Hawaii Day Three:
Today started out like yesterday, nice and early. Since we had already done the long drive of RTH yesterday, we decided to go the other direction, which would make for a shorter trip. Shorter was better for us as we were changing hotels and wanted to make sure we had everything set up for the next three days.
Our first stop of the day was the Dragons Teeth located right off the hole #x on the golf course by the Ritz Carlton. We had a little trouble deciphering the Maui Revealed directions and ended up at our next destination (D.T. Flemming Beach Park) and about 1/3 mile down the beach from the Dragons Teeth. What was supposed to be a five-minute walk turned in forty-five minutes of walking, but we got to see two of our stops. The Dragons Teeth are a little peninsula with the rocks around the edge pointed and jagged like…. dragons teeth. It makes for some nice photos, but not much else to do at this location.
Stop three, but now stop two, was to see a blowhole after a little hike. When we arrived and walked down to the initial descent, we discovered the blowhole was not blowing. At that point, we were not going to trek down the mountain to see a blowhole that was on break and not sure when it would turn back on. So we turned around and went on towards our next stop.
Driving along this side of the mountain is very different from the RTH. The RTH has lots of overhanging trees and cars, while here it is mostly rock faces and very few cars. One thing to look out for is falling rocks. We passed many rocks in the street and some that were more like boulders.
There is a very nice bay that is very popular for it’s snorkeling, but we decided to skip that for today and head towards the Olivine Pools. These pools are right along the coast and require a rather difficult hike down to get there. I definitely got a look (yes, singular) carrying my kid down there, but it was definitely worth it. Depending on your hiking ability, it should take 5-15 minutes down to the pools and all of its glory. When we arrived, we had the place to ourselves for a solid thirty minutes. These pools vary in depth, with some being a few inches and another was easily twenty feet deep and had a few rock formations where you can jump into the water from. The water in the shallow spots were very warm and felt like a natural hot tub, while the deeper pools were warm on top and cool a few feet down. While we were alone, there were many fish that had been trapped in the pools and would be stuck until high tide came around. Some of the fish were tiny, while others were pretty big and even tropical ones as well. This was definitely the highlight of the day and I urge anyone who will be in the area to make this a must stop.
After stop four at the Olivine Pools, we continued along the road to complete the loop of the rest of the island. The scenery like everything we had seen so far was incredible. While we thought that there were some tight squeezes along the RTH, today’s drive had even tighter roads. We got into a nice pace behind this pickup truck that had two guys sitting in beach chairs in the bed of the truck. That must be an exciting, albeit dangerous way to travel these roads. After going most of the way through the loop and narrowly escaping a traffic jam, we were told that the road ahead was closed for construction for another three hours. This was not good. We had just exclaimed how we were so lucky to make it through the tight roads without having to back up along the mountain, when we had to turn and around and tempt fate a second time.
The way back was not as smooth as the first. We were going along and making good time, when we got stuck. Halfway down a one-lane road, we saw three cars in front of us and another couple trying to come the other way. With no place to go, we put the car into reverse and started back up the hill. After a harrowing five-minute drive, the cars had passed and we started back down. We made it a little farther when we saw some cars coming our way, but luckily there was room to sneak by and we were able to finish the drive without any other excitement.
We got back to our hotel, checked out, drove a few hotels over and checked into the Hyatt. They Hyatt, while an older hotel, has an amazing pool area with multiple slides, a grotto, cave, waterfalls and a bar in the water. The next few days should be relaxing, and nothing too exciting happening. Hopefully by the time chag is done, we can find flights back home. Not that we will want to go, but it seems like we will have to.
