The Road To Hana.....or Not !! Sunday 18th February....

Our first port of call on the cruise is the Island of Maui....our tour today should be a highlight of the trip The Road To Hana...
A feature of this week is an early alarm...05.45...most tours are 7 or 8 hours...

Our first stop is at Ho'okipa Lookout a popular surfers beach...

Not sure we would surf that close to the rocks but I guess they know what they are doing !!!

The Road To Hana is 64 miles of a narrow winding road with many switchbacks and one lane bridges...our tour bus is the same size and company as the one on the bridge...
All was going well but shortly after this location we had a blow out of a tyre on our mini bus...

Our driver/guide decided to continue onto our lunchtime spot at Kaumahina State Park....not a pleasant drive with the rubber of the tyre banging all the way....

Our lunch spot (packed lunch provided by the ship) overlooking the volcanic black sand beach....we discover we will be here a while as the tow truck has to come out from Paia where our tour started....

It's a dramatic and picturesque coastline....

A blow hole in the lava rock...

We did all manage a few walks along the cliffs in between the showers which started when we arrived but the storm clouds are gathering !!!

Thunder lightening and torrential rain....the gusty winds causing a bombardment of debris and tropical almonds on the roof of the mini bus....
9 of our fellow passengers were able to transfer to other buses...
All very tedious but stuff happens although we did feel there should have been a better contingency plan in place rather than having a 3 hour wait....
So we didn't get to Hana but had a scary/manic 2 hour drive back to the ship...heavy rain and so much debris on the road...
We were very pleased to have our happy hour drink in the Goldrush Bar !!!!

Light relief after our day....our cabin steward Mario's first night welcome towel folding creation....
Not the day we had envisaged but we are all safe...
Tomorrow is another day....