The Hana Highway is widely renowned as the best drive on all the Hawai'ian islands, and so it was a must-see for us on Mau'i. The fifty mile coastal road is touristy, but the scenery is fantastic - deep lush valleys, rainforest, waterfalls and lots of fruit stalls along the way. We made several stops along the way to relieve Gaz from flinging the car around the 600 switchback turns. First up was the Hana Lava Tube; these 
were some very cool, deep caves that we explored with flashlights. After ten minutes of picking our way down into the darkness we suddenly came across a huge collection of very rare lava stalactites that looked exactly like chocolate drops. Our second stop was at Wai'anapanapa (all these Hawaiian names are not easy to remember when map reading!), which was a beautiful state park with black lava rocks, bright green succulents and deep blue sea - really pretty. Just down the road was Hana, a gorgeous little old-school 
Hawai'ian community that felt as though time had passed it by. Everything seemed so relaxed, and we weren't surprised to hear that George Harrison once owned a house here. Just outside the town we stopped for lunch at an incredible, secluded red sand beach, which was only accessible by traversing a hair raising, three-foot wide cliff pathway. However, it was well worth it when we descended into a paradisical setting; a lava breakwater formed a turquoise still pool which lapped onto the dark red sands. The bay was completely cut off, and we felt like we had walked into another world! The highlight of the trip however was the Pipiwai Trail, a four mile round trip that followed a number of pools and waterfalls up a lush valley, through guava trees, a huge bamboo forest, and finally ended at an enormous cascading waterfall. We both got totally soaked trying to get close to the falls for a photo!
Hawai'ian community that felt as though time had passed it by. Everything seemed so relaxed, and we weren't surprised to hear that George Harrison once owned a house here. Just outside the town we stopped for lunch at an incredible, secluded red sand beach, which was only accessible by traversing a hair raising, three-foot wide cliff pathway. However, it was well worth it when we descended into a paradisical setting; a lava breakwater formed a turquoise still pool which lapped onto the dark red sands. The bay was completely cut off, and we felt like we had walked into another world! The highlight of the trip however was the Pipiwai Trail, a four mile round trip that followed a number of pools and waterfalls up a lush valley, through guava trees, a huge bamboo forest, and finally ended at an enormous cascading waterfall. We both got totally soaked trying to get close to the falls for a photo!
Our last day on Mau'i was spent being as chilled as possible, so we hit the most famous of all the island's bays, Big Beach. Cue some excellent(!) skim boarding by both of us, as we sprinted towards the shore break, flinging ourselves onto our boards and over the back of the waves then riding them back in and being washed up sideways on the beach. Shorts and bikini ended up containing a tonne of sand! We also watched the 
locals make a better attempt of it as we ate lunch - some backflips and serious air was caught, making for some great photos and some good giggles. We seem incapable of relaxing on beaches!And so, onwards to our final Hawai'ian island - Kaua'i...
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