You might think that we would get up and do the sunrise at Haleakala some time in our 55 days on Maui. You would be wrong! That doesn’t mean that we didn’t want to see the crater and all the cool stuff that goes with it. So, after the boys got done with their fishing trip, all four of us headed off to the other side of the island.
First stop: lunch at a favorite stop – Flatbread Pizza in P’aia. This was Mike’s first visit to the actual restaurant. His other “visits” had been limited to leftovers. Even the Gs had been there!
After filling up, we were back on the road to Haleakala (which is Hawaiian for “house of the sun”)…and hoping that the clouds would somehow disappear when we got to the summit. The drive up seemed to take us from Maui countryside to forest views to desert canyon views. It reminded the kids of either the moon or Mars…with roads and parking lots.
We did get some limited views of the crater – between the clouds and the occasional rain shower. Oh, and our huddling in the visitor center and under rock outcroppings (that was really the kids) to keep warm. Even at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, the winds were really whipping and making the temps feel close to 45 or 50 degrees.
We also get some great views of a native plant that can only be found on Haleakala: the silversword (or ‘ahinahina). These plants can take 50 years to mature, but once they bloom (get that full stem with purple flowers) they die. It reminds me of the apple banana tree which only bears one bunch of fruit.
