Category Archives: Olivine Pools

Julia's Banana Bread, Olivine Pools

Banana Bread!!!!!

There is a little roadside stand about 3 miles AFTER the road goes to one lane in West Maui. We discovered this little gem near the end of our first week here by complete accident. It was the beginning of many adventures that day. In looking back at the blog, apparently I hadn’t started my writing career here, so you may not be up to speed. Here’s the summary…

  • We went looking for the Olivine Pools and overshot…ending up on a one lane road. This being my first Maui mountain road experience, I freaked out (as much as possible given the need to maintain some compsure for the kids’ sake).
  • We kept hoping for more than one lane and found banana bread. Followed by misunderstanding which direction to go from the stand – thereby driving around the whole upper part of west Maui coming in the back side of Kahului. Did I mention the gas light came on about 4 miles into this?
  • Got gas, started back to Lahaina…only to be stopped by a wildfire which shut down the highway. Thanks to Travelocity (and Mike!) and Wal-Mart, the kids and I spent the night in Kahului and got home the next day.

Back to that banana bread…the signs kept saying it was the World’s Best. High hopes were there on our first visit and it didn’t disappoint. So much so that we went back. It didn’t seem nearly as far this time…of course, we’ve driven all sorts of Maui roads since then!

You can get your own right here: Julia’s Banana Bread

GET SOME NOW!!!!

Jennifer

Launiupoko Beach Park, Man O' War, Olivine Pools

Launiupoko Beach Afternoon

Going to the Olivine Pools wasn’t enough adventure for the day, so we headed out to Launipoko Beach Park in the afternoon. Even with a 4-day week, Mike was more than ready for a Friday afternoon break and it was great day for it.


For anyone following along, this is the “Poko” park that is infamous in the Peek family due to the man o’ war saga with Max. Thankfully, there were no man o’ wars or sand sharks today…just great rays and waves. The adventure today was Mike helping the kids learn how to surf. They both got dumped on the beach at least once and took a couple of waves. Not much actual surfing but a great start!


We also met some great people – to whom we were drawn mostly by the kids because they had dogs. And the kids LOVE dogs! It was great to have a nice chat plus get some more ideas on places to see (they were from Kihei which is about half way to the airport and then south). Great people, great waves, great rays…and no one stepped in dog poop!

Aloha,
Jennifer

Mama's Ribs and Rotisserie, Olivine Pools

Olivine Pools & Mama’s Ribs

Feeling adventurous and more sure of my mountain driving skills, the kids and I headed out attempting to find the Olivine Pools – yes, the ones we were looking for when we ended up driving around the “top” of Maui on the one lane road. Fortunately, we’ve had so much more practice looking for mile markers since this is largely the way directions are given here, that we were pretty sure we were in good shape.


We found the turn off easily enough – the dirt road turn off right between mm 42 and mm 16 (isn’t cool how it changes #s when the maintenance moves from county to state…not confusing at all). And then….we couldn’t figure out where the pools were. OK, I know you’re thinking – by the ocean! Ahhh….but where by the ocean? The drops are steep and not so easy to see down without thinking you’re going to plummet down like some ancient Hawaiian god sacrifice…and the coastline tends to start looking the same.


What to do? What to do? Follow others of course! We got far enough down to be able to see others down near the ocean so we headed that way…

And made it…then we had to climb back up. We didn’t slip – although we did lose sight of Max for a bit because he scrambles up the hills like his feet are on fire…classic Max. No fear (although in this case there wasn’t a reason for him to be taking it slow).

We hopped back in the car – after buying a pineapple from a guy who had set up a table on the dirt turnout to sell water, pineapple, mango, lilikoi (passion fruit) and pineapple/mango jam. Seriously – he blocked our car in and had to move his truck so we could leave. I drove between scrub trees and the table to get through…always an adventure! After that, our BBQ rib lunch from Mama’s Ribs was just plain awesome..who would have thought that a carry-out place in a strip mall would have such good smoked meat?

Aloha!
Jennifer