The Road to Hana

The Road to Hana

Last August Laura and I made a return expedition to Hawaii, where we had exchanged our wedding vows four years before.  Hamoa beach, located near Hana Town on the island of Maui, is a beautiful black sand beach formed into a perfect crescent and referred to by James Michener as one of the most perfect beaches in the world.

Our adventure began with a stop at Mama’s Fish House in Paia, very near some of the best surfing in Hawaii, located just south of Mama’s on Paia Bay.  Regardless of the surfing, a trip to Maui is not culinarily complete without a visit to Mama’s for a tropical drink and some of the freshest, finest fish to be found anywhere in the Islands.  We happened to be at Mama’s when Owen Wilson dropped by for lunch, so we had great food and some TMZ thrill at the same time.

The Road to Hana is an adventure in itself.  First, learn the Shaka sign (thumb and little finger held out, three middle fingers curled in; think “hang loose”) because you’ll see it a lot while driving to Hana.  The Road to Hana skirts an ancient volcano at the point it plunges into the sea.  Over five hundred hairpin turns, dozens of single lane bridges and several hours of negotiating the narrow, winding road that follows the eastern slopes of the massive volcano Haleakala, brings you to Hana Town, arguably one of the most beautiful locales on the planet.

Hana itself consists of a few stores, a post office, a couple of churches, one restaurant, one gas station and a school.  While there are houses and cabins to rent along the coast in the vicinity of Hana, we opt for the amazing comfort of the Hotel Hana Maui.  The Hotel Hana Maui is the only resort on this side of the island and the resort also owns several of the stores in Hana as well as the Hana Ranch Restaurant, the only other restaurant in Hana outside of those actually on the Hotel grounds.

The Hotel has a collection of seaside cottages that are detached from the main hotel, and are modeled after the sleeping quarters provided to sugar cane workers on the early sugar cane farms.  This is an escape from the real world.  There is no TV, no Internet and no air conditioning.  But the ocean is crashing on the rocks 24 hours a day just a few steps outside the door.  It does not get any better than this!  We like cottage #217.  It’s closest to the ocean of any of the cottages and the view of the ocean is completely unobstructed!

As if the view and location weren’t enough, the Hotel has an absolutely world class spa that provides about any kind of spa treatment you could want.  Complete with saunas, whirlpool, ice cold plunge bath and outdoor showers, you’re gonna want to do some spending here.

The two places to eat in Hana are the Hana Ranch Restaurant and the restaurant on the resort grounds.  Hana Ranch Restaurant is casual, with sandwiches, salads, steaks and the usual fare.  It’s good, but is usually bursting with tourists who show up in clusters, looking green from sitting in a small bus with 20 other people rocking from side to side at least 500 times on the road to Hana.  The resort restaurant has a great collection of fish and other local dishes.  While the restaurant doesn’t keep up with some of the great restaurants we have in here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the food was consistently good.  And the fish is really, really fresh!  Regardless of where you eat, be sure to stop by the little general store across from the post office and buy a loaf of locally grown and baked banana bread.  That banana bread totally rocks, especially with macadamia nuts scattered throughout!

Two miles further up the road is the most beautiful beach on earth, Hamoa Beach, a black sand beach that played host to our wedding in August of 2004.  We were married standing in the waves off the beach and then had a private dinner on the beach, cooked on location by a chef from the Hotel and complete with a Hawaiian Ukelele player.  That was quite a day!

Another 15 miles or so up the road is Ohe’o Gulch, with Waimoku Falls located two miles up the slope of Haleakala and the seven sacred pools located on the shore.  The trail to Wailmoku winds its way through a bamboo forest that towers twenty or thirty feet or more over-head.  Waimoku itself is an amazing collection of water falls that crash down several hundred feet of sheer cliff.  This hike is worth it.

And finally, after that hot and sweaty hike, there is a roadside smoothie stand about a mile from the trailhead.  We stopped for a smoothie made with tree picked fresh bananas, coconuts and pineapples just in from the field.  It caught us by surprise to be addressed by name as we approached the stand.   We learned that along with most other businesses in Hana, the road-side stand is also owned by the Hotel Hana Maui!   Apparently the hotel concierge, who knew us well, had smoothie duty the day we stopped …

This year, we are off to Kauai for our anniversary, but our hearts belong to Hana.

– Chris