Woke up to the sound of sprinklers going off again at 5AM. Although it may seem ungodly early, this is a good wake-up call for us. We're still on Eastern Standard Time, and this means we get to maximize the daylight, as it gets dark around 7PM and as we found out last night, there are no lights on the highways around Maui! We lounged around awhile, actually, I lounged around awhile, while Neda did her Yoga in a special Yoga Hut they built on the premises. It's very serene here.
After a quick breakfast, it was off to Island Riders to figure out the cause of the Check Engine Light that came on on my Buell last night. We met up with Blake who we found out lives above the store. After calling around, he told me they were having problems with the counterbalancer in the engine on my bike. That explains why my bike was shaking more than a broken washing machine on Red Bull! It was still rideable, but after adjusting my loose mirror, Blake lent me his adjustable wrench in case anything else on the bike vibrated off. Like the engine, maybe... Although I'm a bit miffed that I'm stuck riding a vibrato-cycle for the next few days, I am impressed that he offered up his own ride since they had rented out all their bikes already. I wouldn't do that to him, though! He's a nice guy, he offered to take us on some rides on Monday, on his day off, and we might just take him up on the offer.
We were off to Haleakala Crater for the day, and Blake reminded us that there was a great road towards the winery region past the crater in the south of the island. The nice thing about riding early on a Saturday morning is that every one's still asleep and it's not too hot in the day. We had the entire road out of Lahaina all to ourselves. I think after a whole day on the bike yesterday, we had gotten familiar with our machines as the lure of the open, empty road enticed us to push the speedometer faster and faster through the winding coastal roads. What a thrill!
I led on the way to Haleakala, it took about an hour to get there and we were at the base of the crater around 10AM. As we got higher, the temperature got markedly cooler and we saw that we were approaching clouds that were drifting over the summit of the crater. It was a good idea to don our rainjackets at that point, not just for the moisture as we rode through the clouds, but also to insulate ourselves against the rapidly falling temperature. I think they said it was around 52F at the summit, which is about 10C!
Haleakala Crater is designated a US National Park, and the roads approaching the gates to the park were amazing 30 mph sweepers, which are best done around 50-60 mph! The pavement is very smooth and hairpin turns are all banked nicely, a motorcyclist's dream-come-true! We paid out $10 to get into the park, bought our requisite Haleakala fridge magnet to add to our collection back home and headed up the mountain. It dawned on me later on that we were actually riding up the side of a volcano! The landscape is so different from the rainforests of the northern coast, and the Californina PCH-like western coastal road. Here were black and reddish brown soil and rocks lining both sides of the road leading up to the summit, the vegetation growing sparser as we reached altitudes where the air thinned and plants could not survive. In fact, as we climbed off the bikes to hike around, we found ourselves short of breath. At around 10,000 feet above sea level, it was comparable to our trip up Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado two years ago.
Traffic got a lot more thicker as we ventured through the park, as cars and SUVs dawdled on the winding road to the summit, taking in the scenery. And what scenery! Riding from beneath the clouds, through and then breaking through the cloud cover reminded me of taking off in a plane. But slower. And more fun. Actually, it's not anything like taking off in a plane. Nevermind. When we were hiking around the summit, it's easy to lose sight of what it is you're actually walking on - namely the lip of the crater of a volcano. We had to look at a 3D aerial map with a big "YOU ARE HERE" to figure out which direction to look into the mouth of the volcano!
Neda led on the way down, which made for some great shots. I was also feeling more comfortable with the bike today, so there are more action shots as I managed to figure out a way to ride with one hand, quickly unzip my jacket pocket with my other hand, pull out the camera, fumble with it to point it in the right direction, turn it on, focus it and then have to hastily tuck it back in my pocket in order to stop or downshift safely. And sometimes, I even manage to take a picture in all this busy sequence of events!
Back down at the bottom of the crater, we remember Blake's suggestion to go south towards the winery. I'm glad we remembered, because this was a great narrow, twisting road with clear sightlines around each curve and amazing elevation changes across rolling hills. Beautiful new pavement! Neda remarked to me later that there really wasn't any reason to make the road that twisty. The road planner must have either been a motorcycle enthusiast, or he was drunk. Speaking of being drunk, we arrived near the southern tip of Maui at the Tedeschi Winery and stopped in for a taste of wine. Obviously, we didn't have a lot to drink, otherwise we'd have had to sober up for quite a while in the pretty park that surrounds the winery.
Neda picked up a couple of bottles of the rasberry wine and some jalapeno mustard. Hopefully they'll make their way back to Toronto unscathed in our check-in baggage or we'll be busy washing wine and mustard out of our clothes on our return. That stuff doesn't stain, right...? The ride back was great as we ran through the same roads we took to get here. One thing that struck me as strange about Maui is that many of the roads and highways end abruptly instead of circing around the island, so to get back where you came from, you have to double-back instead of travelling in a circle, which being on an island would be the practical thing to do. Case in point, if you look at the map above, there is no road that joins the southern point of our route with the road that runs on the western-side of the island. Same as yesterday, there is no road that travels east-west on the southern coast of Maui. To get back to the west, you have to double back on the Road to Hana (which would technically make it "The Road *FROM* Hana" but I digress yet again). I think it has to do with the terrain and maybe it is impossible or highly infeasible to build roads in some areas of the island.
We get back to Ho'oilo and have some time before we head out for a nice sushi dinner in Lahaina. We stop at a restaurant called Kobe, which is a teppanyaki place with a sushi bar inside. The sashimi, especially the tuna, was amazingly fresh, but the rolls and sushi weren't anything special. We kind of stuffed ourselves there, so after rolling ourselves onto our bikes, we make the 7-minute trek back to Ho'oilo and bed.
I could get used to this kind of living: Eat (sushi), Sleep, Ride. Life is so simple.
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Back from the winery. I love this road!
