Day 6: Bike down Haleakala, Mama's Fish House

You might think a self-proclaimed "true" cyclist, who likes to brag about climbs like that ones I mentioned earlier in Day 3, would find the popular tourist activity of biking down Haleakala unattractive. Well, it certainly isn't challenging and doesn't require much biking skills but it still sounds fun to me (and to the couple who did the challenging bike tour with me on Day 3 as well) I decided to do it and this day started early, I mean, really early, at 2:30am! I was picked up at the hotel by Cruiser Phil's van to its HQ in Kahului. Then their bus drove the group up to the visitor center near the summit of Haleakala. The driver who also served as tour guide told us quite a few Maui and Haleakala related stories from Hawaiian mythology to entertain us during the long drive. I got a bit more sleep on the way though. It was 5:20am when we arrived. The goal? To watch the sunrise! (Yup, the same sunrise we decided not to take the wife and kids to see. I wore my bike jersey, a long-sleeve tee, a short-sleeve tee, a windbreaker and finally the jacket provided by the tour operator to stay warm. It's actually around 15 degrees Celsius. Not that cold but I just want to be on the safe side. The tour has provided wind pants and another jacket that I didn't use) Is it worthwhile to get up so early? I'll let you judge:

Because of regulation, the bike ride couldn't start at the summit. The bus driver drove us back down to 6300 ft. After some instructions from the ride leader, the ride finally began at 7:30am. We were all given a single speed bike with drum brakes.

The folks from Cruiser Phil's didn't even bother to adjust seat height because we were not expected to pedal for any significant distance. Well, that was applicable to every riders on the tour except me! The bike given to me was probably the worst bike I've ever rented. Maybe it had some bad bearings or brake rub, it just couldn't go fast, even though I pedal it as fast as I could to catch up to speed with the group, while no one else had to pedal, confirmed by the guy behind me, who rode the last one in the line of bikes. I had to heightened the seat by almost 3 inches or my knee would have hurt for pedaling hard with improper seat height. The average speed was ~20 mph, which was actually not that bad considered that the group doesn't solely consist of hardcore bikers. (For comparison, I estimated the speed would have been between 25-30 mph if I use that Titanium road bike from Day 3. BTW, the tour I joined was the type that has "no passing (the bikes in front of you)" rule, which did not worsen my ride with that poor bike anyway. I saw another tour company providing Trek mountain bike with disc brakes to their customers. I gotta find out what company does that if I were to do it next time. Oh yeah, it must not enforce "no passing" too)

The ride finished sooner that we thought. By 9:30am, we were driven to Paia (my 3rd time there) for breakfast. The driver recommended Moana, which was pricey but the food was good. I had a Mahi Mahi egg benedict.

It's lunch time when I was driven back to Wailea and we had burgers and wings at Cheeseburger Islandstyle there:


There was no better activity to burn off those calories than more swimming fun at the pool in the afternoon. And we gained them back by visiting this nice restaurant, Mama's Fish House at Paia (my 4th time there) It was probably equally well known for its high-end seafood and its unrivaled view of the beach:

Day 2: Haleakala National Park

Haleakala is one of the most famous sightseeing spot in Maui. It is a volcano with summit at 10,000 feet above sea level. I learned of it because (1) riding a bicycle down Haleakala is a very popular activity (at least for tourists. Not sure if the locals do it though) (2) bird watching literature mentioned the park having several birds unique to Hawaii, e.g. the goose-like Nene, the tennis ball-like Yellow Honeycreeper, etc. (3) fabulous sunrise could be seen at the top. We debated for a while whether we should do (3) because (a) we needed to get up before 3am and drive the long and winding road up to the top (b) the temperature could get really low up there. We decided against it and saved us some luggage spaces that would have been occupied by thick and heavy clothing! Instead, we had a light breakfast and left the hotel at 8am for Makawao, a tiny little town at the foot of the hill. We grabbed a few donuts/pastries from the famous Komoda bakery there to prepare for our visit to Haleakala. I found out later that Komoda is kinda like the Golden Gate bakery in SF China town, famous for its treats as well as unpredictable schedule :P

We entered the park about an hour later and saw the state flower, Silversword at the visitor center.

The nearby Hosmer's Grove, according to the park ranger, was the best spot in the park for bird watching. I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to find any of those native birds though. Fortunately I saw a glimpse of Nene when it ran across the road to the crater/summit, which is lengthy (about another 10 miles) and curvy. The crater was another disappointment. I thought I would see red hot lava flowing out of it.

The only redeeming feature was the great view of clouds at about 7000 feet where we were slightly above them.

We left the summit and drove back down around noon and had a late lunch (Maui Taco and Panda Express) at Queen Ka'ahumanu Shopping Center. Ironically, we saw more birds at that food court than at Haleakala!
We spent the rest of the day at the hotel for water fun. Dinner was poke/sashimi with rice and "room"-made roast beef sandwich with all ingredient bought from Foodland supermarket.