Email Elizabethroad to hana
Road to Hana from Wailea
We thought we had the Road to Hana tour from our home base in Wailea all planned out. I set my alarm on the clock radio at The Fairmont Kea. I called for a wakeup call at 5:45, followed by a 2nd wakeup call 15 minutes later. All of this was in addition to relying on my internal clock to wake up by early enough, because the last thing we wanted to do was be late for our 6:45 meeting time scheduled by the Road to Hana tour people.
As luck would have it, we raced out of our top floor suite at 6:30 without any wakeup calls whatsoever, on top of which the alarm clock had malfunctioned. We made it halfway down the hall before Barbara figured out she had left her cellphone on the table. We dashed back to retrieve her cell and continued on our way halfway through the second wing before I realized I had forgotten the tickets for the tour. What a circus. See, there was a reason that we had given ourselves an extra 15 minutes of time to meet the deadline. That’s the kind of real estate agents we are — planners — always on time. Back to the room to retrieve the tickets.
By the time we got to the Terrace level and rounded the corner where we were to meet the van, we discovered all of the other passengers were already on board, and even with being 5 minute early, we were still late. Which is probably why we got the last back corner seats.
617 curves, and 56 single-lane bridges. What part of motion sickness did I not predict? Oy. I could be stoic or I could speak up after 30 minutes of discomfort, and speaking up seemed like the better choice. I asked our cheery tour bus driver from Shakopee who, even though he has lived in Hawaii for 26 years still retained his Minnesota accent (don’t dingle dangle, hey) for a plastic bag. He was so polite he asked me what size. Size? Seriously? He spotted the look of agony in my eyes and quickly ripped off a kitchen-size trash bag. Then, he also handed me a piece of ginger, coupled with a frozen can of pop to alternate holding against my neck, under my ears.
My real life saver, though, was the guy sitting next to Barbara, who hailed from Bentonville, Arkansas, home of Wal*Mart and Tyson Foods, the fame of which I only know because of my agent friend, James Dray at Wise Realty. The dude from Bentonville handed me 2 dramamine. Jennifer, from St. Louis, was also gracious enough to offer us second row seats, which were a tremendous help.
By the time we got to the burial place of Charles Lindbergh, whom they say was buried standing straight up so he can look out to sea, all was right with the world again. On the road to Hana, sometimes you’ve got to rely on the kindness of strangers.
The Road to Hana Beats Out Ziplining in Maui
No trip to Maui appears complete unless you take the Road to Hana tour, with its 617 hairpin curves and 56 one-way bridges, which is our destination this morning. We had originally considered a Ziplining experience but that required a lot more energy than we seem to possess. Once you slow down in Maui, you slow waaaayyy down, so slow you almost crash and split your head open in the process. It’s amazing the fast pace at which we operate day-to-day in the wonderful world of Sacramento real estate.
Ziplining held appeal because it’s an activity that so many vacationers seem to gravitate toward and it looks harmless. Although, I did consider the fact that I could very easily climb up to the top of the tree before I completely freaked out. I imagine the view from the trees as I stand on our wrap-around balcony and look out at the ocean. We are on the 7th floor, which is the top floor at The Fairmont Kea Lani. Could I let myself be fastened to a harness, hold on to a wire and zoom down toward the ground?
I don’t know if I could. I am uneasy in a chairlift at a ski area, and this activity is faster and higher. In fact, I was pretty much unable to ski down a hill, even a bunny hill. I stood there at the top with skis on my frozen feet, poles by my side, goggles strapped to my head, ready to go, and I could not move. That is a real problem if you want to learn how to ski. It was apparent to me that I did not want to ski.
After I had bought boots, gloves, ski pants, a ski jacket, a long scarf, wooly hat and for what? To learn that I did not want to ski. I also did not want to water ski. I tried it once from the lake, and when the boat took off, it pulled me forward, my skis flew off, banged up and bruised my legs, and that was the end of water-skiing.
The other problem with Ziplining is you have to wear closed-toe shoes, and I brought only sandals. On top of that, Ziplining is expensive, about $150 per person. Also, there is no way to get to the Ziplining place without renting a car or hiring a taxi, and if I climb to the top of the platform and decide I absolutely cannot go Ziplining, I still have to pay for the privilege.
Call me silly, but it just doesn’t sound like as good of an idea as it does to relax in cushy seats inside a tour van on the road to Hana and be fed breakfast and lunch. Plus, I’ll probably shoot a few excellent photos of waterfalls and Maui’s Upcountry. Hey, there is a winery tour included, too. It doesn’t get any more lazy than that. There will always be another time to explore Ziplining.
