Hawaii Part II...
As we boarded the short island hop of a flight to reach our second island, Maui. We'd mentioned Conor had helped us out for this week in the last post, but we didn't know how much so until the end of the week. We'd originally planned to stay at the one hostel for the 7 nights we had in Maui, which would've cost us ~$700 (for a 6 bed dorm, yikes), but we were none the wiser of any better way of doing it. Conor, however, was wiser - quite a bit wiser - and sent us over with a suitcase full of camping gear, tent, supplies, and a reservation for a state national park over the weekend. Stu was still a little....unconvinced about this plan, given the only other times we've been camping together has been drunk at music festivals, so would we be able to survive the week? Only time will tell. As part of this plan, we'd need some form of transportation to get ourselves around to the various camping spots, so from the airport we went straight to our pre-booked car rental (would recommend going with Expedia for this - we got our car with all added insurances for cheaper than the basic rental on the rental agency's website), and got our set of wheels for the week. We had wanted a mid-size SUV as we were worried about some of the "unpaved roads" on the south of the island, but it turned out they didn't have any available - so we opted for this:
Not too shabby. Our first night we drove to a hostel, as it was getting pretty late and we needed somewhere to rest our heads. Tiki Beach Hostel wasn't our favourite place (rooms were outdoors, no AC, and still pretty pricey) - but it was in Lahaina, a nice well set up town on the west of the island. We got to have a look around that evening and get our bearings, but the next day was when the real fun would begin. First stop was Target, the large superstore of J1 airbed fame. We were able to stock up on the last few things we needed for a comfortable week - pillows, duvet, propane canisters, food, and ice for the cooler bag. Well set up, and our little convertible was packed out:
We made sure to pull over at one of the viewpoints on our way home and take it all in - Maui is absolutely stunning. We were heading back to the west of the island, as we played it safe with our first night out under the stars - opting for Camp Olawalu private campgrounds. A little bit pricier than other options, but still half the cost of a hostel - and so much better. The grounds were unbelievable, with hot water, proper bathrooms and showers, picnic areas, amazing views, and a 10 second walk from the door of your tent to the sea.
We set up the tent in no time, and all the worries Stu had were soon washing away with the sound of the sea. We sat down to get ourselves a pasta dinner cooked before sunset, and got a decent night sleep under the stars. The sea breeze helped, as it was still very, very hot. But we did it!
And after breakfast+coffee the next morning, it was time to take down our living quarters - something we'd get better at over the week. Our main event for the week was starting that morning, as we were going to get ourselves on the Road to Hana, Hana being a small town on the east side of the island. We were taking the north road, which has an unbelievable amount of stops along the way for scenic views, waterfalls, and nature walks. Most blogs give you the lowdown for how to do it all in one day, but given we had the car and tent, we were able to space it out over three. And it was un-fucking-real.
Our last camping trip was on Fraser Island in Australia, but we had taken notes from that - every day there we had a simple lunch of ham+cheese+salad wraps, and it worked a charm. So if it isn't broke, don't fix it:
With some banana bread for dessert:
And on we carried with our journey, capturing one of the many stops at the waterfalls with a quick pic:
Just before we raced to our next campgrounds, Waiʻānapanapa State Park, on the far east side of the island, to get our tent set up and dinner cooked before sunset.
The next morning we were able to appreciate what the campgrounds had to offer, being set literally on the coast, just above a beautiful black sand beach:
Unreal. So many parts of Maui were breathtaking, and we were only halfway through our time here. We got ourselves back to the campsite, where we would've stayed longer if we could've, but with a two night maximum, we were on the road again the next morning. We decided to throw caution to the wind and drive back via the south road of the island - "not recommended" by our rental agency, as the roads are unpaved, and there's very few places with phone signal in case you did get stuck. The Beetle however held its own, and the road conditions were very much overstated - it is pretty bad, but only for about twenty minutes in total of a three hour drive.
We made it to the other end in one piece, and we were looping back towards the west of the island. We weren't quite sure where to stay next, but we had managed to get ourselves a sunrise pass to Haleakala, the dormant volcano in the middle of the island, for two days later. There was a campsite halfway up the volcano, in the national park called Hosmer's Grove, but we'd heard it could get close to freezing at night time, so we weren't too sure. Stu has figured out by now that he likes the cold, whereas Dani prefers hot, so we made a compromise - we'd drive up, check it out, and see what the people there thought would be our best option.
We paid the $25 entry fee to the park (which we needed for the sunrise tour anyway, valid for three days), and made our way to the information centre. The drive up to this point was pretty nice, it feels like a completely different place to anywhere in the rest of Hawaii so far, and you can see the beginnings of the mountain climb road as you get there. Turns out it gets close to 10 degrees at night at this time of year, not 0. Stu was ecstatic, Dani pretty happy too. Turns out the camping is free with your pass too, so we were set for the next couple of nights. The temperature is such a relief after the heat/humidity on the rest of the island, and the grounds are surrounded by cedar trees - waking up to the fresh smell of nature every morning was something we both loved - we could spend a pretty long time here given the chance.
The Nenes walking around the campsite was pretty cool to see too:
But better than all that, was the drive up to the summit. Driving the entire way up above the clouds and to the very top is too hard to put into words, but hopefully the pictures do it some justice (feels like we've said that about fifty times this year - life ain't too bad). We made it for both a sunset, and sunrise, and it was just mind blowing both times.
And some way to round off our time in Hawaii. On our last full day we packed everything up, back into the suitcase, and we were able to drop it off with Becca's friend who lived there - so if Conor/Becca (or anyone) is planning a trip to Maui, there's a whole bunch of top notch camping gear waiting for you. We stayed in our originally planned hostel, Aloha Surf Hostel in Paia, for our last night - which to be fair was pretty good ($700+ good though? Nah). And got ourselves prepped for our flight to the mainland the next day.
Big love,
Dani & Stu.
As we boarded the short island hop of a flight to reach our second island, Maui. We'd mentioned Conor had helped us out for this week in the last post, but we didn't know how much so until the end of the week. We'd originally planned to stay at the one hostel for the 7 nights we had in Maui, which would've cost us ~$700 (for a 6 bed dorm, yikes), but we were none the wiser of any better way of doing it. Conor, however, was wiser - quite a bit wiser - and sent us over with a suitcase full of camping gear, tent, supplies, and a reservation for a state national park over the weekend. Stu was still a little....unconvinced about this plan, given the only other times we've been camping together has been drunk at music festivals, so would we be able to survive the week? Only time will tell. As part of this plan, we'd need some form of transportation to get ourselves around to the various camping spots, so from the airport we went straight to our pre-booked car rental (would recommend going with Expedia for this - we got our car with all added insurances for cheaper than the basic rental on the rental agency's website), and got our set of wheels for the week. We had wanted a mid-size SUV as we were worried about some of the "unpaved roads" on the south of the island, but it turned out they didn't have any available - so we opted for this:
Not too shabby. Our first night we drove to a hostel, as it was getting pretty late and we needed somewhere to rest our heads. Tiki Beach Hostel wasn't our favourite place (rooms were outdoors, no AC, and still pretty pricey) - but it was in Lahaina, a nice well set up town on the west of the island. We got to have a look around that evening and get our bearings, but the next day was when the real fun would begin. First stop was Target, the large superstore of J1 airbed fame. We were able to stock up on the last few things we needed for a comfortable week - pillows, duvet, propane canisters, food, and ice for the cooler bag. Well set up, and our little convertible was packed out:
We made sure to pull over at one of the viewpoints on our way home and take it all in - Maui is absolutely stunning. We were heading back to the west of the island, as we played it safe with our first night out under the stars - opting for Camp Olawalu private campgrounds. A little bit pricier than other options, but still half the cost of a hostel - and so much better. The grounds were unbelievable, with hot water, proper bathrooms and showers, picnic areas, amazing views, and a 10 second walk from the door of your tent to the sea.
We set up the tent in no time, and all the worries Stu had were soon washing away with the sound of the sea. We sat down to get ourselves a pasta dinner cooked before sunset, and got a decent night sleep under the stars. The sea breeze helped, as it was still very, very hot. But we did it!
And after breakfast+coffee the next morning, it was time to take down our living quarters - something we'd get better at over the week. Our main event for the week was starting that morning, as we were going to get ourselves on the Road to Hana, Hana being a small town on the east side of the island. We were taking the north road, which has an unbelievable amount of stops along the way for scenic views, waterfalls, and nature walks. Most blogs give you the lowdown for how to do it all in one day, but given we had the car and tent, we were able to space it out over three. And it was un-fucking-real.
Our last camping trip was on Fraser Island in Australia, but we had taken notes from that - every day there we had a simple lunch of ham+cheese+salad wraps, and it worked a charm. So if it isn't broke, don't fix it:
With some banana bread for dessert:
And on we carried with our journey, capturing one of the many stops at the waterfalls with a quick pic:
Just before we raced to our next campgrounds, Waiʻānapanapa State Park, on the far east side of the island, to get our tent set up and dinner cooked before sunset.
The next morning we were able to appreciate what the campgrounds had to offer, being set literally on the coast, just above a beautiful black sand beach:
And all for the princely sum of $9 per night, for the two of us. And it made for a comfier night sleep than Olawalu - though the toilets/showers were public is the only slight negative, but still, it went so far beyond our expectations it's hard to put into words. This camping craic isn't so bad. We were up the next day to get ourselves to Hana town itself, a very sleepy picturesque town. The highlight though, was a trail our maps.me app highlighted to us, to something neither of us had ever seen before. A fifteen minute coastal walk brought us to a hidden deep red sand beach:
Unreal. So many parts of Maui were breathtaking, and we were only halfway through our time here. We got ourselves back to the campsite, where we would've stayed longer if we could've, but with a two night maximum, we were on the road again the next morning. We decided to throw caution to the wind and drive back via the south road of the island - "not recommended" by our rental agency, as the roads are unpaved, and there's very few places with phone signal in case you did get stuck. The Beetle however held its own, and the road conditions were very much overstated - it is pretty bad, but only for about twenty minutes in total of a three hour drive.
We made it to the other end in one piece, and we were looping back towards the west of the island. We weren't quite sure where to stay next, but we had managed to get ourselves a sunrise pass to Haleakala, the dormant volcano in the middle of the island, for two days later. There was a campsite halfway up the volcano, in the national park called Hosmer's Grove, but we'd heard it could get close to freezing at night time, so we weren't too sure. Stu has figured out by now that he likes the cold, whereas Dani prefers hot, so we made a compromise - we'd drive up, check it out, and see what the people there thought would be our best option.
We paid the $25 entry fee to the park (which we needed for the sunrise tour anyway, valid for three days), and made our way to the information centre. The drive up to this point was pretty nice, it feels like a completely different place to anywhere in the rest of Hawaii so far, and you can see the beginnings of the mountain climb road as you get there. Turns out it gets close to 10 degrees at night at this time of year, not 0. Stu was ecstatic, Dani pretty happy too. Turns out the camping is free with your pass too, so we were set for the next couple of nights. The temperature is such a relief after the heat/humidity on the rest of the island, and the grounds are surrounded by cedar trees - waking up to the fresh smell of nature every morning was something we both loved - we could spend a pretty long time here given the chance.
The Nenes walking around the campsite was pretty cool to see too:
But better than all that, was the drive up to the summit. Driving the entire way up above the clouds and to the very top is too hard to put into words, but hopefully the pictures do it some justice (feels like we've said that about fifty times this year - life ain't too bad). We made it for both a sunset, and sunrise, and it was just mind blowing both times.
And some way to round off our time in Hawaii. On our last full day we packed everything up, back into the suitcase, and we were able to drop it off with Becca's friend who lived there - so if Conor/Becca (or anyone) is planning a trip to Maui, there's a whole bunch of top notch camping gear waiting for you. We stayed in our originally planned hostel, Aloha Surf Hostel in Paia, for our last night - which to be fair was pretty good ($700+ good though? Nah). And got ourselves prepped for our flight to the mainland the next day.
With that, we were up the next morning and ready to drop our little convertible back to the rental agency at the airport. It's hard to imagine how things could've went better for the week - if anyone is ever heading to Maui, give us a shout, we have a pretty good plan in place we can share....and all thanks to Conor & Becca, we cannot thank them enough for everything they did for us, both this week and last. We've said this quite a few times, but this time we most definitely mean it - a teary eyed goodbye was said to one of the most incredible weeks we've had on this entire trip. Camping ain't so bad.
Dani & Stu.
Currently listening to:
No comments:
Post a Comment