Friday October 3, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

Add caption

Today after having our coffee we set out to see Haleakala (House of the Sun) Crater.

Gerri and Neva

It was about 60 miles away.  We are on the western part of Maui.  Haleakala is on the eastern part of the Island.  We had to drive east and north back to Kapalui and then south and east to the mountain.  Not long after we turned onto the highway leading up the mountain it got steep.  It also turned into Hairpin County and Switchback City.  Not very far up the mountain we came to fog or cloud.  There was intermittent rain, ranging from a mist to light and heavy rain.  It was an 18 mile drive once we started up.  The climb was basically from sea level to 10,023 feet.  According to one sign we saw the temperature drops 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1000 feet as you go up.  We started in farmland then trees, then grassland and eventually we were above treeline.  There were only a few places to pull off for the view or pictures.  Most of the mountain was shrouded in fog or clouds but occasionally we got a view back at the isthmus and west Maui.

Typical view once we were on the mountain

We took a lot of pictures that I will probably post with later blogs.  We saw several kinds of birds, Pheasant, chukar and a turkey.  Most sightings were fleeting as the birds crossed the road.  The chukar were an exception.  We saw several in the summit parking lot.  Chukar are not native birds. They were introduced from eastern Europe and Asia in 1923.  There is another bird common to the area that we did not see.  It is a Hawaiian goose called Nene (NayNay.)

The summit of Haleakala is bare volcanic rock with sparse vegetation and a few plants like the Silver Sword have adapted and thrive.  The Silver Sword looks something like a Yucca.  While at the summit I did gather the information to claim an Earthcache.

At the summit

Silver Sword

 

Chukar on the rocks, can you spot it?

 On the way down the curves and switchback were made even more dangerous by the rain and more than a few people that wanted to go faster than we considered safe.  Gerri was driving and I'm sure some of the time it was nerve racking. The rental car is a Volkswagon Passat.  It has only two forward positions on the shift lever, D and S.  She used S most of the way down, my Jeep would have been in second and maybe a couple of times first, but it is 4 speed transmission.

Zoomed Chukar on the rocks

Downtown Makawoa

Before getting to the main highway we stopped for awhile in the old town of Makawoa. I looked for a cache there and was not able to find it,

Fish Tacos at Lailani's

Before going back to the Papakea we decided to have dinner out somewhere where we could watch the sunset.  We settled on Leilani's at Whaler's Village.  Neva and Gerri both had fish tacos and I has a flat iron steak with rice and Macaroni salad.  A time share salesman outside the restaurant had given us a coupon for a free Hula Pie dessert.  We had that, it was basically an vanilla ice cream pie with macadamia nuts, chocolate and whipped cream.

Free Hula Pie

Sunset over Lanai

We lingered over the meal long enough to see the sunset over Lanai.

Back at the Papalea we relaxed, caught up on computer stuff and read.

It had been a full day and Gerri and Neva were in bed before 11 and I read until 12.