Today we are exploring the only part of the island we’ve not been – the Waikulu area where Iao state park is located. It’s a little north of Kahului and an easy 30 minute drive. Waikulu looks cute – but odd – it is obviously the county seat and there are a couple high rise office buildings that look out of place considering nothing else in either town is more than 3 or 4 stories tall. The main town center looks interesting – like an old main street, but we take a left at the main intersection and head up into the wilderness.
The park has a nice little walking trail that gives you great views of the Needle – a huge rock that points up into the sky. The area was once a sacred burial ground in early Hawaiian days – now it’s a beautiful, bucolic park with the Iao stream bubbling down hill through its midst.
We wander through the little trails, soaking up the scenery and the heat – it’s really hot in the sun. Even though on the way over it looked like rain, the clouds aren’t in this area of the valley. It is amazing the different micro-climates here! Within 2 miles you can be in sun and clouds with 10 degrees temperature differences!
After the park, we head to the Maui Tropical Plantation – a gorgeous 60 acre agricultural “park” where you can take a little tram ride through the plantation and learn about the crops in Hawaii (again $14 – NOT!) or just walk around the manicured grounds with a little lagoon and plenty of pagodas. There is a huge restaurant here where you can envision the receptions of the many weddings they have here. We didn’t see any wedding parties while we were there (Gee, Thursday, early afternoon, not exactly prime time for weddings I suppose!), but you can just imagine how gorgeous a ceremony and/or pictures would be here.
Back home. Lulu’s for happy hour sunset. Another beautiful day on the island.
No comments:
Post a Comment