We are back to the beach this morning for the last time on this trip. For some reason we were up really early this morning, so we make it to the beach really early too. So early in fact, that there are a bunch of people still camping out here. We’ve not seen this many people sleeping on the beach, so we don’t know if they have recently come here or they just leave before we arrive. They make a comment about packing up before 9am, and are soon all cleaned up and gone – who knows? There is a huge contingent of homeless here on the islands – and while these were all young adults (guessing early 20’s if that?) – it still could be they are living here on the beach while they look for jobs (one girl said she had an interview later) and try to get established.
At any rate, they leave, and we have the beach virtually to ourselves – if you exclude the wildlife.For some reason we have attracted a chicken.. She is quite the ham, hanging out beside us, posing as we snap pictures.
She disappears for a while, then comes back with a friend! We feel like we are back at home with Rachel, our Asheville bird “pet.” But this bird is a little more acclimated to people than Rachel, and she and her friend keep getting closer and closer.
All fine, as long as she stays away from my toes – which sort of seems like her objective! as my toes are in jeopardy, I unfortunately have to put a to this, and the duo strut off to bother someone else’s digits.
Back at the house, we finish off left overs for lunch, just to clean out most of the oldest food, then head out to Haiku, a little community described as one of the greenest areas in Maui and like stepping back in time. There are a couple of old canneries here that have been converted into artist studios and shops, so we figure we’ll go spend some time exploring there. The drive takes us once again, through Paia and past Hookipa beach, where there are a few surfers today, but the waves are still pretty choppy and uneven. A few miles past the beach we turn off the Hana Highway and make our way inland through little narrow roads that wind their way past ranches and farmland, until we reach Haiku town center, which is literally a post office and a couple of shops in one of the old canneries. We pull into the cannery parking lot, but don’t see anything of much interest. I’m now starting to doubt the promo copy I had read in the Upcountry magazine, but we press on and take Haiku road over to the other cannery to try our luck there. The drive alone is worth it – suddenly we are winding our way through a little neighborhood of old, original Hawaiian style homes and the most gorgeous rainforest setting imaginable. The road twists and turns scenically through the forest, passing houses here and there, but nary a car. It is so beautiful over here – that is it almost a disappointment to come upon the old cannery with cars and people.
But once again here, there isn’t all that much to capture our interest. It is a lot like RAD in Asheville, an old cannery turned into studios and workshops for different artists – but not a lot of studios are open and the few that are house an upholstery shop, a photo printshop, a surf board designer. Nice – but not what we were expecting. Even the bakery, Baked on Maui, was a bust – I was jonesing for some banana bread (the best we’ve ever had was on the Road to Hana – but we’re not going over there just for banana bread!), and they didn’t have anything even remotely like banana bread. Sigh. Oh well, don’t need the carbs anyway.
Overall, this adventure was a bit of a disappointment, but the drive and scenery was so great, that it wasn’t a complete loss. Plus, we are driving right past the Sugar Museum on the way home, which makes for a perfect way to spend our early afternoon.
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