Day Nine: Sublime sunset

Today we originally had planned to go to the very eastern side of the island to do a drive to a place called Hana. However, as there was some notable lightning last night, it spurred us up to at least look at the predicted weather, which told us that the driving conditions would be best in a couple of days time. 

Instead and after some suggestions from our hosts, we headed in the car about 15 minutes south and stopped firstly at a place called Makena. This area is one where the last lava flow occurred in Maui in 1790, thus making the shoreline incredibly rocky, but devoid of large crowds. 

Unfortunately though, we were boiling! We wanted to go to the volcano crater for sunset and we knew that the temperature was going to drop massively, so we opted for jeans......big mistake! It was much too early in the day for this seemingly extreme level of attire. Luckily we needed to go back north and saw an opportunity to stop via the house to change. What a difference light clothes with ventilation made. 

Both Matteo and Gianna had recommended us to go to a place on the way to the volcano called Pa'ia. Good call, thanks guys!! For only a small place, it was absolutely pumping with people in no rush, just wanting to experience this cool little pocket of the island. Pa'ia had an obvious hippie-type culture, just by looking at the cats cruising and the shops that were on offer. The organic food selection was another clear sign of how this place rolled. We really liked it and it reminded us of places like Warburton or even Daylesford. Matteo had told us about a funky little lunch spot called Café Mes Amis, which served a variety of curries, wraps, crepes and salads. We had no trouble finding something delicious on the menu. 

After our meal and coffee we knew that it was time to keep rolling on towards the volcano. The rain started coming down, which meant that we needed to pull over and put the roof up on the car. The area where we stopped seemed to be a local church even complete with a topless long haired hippy in fisherman pants dancing in a slightly Hare Krishna / rain dance like movement! The things you see! It certainly cemented our opinion of the town having a very distinct hippy vibe.

The drive towards the volcano was simply divine and was a much easier drive than the death zone we experienced yesterday. This morning we noticed on the car rental agreement that it specifically told us not to drive in that area....oops, well we didn't die and the car serviced! A lucky escape! 

The road up the volcano was once again very windy, but very picturesque with the odd stopping point along the way. The guide book gave a great suggestion to stop almost three quarters of the way up and this view did not disappoint. Pretty much every car behind us didn't bother, which was exactly what the guide book said would happen. We therefore had our own time without other annoying tourists jumping in our photo zone!

We made it to the visitor centre just near the summit and it was definitely colder than down at the beach earlier on in the day. Part way up the volcano we stopped at a camp ground to change back to our jeans and warm clothing. If we hadn't have been told to do so by Gianna and Matteo, we would have been bloody freezing. It dropped from 90 (32 degrees Celsius) to 48 (9 degrees Celsius). Although it was cool, we were warm with what we wore and the fresh air was really invigorating. It is the same feeling that you get when you climb the trail to the top of the Thousand Steps, where your lungs are open and you really feel alive. 

There was a lot of low lying clouds, so seeing into the crater of the volcano was pretty much obscured, but you could tell that we were very high up...actually almost 3000 metres above sea level. We had made it to this point with about 20 minutes to take an abundance of sunset photos before it disappeared completely. There were a few people around, with three full tour buses, but even with all of the snap happy gang in the area, there were still plenty of vantage points. 

We took our time to head back and made it to the house by 7:45pm, giving us time to change for dinner and find a place to eat at online. We decided on a local Wailea restaurant called Fabiani's, but as we'd arrived around 9pm, the joint was about to close. We ended back up at Monkeypod Kitchen which was in the same set of shops and given that it was just after 9pm, we knew we were arriving at the beginning of happy hour. Two beers for the price of one....yes please!