Wanderlust

There’s a place called Paia

“You must go to Paia”, Omar at Boss Frog told me, “The people are nicer there. You will like it.”

“We must go to Paia”, R told me the next day, “That’s where the surf is. That’s where ‘Jaws’ is. You will like it.”

I knew I will.

Paia is a different kind of little town; as different as it gets when you drive up from the resort communities of the West Maui, with their glitzy hotels and manicured golf courses, all the way to sugarcane fields, old-world shopfronts, and surf. If you need to reach out to the real heart of Maui, you will certainly not find it in Kaanapali of West Maui, or, for that matter in the clinical heartless golf-resort town of Wailea. You will perhaps not find it even in Paia; but you will surely be very close to it.

Paia is a surf town, if there ever was one. We approached it from the south along Baldwin Avenue, after a morning trip to Haleakala National Park, and was stuck behind a large number of pickup trucks and cars with surfboards on their back, and some very weather-beaten, and mostly long-haired, people inside. The place looked a bit run down, with some houses with broken windows, but overall it had a lived-in appearance. A homely place, not a ritzy one. The place had character.

With some luck, we found parking on the road, and took a stroll down Baldwin Avenue to the Hana Highway intersection. On the way we passed by some interesting store fronts, and equally, shall we say, interesting people. This was not surprising, given that Paia is known as the Hippie capital of Maui.

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Haleakala National Park, Maui : Among the clouds

It’s an ominous sounding name; Haleakala. In Hawaii language, however, it means something less ominous: “House of the Sun”. At 10023 feet, Haleakala is the third highest volcano in the Hawaii islands, after Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island. Haleakala is a dormant volcano, the last eruption having occurred many years ago, in 1790.

So, there we were, fresh and early in the morning, on our way to the summit of Haleakala. Its a couple of hour drive from Lahaina in West Maui to the top of Haleakala. It was a bright sunny day, and we were looking forward to the adventure of hiking in the Haleakala crater.

We got on to the Haleakala highway (State Highway 377) and then on to Crater Road near Kula, where the road starts to climb up the mountain, and slowly get windy. It was bright green at places, and we could see the slopes of Haleakala at a distance. It was amazing how flat the top of the mountain looked.

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An evening at the Kaanapali Beach Black Rock

Someone told me there are cliff-jumpers as the sun goes down over the Black Rock on Kaanapali Beach near Lahaina. That was not to be missed.

So there we were, on the beach of Maui Sheraton as it was getting dark to watch the cliff jumpers. On the way, we passed by a Luau being performed near the beach. It was nice, kinda.

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Another rainy day at Iao Valley State park, Maui

It was raining one winter afternoon when we got to the Iao Valley State Park.

I hear it’s raining there still.

We were driving down via the Kahekili Highway (or State Highway 340) which skirts the north-west side of Maui. Somewhere near Wailuku, we followed the road up to the Iao Valley State Park. It’s a narrow road that passes through dense vegetation. And rain. As you approach the Iao Valley, you become aware of the ever-present moisture in the air, the clouds, the fog, the incessant rain drip-drip-dripping all around. You are approaching the heart of West Maui mountains, which gets around 400 inches of rainfall a year. To put that number in perspective, Dubai gets 4 inches of rain a year, Seattle 40, Miami 60, the very tropical city of Singapore gets about 89 inches; the highest average rainfall happens in Mawsynram, India, measuring about 467.4 inches a year.

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Rough roading in Maui : The Kahekili Highway drive

The road up from Honokohua Bay

In Maui, they don’t talk about the Kahekili Highway much.

It’s the road, known also as State Highway 340, that skirts the north side of West Maui, along its jagged shoreline. The rental car companies wouldn’t want their cars on that road. Guidebooks recommend against driving that road. But, as it happens, for those that brave the road, there are many treasures waiting at every turn.

We started from Kahana in West Maui on a sunny day. It did rain the night before, and again a bit in the morning, so we were prepared for wet conditions on the road. What we got was more than what we bargained for. But, of that later.

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