We are off to an adventure today.
We're driving the famous road to Hana here in Maui, Hawaii.
This trip is about the journey, not necessarily the destination.
We go from Paia, the city here where we are, to Hana.
It's a very remote city on the eastern part of the island.
The reason people do this drive
is because there are so many beautiful places
to see along the way.
The beach is totally black.
The idea here is not to get there fast, but to stop along the way.
We are going inside a cave here, made of lava.
When you look at the map, the drive seems simple, but it's not.
You're going to see why.
[music]
Here is our first stop, Ho'okipa Beach Park.
We're gonna see some surfing.
The conditions need to help, of course,
but when they help, there are some giant waves over here.
Oh, I wanted so much to see.
[music]
You already see more waves here than in the other beaches.
If you haven't seen them, take a look at this playlist here.
I don't know if you realize, baby,
but the GPS said it takes two hours to do this,
to drive all the way to Hana.
How long do you think it's gonna take us?
-Six. -Six? To get there?!
[laughs] Let's see
[music]
Here there's another point, very famous for giant waves called Jaws.
But it's going to take like a couple hours to go and come back,
it requires hiking and everything.
So we're gonna pass today as we already saw
that there are no big waves anyways.
When there are giant waves here at Jaws,
the waves can be as high as a six-story building,
people need jet skis to ride them.
[music]
Kaumahina.
This is a great place for a picnic.
Look at this park here, how great.
It's a nice stop along the way, for a rest.
Free bathrooms to use,
and a beautiful view over here.
Oh, how beautiful!
[music]
-Look how big. -Yeah. [laughs]
The tree, too.
Our first hike, baby. -Oh, yeah.
-Yeah, it should be like 30 minutes.
This is the Keanae Arboretum.
We can see bamboo, narra, torch ginger,
rainbow eucalyptus, and breadfruit.
-Isn't that the fruit that you have in Brazil?
-I think so, yeah.
Totally free attraction.
I thought the trees would be more spread out,
but, no, they're really, really close.
Bamboos are already over there, different species here,
and the eucalyptus, right here already.
And if you're wondering why the name rainbow eucalyptus?
When you see them from a distance,
it looks like a myriad of colors here, the rainbow colors.
But, no, when you come up close,
you see these are just different shades of green and brown.
[music]
It's even cool here, right? -Yeah.
You even forget you're in Hawaii. -Yes.
Look at that, Hana, 18 miles only.
But, first, Keanae.
It is so, so windy here. This is Keanae.
It's not even a town. There are just some buildings here.
It's a peninsula that was formed by volcanic eruption.
The volcano is right over here, Haleakalā,
the one that I showed you in the previous video.
These are not just simple rocks here.
They were formed by volcanic eruption.
Look at all these rocks here, lava.
This is so crazy.
There is a beach nearby, it's a black sand beach.
Also because it was formed just like this one here.
It's very cool to see the waves crashing here.
Geez, the wind is so strong!
[laughs]
This peninsula here is also devastated by a tsunami
in the 1940s.
Whoo!
You see so many waterfalls along the road.
It's because wind and clouds come from the east side of Maui,
and they stop on top of Haleakalā, the volcano.
They can't pass, so that's exactly where it rains.
In fact, this part here,
this is considered a microclimate of a rainforest,
and this is how the waterfalls are formed.
-Man: You enter Maui's biggest cave right over there.
We have signs all along to tell you about stalagmites and stalactites.
Don't touch because they can break easily.
Baby, whoo!
We are going inside a cave here made of lava.
This is private property, so there's an entry fee here.
It's $12.50 per person.
And they give you some lights.
[music]
This cave was formed almost a thousand years ago
when the lava was coming down from the volcano Haleakalā
and going towards the ocean.
And scientists estimated the lava flow here lasted for two years.
Ooh, it gets really dark.
That has to be Gordon.
Are you afraid?
[evil laughter]
What? That's my camera.
[laughs]
There's some kind of gold sparkling on the ceiling.
It appears metallic, but it's not metal.
It's actually a life form.
It explains here that this was...
It's one of the earliest life forms on the planet.
It's a rock-eating bacteria that lives in total darkness.
And experts believe it's been on the planet
for 3.8 to 4 billion years.
Lava stalagmites,
this is considered very rare here on Maui.
No way!
-Found a little plant there. -Life!
Yeah!
How amazing.
Here, there's a sign saying that there are insects
that are native from here, they're endemic from here,
that they don't even have eyes
because, you know, they live in the darkness.
On the other hand, they have huge antennas,
and they totally depend on their senses to survive.
Made it!
Oh, look at this ceiling, how crazy.
-Chocolate. -Yeah.
-It's a chocolate cave. -It's chocolate.
It's very impressive.
The cave itself was made of lava for lava to go through,
and eventually, the lava stopped.
Thank you. -You're welcome.
Wow, that was the biggest lava tube in the entire Maui, Hawaii.
What's the name of the next place?
-Napanapa. -Waiʻānapanapa
-Why? I don't know.
The Waiʻānapanapa.
-Because you're tired? -No, it's Waiʻānapanapa.
-Because you're tired. -[laughs]
I'm not tired. It's Waiʻānapanapa.
This is such a beautiful park.
Look at people camping here.
You need a permit for that.
How interesting, the beach is totally black.
Wow, the sand was formed by volcanic lava as well.
Of course.
[music]
And the color of the ocean is so beautiful here, too.
It's a beautiful contrast, you know.
Blue here, blue here, green and black.
You rarely see that.
[music]
Walking over here is tough. It really hurts your feet.
But the water here is great.
Oh! [laughs]
Oh, my God!
I got totally wet here.
Look how funny, doesn't this look like sesame?
Sesame feet.
Look at how nice here, you got some bigger rocks...
There are some tiny little rocks,
and there is sand back there, too.
It's a rougher sand
with tiny, tiny little rocks.
[music]
It's a cave here.
Anyone from Texas?
This reminds me of the Texas Longhorns.
See the plane over there?
If you got some money, you can simply fly back from Hana.
There is a private airport here, but only for private jets.
Such a beautiful view all over here.
And you can walk all this from one extreme to the other,
the black sand beach is right over.
This is a really nice park
with great infrastructure.
Bathrooms over there. Here you can wash your feet.
Everything is totally free, even parking.
-Is the water cold?
-No, it was great, like in the other beaches.
- ♪ Hana, I want my Hana ♪
- [laughs] Almost there now.
For Hana, you go over there.
But we're gonna see something else first.
Even when you arrive in Hana, you should keep going a little bit further,
because there are still more beautiful places to see.
This is Koki Beach.
Beautiful but can be dangerous during winter.
It says right here: "Strong current, dangerous rip tides, respect the ocean."
Look at how interesting, how they create the walls here.
These are rocks made of volcanic lava.
These are the Wailua Falls, one of the most famous waterfalls
in this entire road trip.
You can actually go down there,
but it's a very slippery path.
We'll prefer to see it from here.
[music]
Here it is. Okay, thank you.
When you visit Haleakalā National Park
like we did in the volcano in the previous video,
make sure you keep your receipt
because this is valid for three days.
Here we just reentered Haleakalā National Park.
But from the Hana side, you don't need to pay the $30 again.
You have quite a few options here,
two trails, an easier one here,
half a mile or 0.8 kilometers, it's a loop,
you probably can see the ocean,
or a harder one, it's a two-mile trail,
3.2 kilometers to see waterfalls
and Bamboo Forests.
Let's go to the hard one first.
Oh, this is a serious hike here.
This is considered by many people the highlight
of the entire road trip to Hana,
because there are so many beautiful places here to see.
Just arrived to the first waterfall.
[music]
Look at this tree.
So beautiful.
It's a Banyan Tree.
I know you're a kid, but you can't climb it, okay?
-No? -No.
I thought I'd build a house.
-Yeah.
What are you trying to do?
Waterfalls all over.
There's one here.
More going down there.
[music]
So interesting how everything turns bamboo all of a sudden.
-Renata...
This way.
-This is a serious hike,
much tougher than I expected it to be.
Not because it's difficult, but because it gets slippery as it rains,
and you get the mist from the waterfalls.
But when you get all the way to the top, it's almost two miles alone.
Look at the view.
These waterfalls are so high.
But so high! Look at this!
It makes it all worth it.
-There's someone over there. -Really?
You obviously should not swim over there.
[music]
We just passed the initial starting point of the waterfalls trail,
and we're now going to the second trail.
It should be an easier one.
It took us about two hours to go uphill and downhill.
How nice! That's where we were, right?
This bridge right here.
You see that bridge all the way up there?
It's part of the road.
These are the natural pools here
that are formed with a waterfall
all the way here until they meet the ocean.
We made... What is this?
We made it!
[laughs]
Now can you keep driving past Hana?
Technically, yes.
Because the road continues,
it actually goes around the entire island of Maui.
But this road is not paved.
If you're here in Maui as a tourist, as we are,
you're most likely in a rental car,
and most rental car contracts don't cover this type of road.
You need to be very careful because if something happens,
the insurance will not cover.
We're turning around and going back to Kihei.
So this is Hana.
Hana, just a quiet beach community.
Actually, no downtown.
Wow, what a day, huh? And now that we're back here,
a few more things that I want to share with you
that I think are very important for you to know.
First and foremost, there's no cell phone signal.
Sometimes you get one bar here and there,
but don't even count on internet.
I tried.
Also, there are no gas stations.
There's one gas station in Paia before you start.
And then when you get to Hana, there's another.
But there is nothing along the way.
There are food stalls, so you won't starve.
But think it's better to still bring some snacks,
because the food stalls are not everywhere.
You can't see everything in one day.
Forget about that.
Too many attractions along the road,
and some of them require you to park the car,
go for a hike, sometimes an easy hike,
sometimes a difficult one.
So the way to go is to take a look at all the attractions that you can find
along the way to Hana,
and then you decide which ones are a priority for you.
Let's say you pick five that are must-see places for you,
and you go for that, everything else is a bonus.
There's a lot of things to see
and a lot of beautiful places along the way.
Remember, you also don't want to return at night.
The road conditions are like that during the day
Imagine at night.
The road is exactly as everyone says: single lanes,
and in lots of places, there's space only for one car.
So especially at bridges, you need to stop,
wait for one car, and then you go.
And this takes time.
The road is tiny, full of curves.
If you get motion sickness on roads like this,
get ready, because you will get on this one.
For you to have an idea of what took us exactly.
We left Kihei at 7:30 in the morning,
and we got in Hana at about 1:30 or 2 p.m.
Then we spent a long time at Haleakalā National Park at Kīpahulu
doing the hikes,
and it was absolutely fantastic.
We left there at 5 p.m.
and got back here at 8.
If I'd change anything,
I'd probably leave earlier around sunrise.
If you thought this guide was useful,
give me a like here on this video.
This is the final video here in Maui.
And in my next few videos,
I'm going to show you the Big Island of Hawaii.
See you! Aloha!