The road trip back from Hana to the Kaanapali coast takes about 2-3 hours. Since this was all we had planned for the day we slept in and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before setting out. It was nice to be able to slow down and stop along the way.
We spent the whole day on paved roads. And, most of the road (not all) was wide enough for two cars.
Our first stop of the day was Coconut Glen’s Ice Cream. This funky little food truck serves ice cream made with coconut milk from the island. They received Conde Nast Traveler 2014’s best ice cream shop of the world as voted by readers.
Our next stop of the day was Pua’a Ka’a State Park. Here we took a short break to check out a nice little waterfall where we saw people swimming. There were picnic tables and restrooms at this park.
We thought we were halfway along the road when we reached this small roadside stand. Despite the name, we were actually about 3/4 of the way back!
We didn’t get out but we were able to get some good pictures of Honomanu Bay as we drove by.
Towards the end of this drive we noticed a lot of bamboo trees. According to Shaka Guide, “Bamboo is not native to Hawaii. It was likely brought here by Chinese immigrants who came to work on the sugarcane fields. The Chinese not only used bamboo as building materials, but also for food, as their young shoots are sweet and tender. However, the bamboo plant grows so fast it quickly began to take over the landscape.”
Our last stop of the day was a small forest of rainbow eucalyptus trees. We learned that these trees originally came over from Australia. They were so colorful and almost looked like someone had painted on the tree.
February in Maui is prime whale watching season so, up next, a whale watching tour!
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