More waterfalls!

Sunday 26 February
This morning, we continued a few miles past Hana, and visited Wailea Falls (lower central photo), then continued a little further to the Kipahulu District of Haleakala National Park, with its ocean vistas and more waterfalls. We took a great trail, the Pipiwai trail, 4 miles return and 800 feet elevation gain. The trail first passes Makahiku Falls (lower left), then continues past a huge banyan tree (upper right), through a bamboo forest (centre right) and finally up to Waimoku Falls, main photo and lower right. We were going to do the shorter coastal trail, however, we had just started out, when it started to rain quite heavily, so we decided to skip it and return to the car, and continue to our final destination for the day, Wai’anapanapa State Park,
which lies just west of Hana, on the stretch of road we did yesterday (See extra collage). You have to book a time slot for the state park, I’m guessing because parking is rather limited, so we had booked the 3 - 5.30 time slot.
It offers spectacular views of the rugged shoreline, sea caves, rock arches, a blow hole, and a black sand beach, with the forested mountains behind. Out at sea, the turquoise blue water and white cresting waves pound against the jagged rocks. Fortunately, the earlier shower had soon passed, and although there were still some threatening clouds around, it stayed dry and largely sunny for our visit.
In the evening, we had to gather all our loose stuff from the car, and fit everything into the suitcases again, as this is our last night, and tomorrow we head back to the airport for our early evening flight home.
Step count: 21,249