This was the view that we woke to in our cabin. It was a little cloudy, but sti
ll very pretty and peaceful. From Hana, we continued on around towards the southeast of Haleakala, heading for the Oho'e Gulch, also called Seven Sacred Pools. As we began to round that southeast part of the island, the scenery became impossibly lush and vibrant, peppered with stunning views out to the ocean. Again, there were waterfalls for us to view along the way. This is a view of the Wailua Falls.
This drive was quite something! Hairpin turns and tons of tiny one-lane bridges were built right next to cliffs dropping down to the ocean. One bridge along the way had been replaced with a steel bridge, and there were men working on it, as there had been a mudslide the night before. The old stone bridge beside the steel one - Bill remembered from his previous trip to Maui. They were having some repairs to the NEW steel one!
Our goal was to reach the Oho'e Gulch and spend some time there checking out the views, hiking around, and frolicing in the waterfall-fed pools. There are seven "pools" fed by a variety of sizes of waterfalls. First, we started up the Pipiwai Trail to check out the Infinity Pool. This pool is found at the top of a large waterfall. To the left, you could slip right over the edge (pictured on the left), but on the right, there are rocks to keep you in the pool. The picture here was taken by me as I climbed out onto the very edge of rocks on the right.
On our way down from the Infinity Pool, we encountered a man and woman hiking up. They asked us what we had hiked to and we filled them in on trail info - what we had done and what was further down the Pipwai Trail. After leaving them, Bill said to me, "That was Flea!" I of course had no idea who Flea was, but Bill being up on his pop culture, filled me in on the details of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anyway, I was skeptical at first, but Bill had catalogued every arm tatoo this guy had, as well as the gap in the front teeth, etc. So I realized he must be right. We encountered them again as we were leaving, and had another short conversation as to how they had done on their hike. At this time I actually took a good
look and sure enough, all the tatoos Bill had described and so forth were there. (Flea, if you ever happen to read this, I hope you appreciate the fact that we are nice people who would not disturb your life or vacation and act like we know you and ask for silly autographs and otherwise bother you in any way.) And yes, when we got back to our place that night and Bill showed me his pictures, it definitely was him.But I digress. We then hiked down to the "seven pools" and started exploring them. The bridge pictured here on the left is above the first of the falls and there was a group of crazy kids jumping off the bridge. You can see one the guys here. What you CAN'T see is that the pool they were jumping into had rocks on either side and about a ten foot window for error! When we later looked down from the bridge, I was slightly mind-boggled! Yikes!!
Bill, pictured diving in on the right, was slightly more sane and cautious, as you can see. After playing around in the pools for a while, we hiked up a little further beyond the bridge and swam in some of those smaller waterfalls and pools before leaving.At this point, we turned around to head back to Hana and back down the Hana Highway to South Maui where we had a new bed and breakfast to stay at in Kihei. Before reaching Hana, we stopped in at a couple beaches.
The first was Hamoa Beach which was a great beach. Bill did a ton of body surfing, and I quit after my first attempt when the bottom of my suit came off and my whole suit was filled with three pounds of sand. I merely swam out beyond the surf and then sat and watched Bill the rest of the time.
We also stopped in to see the Red Beach pictured below which had fascinating sand. We drove back around the island again, appreciating the gorgeous scenery once again and ending at our place (which we love) in Kihei that afternoon.
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