Today our plan was to drive the Hana highway which is meant to be a scenic drive down to Kaupo where we could actually take an unpaved road that would provide a total loop of the island. We set off about 8.45 and started driving towards the highway, luckily we didn’t hit the traffic jam we had yesterday and before we knew it we were on the highway. The first stop was on the main road out of town where in in the winter you can watch the whales swim by normally with their young, but at this time of year it was just a view out over the sea. Our next stop was Hookipa Beach where we watched a number of surfers trying to catch a wave although in our non-expert opinion they seemed to be too close in to actually get any of the good waves. We re-joined the highway and our next stop was Twin falls which is a double waterfall, parking was quite difficult but we managed to find a space then walked up to the falls. The falls would be quite spectacular if it wasn’t for the vegetation which rather restricted the view but all the same they were quite impressive. There were a number of people jumping off the side into the pool at the bottom which actually looked quite high risk as a few feet out from where they landed it was actually quite shallow! We continued along the drive but either the road is a long way out or the view isn’t particularly spectacular as we couldn’t actually see much from the road. There should be a number of waterfalls on this road but we got mile 17 where there was a lookout over the sea at Wailua Valley and decided that it was just going to be a long drive rather than a particularly scenic one so we turned round and went to the Bailey House museum instead. This was built in 1833 as a was originally meant to be a mission for adults and children however in 1837 it was turned into the Wailuku Female Seminary, which was known for teaching its students Christianity, domestic skills such as sewing and housekeeping and teaching the pupils the three R’s. Funding for the school ran out so the family changed it to a private school and managed to continue for quite a few years. Unfortunately now it seems to be a place to showcase the local arts and crafts which are quite impressive but in my mind not quite as interesting and the stories about the inhabitants of the house. From there we decided to visit the Sugar Museum which is next to Hawaii’s last sugar factory which closed in December 2016. The museum is in the house built for the plantation superintendent but has little in common with those days. The museum has a number of really interesting photos from the early days of sugar production and the role the immigrants played in improving the process to make it more cost effective. It is a shame they haven’t opened part of the old mill as that would be fascinating. After this we decided to head back to the hotel but unfortunately yet again we got stuck in traffic, this time it seemed to be an accident that was causing the issue but it took us nearly an hour to do quarter of a mile! We finally got back to the hotel about 6pm and as we sat on the balcony we realised that we might see our first sunset that wasn’t obscured by cloud, unfortunately this wasn’t to be the case as just as the sun was about 6inches above the horizon it vanished into a bank of cloud! So we decided to head off in search of something to eat and accidentally stumbled upon a show in the grounds of the hotel so we sat and watched examples of various Polynesian based dances where we had something to eat and drink which was actually really nice. By the time it was over we were ready for bed so went to the room and had a coffee before turning in for the night.
