Maui
FINALE
Maybe it had to do with the Costco and Kmart we rode by on our way out of the rental-car-packed parking lot at Kahului Airport, but we wanted out of the sprawl and headed straight to the Kahekili Highway, the serpentine coastal road that curves around the undeveloped northeastern side of the West Maui Mountains. The top small circle of “8shaped” Maui is an extinct volcano now dwarfed and welded by an isthmus to the giant Haleakalà. The one-lane road is winding and narrow and its pavement is covered with a thin layer of red dust. Soon after a stop at Julia’s banana-bread stand for a shaved ice cone and, well, banana bread, I find Pierre standing and holding his wrist, his 125-lb. bike twisted and lying on its side in the middle of the path. He’s fallen hard, and over the afternoon, his hand, wrist and forearm will slowly inflate like a balloon. He has timed his crash well, for in 24 hours, Alice and Maurice Bouchard are landing on Maui for their yearly holiday and he’ll be able to nurse his arm and hand back to health in their air-conditioned condo and rental car! Still he had yet to pedal and manoeuvre his burdened bike over the 80 kilometres that separated us from the Kihei rental . . . with a single hand! We join in the solid line of convertible cars heading to Maui’s attractions: historic Lahaina Harbor, the lava flow at Ahihi-Kinau Natural Reserve, Big Beach and Little Beach, the windsurfers at Ho’okipa Beach Park, ono fish n’ chips and mahi mahi burger at Paia Fish Market, the steep and eroded Iao Valley and Haleakalà volcano. The classic popular image of a cone-shaped mountain with a neat round crater at the top that’s filled with bubbling lava and spouts columns of liquid fire is not to be found in Hawaii. Haleakalà and all Hawaiian volanoes are shield volcanoes, which grow slowly and steadily rather than violently, adding layer upon layer as lava seeps out of fissures and vents. The result is a long, low profile, resembling a warrior’s shield laid on the ground. From the quiet villages of Upcountry, on the lower western slopes of the volcano, the Haleakalà Crater Road twists through the meadows to the National Park visitor centre and lookout at 3,055 metres of altitude. The way up turns into a real torment of Tantalus. The pavement is smooth, crossing a bewildering succession of terrains, equivalent to a trip from Mexico to Alaska, with the air becoming crisp and thin as we sit at the back of a Ford Fusion! From the crater’s edge, we are released from what has become a space capsule, and we both charge down the Sliding Sands trail along a scree slope of red ash. It takes a while to appreciate the immensity of the crater, the Martian landscape of cinder cones glinting with pink, red, yellow and ochre highlights in the bright sun. Dr. Pierre has determined himself fit to ride so we head out on the Hàna Highway. The road to the former sugar town of Hàna, hacked into the coastal cliffs, twists tortuously in and out of gorges, past innumerable waterfalls and over more than 50 one-lane bridges in 85 kilometres! This is the windward side of Maui, the rainy side, the lush side. South of Hàna, the road narrows and gives way to the Piilani Highway. All the rental car companies forbid their clients to come this way, and after leaving the organic fruit stand at Kipahulu, there won’t be anymore PT Cruisers for two days on the leeward side of the island. Enjoyable reprieve! We got back to Kahului and rolled on to the Hawai’i SuperFerry, which cruised to Ohahu and Honolulu, Alice and Maurice’s last Hawaian stopover. We left them on Waikiki and its jungle of glass and metal and get on a plane, this time to fly to Lihue, on Kaua’i.
RING OF FIRE Hawaiian Bull’s Eye From the driest South American deserts to the overgrown jungle of Papua New Guinea and up to wild Kamchatka and Alaska, the Pacific Ring of Fire and its active volcanoes have taken us to some of the most far-flung and off-the-beaten-path spots on the circumference of the great ocean. Sixty-thousand kilometres later, we’ve come full circle from Vancouver to Vancouver, and are flying to one of the most well-known and developed tourist meccas: Hawaii! The idea to include the island group is not too much of a stretch since it consists of the summits of a chain of submarine volcanoes. Their very central Pacific location made us consider them as the obvious Pacific Ring of Fire’s bull’s eye, its belly-button . . . the cherry on the sundae! photos and story by Janick Lemieux & pierre bouchard
Rush hour on Kaua’i’s Kuhio Highway. (insets l-r) Free-flowing pahoehoe lava. Lava from the
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PEDAL Fashion 2013
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Thanksgiving Eve vent meets the Pacific Ocean. Endangered Pacific green turtle.
Fashion 2013 PEDAL
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