Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Trip to Maui (2008)--Day 3
3/19/2008
Trip To Lanai
The first order of business today? The building's fire alarm went off at 3:00 a.m., jolting us from a sound sleep. After ten seconds or so, it quit. Fifteen minutes later, it sounded a second time. And then a third. And so on for the next two and a half hours. Needless to say, we were less than pleased. When I called the front desk, their response was "well, security is looking into it". Really? How about having somebody with some expertise such as the Maui Fire Department look into it? And fix the thing! It didn't help my mood regarding the experience the next day when an employee of the hotel said that "this hadn't happened in over a month". Knowing that this was a pre-existing problem which hadn't been fixed the first time around shook my confidence in Lahaina Shores management just a bit.
But enough of that; having made reservations weeks ago to rent a Jeep Wrangler through Adventure Lanai Ecocentre, we arrived at the Lahaina Harbor at 6:15 for the 6:45 ferry ride from Maui to the island of Lanai. The ride across the Auau Channel gave us nice views of the sunrise over Haleakala, and later of the cliffs on Lanai's southern coastline. There was some confusion when we arrived at Manele Bay, as nobody from A.L.E. was present to show us the Jeep we'd be using today. We asked a few people (who knew nothing) and almost mistakenly got on the bus transferring people to the Dollar Rent-a-car location! (Expeditions also rents Jeeps through Dollar, which have more restrictions on where you can go and aren't as sturdy as the jeeps rented through Adventure Lanai Ecocentre). Finally, while I was off finding a bathroom, the girl showed up and met Patty. With some quickly given instructions and directions (unfortunately, the Munro Trail was closed today due to recent heavy rains), we were on the road, our destination being Richards' Market in Lanai City where she'd supply us with a cooler for our use during the day.
Approaching Lanai on the Ferry
Sweetheart Rock
Richards' was very easy to find, but other directions given by her weren't understood by us very well; either that, or she rattled off the directions too fast for our understanding. You know how it is? If you're familiar with an area, sometimes you just assume that directions you give to a newbie are being understood. After getting the cooler at Richards, we drove around...and around...and around. She had recommended Cafe 565 as a good place to eat lunch, but we had no idea where the "main drag" was in Lanai City. For that matter, we didn't see anything resembling a main drag in this little town! Even more of a mystery was how to get to the Garden Of The Gods. Finally we returned to Richard's Market where a helpful employee gave us easy directions, and off we went.
Garden of the Gods is a strange place, a place you wouldn't have suspected you'd find in Hawai`i. It's red clay, volcanic rock, with stones stacked up in strange formations which look as though they had human intervention...yet hadn't. When we got out of the Jeep to take a look around, there was an eerie lack of sound which hit me. I mean, no people (we only encountered one other vehicle our entire time there including the trip to Polihua Beach), no traffic, nothing...just the sound of the wind. It was strange and wonderful at the same time. We spent some time exploring, walking around, driving to various places with lookouts down to the west coast of the island, before heading down to Polihua Beach. During this stretch, the the road got interesting. It was downhill and a very bumpy, rutted dirt road. A normal two-wheel drive vehicle would have little chance on this trail, but we made it down to the beach with no trouble other than being constantly bounced around inside the Jeep. Again, we were struck by the stark solitude of Polihua Beach. There were no other people on this expanse of sand. The ocean wasn't especially swimmable, so we didn't venture in, but it made for a nice peaceful respite before returning to Lanai City.
Our rental Jeep
Road leading into Garden Of The Gods
Garden Of The Gods
Polihua Beach
Enjoying the quiet desolation
Shipwreck Beach
Cafe 565
As it turns out, Richards is on Lanai City's "main drag". Cafe 565 is less than a block away; we didn't see it even though we drove by it three or four times! Plate lunches are 565's specialty, and they're delicious. Patty had the fried chicken, I had a combination fried chicken/hamburger steak plate. After tip, the cost was only $20, which was a very good deal.
There is only one service station on Lanai, so the gas price they charged ($4.71/gallon) should come as no surprise, even when compared to the $3.90 that was being charged on Maui. If you don't like these prices? Tough; there are no other stations on the island.
We were back at Manele Bay by 4:00 and didn't feel like doing anything else. We were able to catch the earlier 4:45 ferry rather than wait for the 6:45 trip back to Lahaina Harbor. After returning to our hotel room, we crashed (Patty for the night, me for a couple hours). It was a fun-filled yet exhausting day.
Previous: 3/18/2008--Our Trip to Maui (2008)--Day 2
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