellent commentary on the area.

More pictures from the bus.

There was quite a bit of farming going on though not the kind of farming we are used to seeing and it pretty much looked like just jungle to us, but there were macadamia nut trees, banana trees and many other tropical fruit trees.  Most of this was being grown for roadside stands and local use.

One of the small farms we saw along the road.

I knew that many famous and wealthy people had homes in Maui, but I didn’t know where, but our guide pointed out an area along the Hana Coast where several well-known people lived or had owned farms such as Willie Nelson, George Harrison, and Kristofferson.  Jim Nabors (famous for his Gomer Pyle character) also had lived in the area before he died and raised macadamia nuts and sold them at the Hana Farmers Markets labeled as Gomer’s Nuts.

We passed up several of the scheduled stops along the way as there were just too many people and not enough parking.  As we neared Hana, we stopped at Wai'anapanapa State Park where we had an hour to walk around or even swim at the beautiful black sand beach if we wanted.  None of us were prepared to swim so everyone passed on the swimming although the water did look inviting. 

The was a very nice black sand beach where you could swim and snorkel, but no one from our group was prepared to swim.

 

Before we left, our guide brought out a very good picnic lunch that we had before continuing on our way to Hana.  Hana was a very nice, but very remote small town that supplied the only services for this part of the island.  We drove through the town and down along its small harbor with our guide pointing out points of interest and telling us stories about Hana.

By this time, we were running a bit late, so it was time to start heading back.  Our first stop on the way back was Pua'a Ka'a State Park where there was a nice waterfall and an area at the bottom of the waterfall where you could swim if you wanted, but once again, no one in our group wanted to swim although the water looked inviting.

Next, we stopped at the Rainbow Eucalyptus tree that got its name the unusual coloring of the tree.  This was just a brief stop for photo taking before we moved on. 

Our last stop of the day was a stop at Ho'okipa Beach Park or Turtle Beach as it is known locally.  Once you see the beach you know how it got its name as there were quite a few very large sea turtles lazing on the beach.  Because of the trees growing along the beach, it was hard to get a good look at them unless you walked all the way down to the beach, but by this time of the day we had neither the energy nor the time to do that.  Further down the same beach is a very popular spot for surfing and wind surfing and there were plenty of both out today.

 

The was the end of the tour so we headed back to the ship.  This had been a wonderful tour today, the weather was beautiful and not too hot, our guide was great, and best of all, the Hana Coast is amazing and beautiful.  Before I had ever visited Hawaii, I pictured it as a tropical paradise with lush foliage and a beautiful coast, and the Hana Coast was the epitome of that.

We got back to the ship around five and after cleaning up a bit we watched the sail away from our balcony as it was a beautiful balmy night.  We had our dinner as usual, but again no casino and called it an early night, it had been a long night for us.