Day 4 update

The Luau last night was great. We went to the one at the Grand Hyatt. There is another that is better but it is booked out weeks in advance and we didn't realise.

The other one is supposed to be more authentic and although the costumes were clearly costumes, we still enjoyed ourselves. We were lucky to be at the top of the table right near the stage so we had a wonderful view.

Plenty of good food... pork, beef, fish and veggies and salad and yummy sweets.... and great singers and dancers. They preformed dances from not only Hawaii but also from Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand and were extremely good.

The firedancer pictured was excellent and must be very practiced or very lucky as he doesn't seem to have any burns on his body.

Today we went to Hana about 2 hours drive from Kahana where we are staying. The road is built around the mountains that border the ocean and is very winding and very narrow in many places.

There are many bridges over the gorges and they are 1 lane and we would often find ourselves rounding a sharp hairpin turn to find another car right in front of us. Top speed for the 30 miles was around 20 MPH and down to 10 MPH on the really tight corners and bridges.

First stop was a State park with a beach of black sand. Actually a lot of it is pebbles of volcanic rock that get smaller and smaller closer to the ocean but it is a very beautiful place. The water is a magnificent colour and contrasts wonderfully with the black of the beach.

We sat here and ate our sandwiches and watched the mongooses running around looking for scraps and raiding the rubbish bins. At first I thought they were ferrets but we were corrected by the driver of one of the tour buses. There is no way I would want to drive up there on a tour bus! It is bad enough in a car.

After lunch we drove about 10 miles to the other side of Hana to Oheo Gulch also known as the 7 Sacred Pools. They are a series of waterfalls and ponds coming down from the mountains and running into the sea at Haleakala National Park.

As with most areas of Maui I've seen so far, that place is stunning. This part of the island is remote with rough rocky headlands that fall into the ocean and rainforest on the mountains.

Tonight is a quiet night at home and an early night. Tomorrow we are off to spend the day with Keri from Keri Designs and her stitching group and tell them all about Dinky-Dyes and show them my threads and designs.