March 7 – Kula, Maui
We decided to head to the hills and experience what “up country” meant. Basically it means going uphill on the slopes of Haleakala. It is much wetter, cooler, and therefore is where there are many farms – from growing stuff to herding cattle.
This post got a bit long by the end – so enjoy the photo story book first and you can choose to keep on reading if you like.
Our first stop is the Sugar Beach Bakery to get several fresh malsadas – the Portuguese filled doughnut. We left early thinking there woildnt be a line, but we were wrong. Even at 7:15 am we still have to wait. But the passion fruit and coconut filled ones are well worth it. With a hearty breakfast we are ready to really go.
We stop in at the nearby wildlife refuge to get some early birding, but we are stopped by a closed sign. Oops, we forgot that they are closed on weekends, so we will have to push that to Monday. We head back up to the airport and then start climbing, and climbing. We take the same path as we recently did going to the summit of Haleakala last week.
Our first stop, at 3500 feet, is the Kula Farmer’s Market. We had been told about this just yesterday as we talked to a local artist at Wailuku First Fridays (another story). It is this farmer’s market that we wished we had known about earlier. Really fresh produce from several vendors. Lot of small businesses selling their wares as well from jewelry to clothing, to flowers and woodworking. The best thing is that it all felt very local – that all the vendors were small, most likely the owner is taking your cash. Since we were going to be on the road for the day in a hot car, we only picked up some fruit we had never tried before – an ice cream bean and a star apple. Both are supposed to taste amazing – we will tell you when we eat them.
Next stop is the Kula Botancical Garden. A lush green collection of Hawaiian and other tropical flowers and plants. Several we had never seen before nor the variety. Who knew there were so many bromiliads? This is a privately owned garden that was opened to the public in 1971. Even made Sunset Magazine in 1973. Supposedly the owner was a pilot and a landscape architect who would ‘smuggle’ plants back on his trips. The garden is labor of love for the whole family, especially after several hurricanes innudated the garden with 3-8 inches of mud and demolised several structures. Their mantra is to always rebuild. Today the garden is a testament to this tenacity. It is still a lovely place for a cool walk through a great landscape while listening to all the birds surround you.
We then head to the Kula Tea plantation even higher up the mountain. We skip the tour but enjoy hearing the recent history of this farm from our pourer. We enjoy a wonderdul flight of teas – hibiscus was our favorite.
Our last major stop is Maui Wine and Ulapalakua ranch for lunch. We enjoy learning the history of the ranch – purchased by a whaling captain in the 1850’s as a sugar plantation where he entertained King Kalakaua in the 1880’s. It is now mainly a cattle ranch with the addition of wine production in the 1970’s. It was fun to taste the sparkling pineapple wine – not our favorite, but interesting to try it out. We enjoy the grand views back down the hillside to Kihei and surrounding area.
We start back home late in the afternoon with one more stop at the artsy community of Makalou.
We can see why people enjoy living and working ‘up country.’ It is quite the difference from the sandy beaches and coral reefs ‘down country.’
The cool, mountain air in a lush green setting witha slower pace sounds like a lovely place to spend more time when we return.
Siri and David Adventures 