Adventure Time

Wednesday - After spending a quiet day in the condo yesterday, we were ready to hit the road. What we really needed was the Adventure jeep.

One of the Guests from upstairs was telling us of Makena and their beaches and the old, most recent, lava flow on Maui. Hubby and I could not help ourselves but plan a trip to those places. We headed out around 9ish. There wasn’t a cloud to be seen around Haleakala. We drove south past the Kea Lani Resort… the farthest south I’d ever been. Then it was just a two lane road cutting through brush. A few dirt roads branched off, mostly makai (“toward the sea"). We turned down the paved path, displaying a State Park sign. It turned out to be Makena Big Beach.


Big beach had brown colored sand, almost like Nestle’s Quick. The ocean was amazingly clear with multi-blue and green hues. We took some pictures but I’m not sure a camera can catch the variations.


We could see the south side of Kahoolawe and Molokini. To the right was Lanai and West Maui in the distance.

Since we were standing on Big Beach we knew we’d missed the Little Beach exit. We’d been told it was not well-marked. By the time we got back to our car, the parking lot was full with visitors circling for a parking spot. The beach would be crowded in no time.

We headed south again, and the road narrowed. Nothing like the roads on the north side of the island. There were people snorkeling off shore, fishing with poles, and some even with nets. Then we passed a sign showing “off limit” areas ahead. The Ahihi-Kina'u Natural Area Perserve- the last lava flow on Maui that took place in 1790.



It was a strange sight. Looked like a HUGE field of plowed rich soil. It actually was lava rocks. It was strange to see the greenery growing behind the lava rock on the side of the volcano. It almost seemed like another planet. It only seems right since the top of Haleakala looks like the moon.


There’s going to be a beautiful beach there someday… 500 years or so.

We got to the end of the road, turned around at the stables, and headed toward home. We kept our eyes open for the Big Beach exit then took the very next one. Deep ruts pitted the narrow dirt path. We eased our way closer and closer to the shore. Finally we spotted a couple of parked cars. It turned out that there was a parking lot… a small one. One gets the feeling somebody doesn’t want you to know this place is here.


This is a black sand beach and the sand drops at the waterline at such a steep angle it made me feel uncomfortable. I wouldn’t want to go into the water here. But again, the water was so amazingly blue that day it was a wonderful sight. Little Beach is also known to be “clothing optional” although we did not see any signs of this. The two other groups were just sitting in their chairs enjoying the ocean view.

Hubby and I left the Adventure portion of our day to head to Foodland to stock up. We returned home in time for lunch. We have plenty of leftovers in the fridge. Naps and more reading followed. We had a delicious birthday dinner at Nick’s Fishmarket. Someone was turning the big 5 - 0. Not Hawaii Five-0 but it’s almost the same.

The night was amazingly clear and the bright, twinkling stars were set on the black sky--it‘s so dark it looks like velvet. It was all we could do to roll back to the condo and fall into bed… so full, so tired, so sleepy. The last thing we saw before falling asleep… a quick peek at the zodiacal light to the south.