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Monday 6/18
Monday was the day for my sister and I to explore while our parents attended a medical conference. We took the Jeep and explored some random places that we couldn't do before.
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McDonald's, Kihei - For breakfast we stopped at McDonald's for a Taro Pie which I had seen on TV and was recommended by the cashier at Da Kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised by this item: leave it to McDonald's to get this perfect. First, all pies in Hawaii are made the old fashioned way: they're fried, not baked! That crispy bubbly fried crust puts the baked ones on the mainland to shame. Second, despite the bright purple color, the taro filling was quite excellent. It had actual chunks of taro in it and had more taro flavor than any other taro item I had in Maui. Delish!
I was so happy with the pie that the following day we took our parents there for a late night snack. My parents like them so much that my mom wanted to buy a dozen to take home to the mainland. We ended up returning for more pies on my way to the airport and I'm guessing they probably got some more when they went to the airport too. I will note, however, that these same pies are available in China and other asian countries as well.
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Kahekili Highway, Kahakuloa
This scenic road is much like the road to Hana except that it is not state maintained and therefore is in worse shape. It is one lane, two way for the entire stretch and has no guard rails despite the many close cliff edges. That is why it violates your rental agreement. If you get a flat tire or break down or have an accident out there, you're on your own. Fortunately, that also means less traffic so you can really enjoy the drive and take in the sights. Supposedly, the planet's best banana bread can be found here, but unforunately, Linda's fruit stand was closed for vacation. We saw some better blowholes, a taro patch (or was it kava?) and found a nice quaint little sculpture gallery. We really enjoyed this laid back journey.
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Koko Ichiban Ya, Kahului - For lunch we stopped at a small Japanese restaurant. Based on the orders of several repeat local customers, they are apparently known for their tonkatsu. Unlike most Hawaiian restaurants that only serve chicken katsu, this restaurant has pork as well. They will also do a traditional katsudon: pork katsu with terriyaki onions and an egg over a bowl of rice (donburri). There's no sushi here, just a large selection of fried Japanese foods.
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Poli Poli State Park, Kula
After lunch, my sister and I were feeling adventurous and decided to look for some dirt roads. Maui Jeep Rentals actually recommended Poli Poli as a place where some good dirt roads had recently opened (yes, the rental company recommended off-road trails for us)! So we headed to Kula and were surprised to find ourselves at the Lavender Farm. This time, however, we proceeded up the switchbacks just beyond the farm.
We soon reached the entrance to the park where there was a big sign that said not to proceed for safety reasons. We continued on anyway (stopping for a picture of the sign) and as we entered the forest and continued to climb in altitute, it became darker and foggier until I started to feel like we were in some spooky movie. But then we found ourselves blocked by a metal fence and another warning sign, so we were forced to turn back.
On our way back down, right next to the Lavender farm, I discovered a small dirt path leading into the trees. With no warning signs, we decided to give it a go with our wide tire clad Jeep. We found ourselves on a very narrow soft dirt road densely lined with various trees. Several branches had grown over the path indicating it was not used much and we had to roll up our windows and drive through them. We proceeded very slowly since I was worried about getting stuck. We were nearing the bottom of a large hill and it looked like it was full of extremely soft dirt so I was debating whether we should go through or not.
For me, the fear of being stuck and stranded was more scary than squealing through mountain roads or spinning out on the highway. My sister was confident in my abilities and said we should continue but I was not confident in myself. Then my phone rang; it was my dad asking when we would be done. We decided to turn around since time was getting short and there was one more thing we wanted to do. With the extremely soft dirt and narrow path, I ended up making an 11-point u-turn and switching into 4WD Low to make it back up the hill. I also reset the odometer to see how far we went. Turns out we only went 0.3 miles and had cell reception the whole way. We should have gone further. Oh well, at least we had time for our next stop...
Here's a short Quicktime movie of the dirt road (right click to download, 2.1MB, 0:07)
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Tasaka Guri Guri, Kahului
As recommended by another food blog, mmm-yoso!!! we visited Tasaka for a Hawaiian dessert called guri-guri. People describe it as a mix between ice cream and sherbert. I think it's more like sherbert, personally. There were two flavors that day, strawberry and pineapple. I thought the strawberry was very artificial tasting, but I really enjoyed the pineapple. The price is good at 2 scoops for $1, but they are small scoops. As you can see from the picture, two scoops only fill up a small cup.
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Waterfront Restaurant, Ma'alaea - This was an excellent seafood restaurant. Their lobster chowder was great, their fresh fish was great, their service was great, their ocean view was great and their cheesecake was great. And at about $40 per person, it was a reasonable price for a great meal.
Also, I wanted to give more props to Maui Jeep Rental and Geo Trek Hawaii.
When I picked up the Jeep and asked for dirt road recommendations, there was no hesitation from the guy. I found out why very quickly. When we were looking at the Jeep I had selected, my mom asked why the tires were so chewed up. The guy simply replied, "Oh, probably some guy driving on the lava fields." I guess dirt roads are nothing compared to that. When I finally returned the car, it was covered with red dust from the dirt road, inside and out. Above you can see the side of the tires were still red, even after several miles of highway driving. I thought we might have to pay a clean up fee but when the guy took a look he just said, "Not too bad," and let us go.
For the GPS, I just continue to think what a great idea it is to combine a GPS system, which is very helpful on it's own, with location triggered tour information. If I were to do this trip again, I wouldn't hesitate to sign up for a Jeep rental and go rent myself a GPS system.
Posted
06/27/2007 08:50 PM in Uncategorized
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iFrWUyrNlvkYb
yeah its good for off- roading, but its too new and prbaobly too nice if you go down any tight trails kiss your nice new paint job good-bye and if you break anything you will really hate life. Nothing is worse than breaking on the trail and getting towed home or having to leave your vehicle un attended while you go get help. So, if you really like to go wheelin buy a cheap older wrangler and and go crazy!
Submitted by OSdtdoUgyBdkYvO on 10/11/2012 04:20 PM
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Also, I wanted to give more props to Maui Jeep Rental and Geo Trek Hawaii.
