An early start this morning with a 6.45 pickup for our Travel Shack Road tour to Hana. We chose this company for 2 reason; (i) the trip takes you the whole way around the Island and does not backtrack from Hana which most do and (ii) they restrict the passengers to 8 in a van that can hold 13.

Our guide and driver is a Hawaiian from Hana who now lives in Lahaina because his children are able to get a better education there. Hana has only one school, and although it is a good school the opportunities provided to the city children are greater than those provided to the children educated in Hana.

After a drive to the north of the island and a brief stop for photo opportunities and some local muffins, the tour begins and we head west and enter the narrow windy ‘Road to Hana’ that in many parts is only one lane. The vegetation is lush and although the island is experiencing an unusually dry spell, we begin to see many waterfalls. The government employ locals to control the river flows with a series of locks and weirs to prevent all the fresh water running straight into the sea. On rivers and streams where there are no locks, we see a lot of only dry river beds.

We stop off at the Ke'anae Peninsula and see lava rock that have reached the ocean (and are being eroded into black sand beaches), an interesting old church and we learn more about the history of Maui. Originally, only pineapples were produced on Maui - the Maui Gold is still produced but only on a very small scale today and it is no longer a major export.  

That industry was eventually replaced with sugarcane. However, a few years ago, that was also closed down and today the land is being bought by developers for resort development as new roads and infrastructure are now supporting the Tourism Industry which is pretty much the only industry now on Maui.

As we travel closer to Hana we see many miles of hillside covered in Chinese bamboo and other pestilential plants. There are very few native plants and animals left on Maui as immigrants brought with them plants and animals which have thrived in the warm, humid climate, unchecked by natural predators. Mongooses are everywhere, and the bamboo is so wild there are fears that it will soon envelop the whole island.

Next stop was the Wai'anapanapa State Park where (reputedly) there is a spectacular blowhole (it wasn’t blowing today) and a black sand beach where a couple of our younger tour companions decided on an Instagram session and a quick dip.

Then through Hana (underdeveloped and unremarkable) and onto lunch at a tropical nursery owned by our driver’s auntie. Options are ribs, fish taco's, or chicken. Rudimentary. The auntie makes jewellery from wood and plants – very attractive, but not the sort of souvenir you can bring back to Australia,

The final leg of the tour is around the western and southern sided of the Island – the landscape here is best described as ‘bleak’ - very different to the landscape we have seen on the north and east. The road goes through several moonscapes and our driver also pointed out landscapes that he labelled ‘Grand Canyon’ and ‘Arizona Desert’. It is so dry here in the south of the island that no-one lives here and all water has to be brought in for the few animals that are grazed here. Hard to believe that an island so small can have these extreme micro climates. 

Finally we turn north and head back over the flanks of Haleakala volcano before arriving back at Ka’anapali just after 7 p.m.