Molokai on the left and Maui on the right.
Koloiki Ridge Trail
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Tag Archives: Molokai
Molokai: Trip 2
On Saturday, Josh and I went back to Molokai to do some things that got rained out on our first trip (we also got rained out two weeks ago when we tried to go back). We landed around 6:30 a.m. and headed to the Kualapu’u Cookhouse, which is where we had breakfast when we landed last year. We split the best breakfast sandwich we’ve ever had and some french toast (it reminded me of my mom’s). A great way to start our day/trip.
Delicious french toast!
After breakfast, we headed towards Halawa Valley for our hike (the main reason we came back). We FINALLY had amazing weather. It was bright and sunny and we could not have asked for better weather. We took our tour with Molokai Flowers. I feel like they have become my best friends over the past year…I’ve ordered multiple boxes of flowers from them and have emailed back and forth trying to set up this tour. They are absolutely WONDERFUL! Kalani’s son gave us the tour and we had the trail and the waterfall completely to ourselves. It was so serene and peaceful…a very special place! After we hiked back, we had two different types of smoothies that Kalani made us from fruit on his farm. They were incredible! He even gave us some lilikoi to take back to make our own smoothies. They also gave us some beautiful pink torch gingers to take home. Some of the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen!
The start of the hike.
Loved this pretty flower.
Huge snail!
This tree felt like a sponge…and it wasn’t rotting..it was alive!
Old Hawaiian oven.
Shampoo gingers
All of the old walls from the ancient Hawaiian settlements were still intact. Pretty incredible.
Tons of fruit. There were HUGE avocados littering the ground.
The waterfalls!
We got to boulder hop!
A tree growing out of the rocks in the river.
Mountain apples.
We made it! So serene.
There were some caves across the pond.
Josh checking out the writing/pictures on the rocks.
Old writing on the rocks.
SO beautiful!
The valley.
The biggest banana flower ever!
Smoothie time!
Some of Kalani’s flowers.
The beautiful pink torch gingers that Kalani and his wife gave us!
After filling up on smoothies, we started to head back to grab a late lunch. The drive is so incredibly beautiful (even better not in the pouring down rain). It also makes the road to Hana on Maui look super easy. The road is mostly one lane…but there’s not much traffic. We stopped at Mana’e Goods and Grindz for some chicken katsu. We had this on our last trip and it is the best chicken katsu I’ve had. After filling up on smoothies, we decided to split lunch.
They valley.
The waterfall we hiked to.
Panoramic of Halawa bay.
An example of the many hairpin turns!
Maui in the distance.
Delicious chicken katsu!
After filling up, we headed towards the Kalaupapa Lookout and the Phallic Rock. With the weather being so gross the last time we were there, we didn’t get a chance to see either of these. The view from the lookout was incredible and the rock was…well phallic shaped. Women would come here and make offerings and pray for fertility. It was set in a beautiful forest and was a nice, quick walk.
I don’t know why, but I liked this sign.
Kalaupapa National Park below.
The sheer cliffs…we rode a mule down them!
I have no idea what he’s doing…but I found this picture hilarious.
The lighthouse.
The settlement.
Josh.
Phallic Rock.
After we finished, we headed to check in at Hotel Molokai. It was interesting. I think in the winter when it wasn’t so hot it would be fine…however, there wasn’t much of a breeze and it was pretty hot out..no AC and only a fan meant we wouldn’t be sleeping very well. We dropped off our stuff and headed to grab a quick bite to eat before we got HOT BREAD! We couldn’t wait to get bread…it was actually the reason we decided to stay the night and not just make it a day trip. The stuff is so good…last time we got strawberry jam and cream cheese. This time we got the works: cream cheese, strawberry jam, blueberry jam, cinnamon and butter. It sounds iffy but it’s incredible. We took most of it back with us (and have been eating it periodically throughout the day). After that, we headed back to the hotel. We were supposed to leave around 8:45 in the morning, but decided to stand by and leave around 7:00 a.m. since we knew we wouldn’t be sleeping anyways. Excellent decision. There were only nine people on our flight! Our trip was a complete success and it feels great to cross off another island!
The clouds while the sun was setting. So beautiful!
So good!
The bread with all the good stuff on the inside.
Halawa Valley
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After four attempts, we finally toured Halawa Valley!
Molokai: Trip 1 – Day 4
Day 4 turned out to be quite an adventure. We had our last wonderful breakfast and said our goodbyes and thank you’s to Tom and Karyl for being such great hosts. We had rescheduled the Halawa Valley hike, but the weather did not look promising. However, we headed to the east side of the island on the one lane road again hoping we would be able to hike.
The drive there was rainy, cloudy and gloomy…however it made for some great waves crashing against the rocks along the side of the road. The road was so close to the ocean, it felt like the waves were going to crash right into our car. There were many hairpin turns along the one lane road, at times it appeared we would drive straight into the ocean. To sum up the drive in one word: ridiculous. Ridiculously beautiful, ridiculously scary and ridiculously unreal that such a road existed in the U.S….and ridiculous that we drove it twice in 72 hours.
View of the road from the car.
A bit gloomy for our drive.
Road before one of the hairpin turns.
All the signs on the road before a one lane bridge. The bridge was under a beautiful canopy of trees.
We arrived to the place where we were supposed to meet our tour guide, Kalani at 10:00 am. Unfortunately for us it was still raining pretty consistently. This meant that we would not be hiking due to the stream/river we would have to cross to get to the valley. However, Kalani offered us a tour of his amazing flower farm (part of the original tour) and we happily accepted. The flowers were incredible. I expected them to be pretty, but nothing prepared me for how unique the plants would be or how expansive his farm would be. Mom and Aunt Jan – you would have loved this place. Kalani and his family live and work on the farm. They don’t have telephone service, but take orders and communicate via satellite internet service. He goes into town a few times a week to ship his flower orders to the mainland and go to market. Side note: they have to clean the flowers really well for inspection back to the mainland. They have tubs they wash and bleach them in to get rid of any bugs, etc. The flowers keep for a couple weeks if you take care of them properly. Below is a slideshow of the amazing flowers, fruits and various plants from the farm. I have tried to name the ones I remember, but most of them I can’t recall the exact names :).
After the tour of the farm, we headed back into town and had a few hours to kill before our flight. We had lunch at Molokai Burger (one of the only places open on New Year’s Day) and then slowly headed to the airport to catch our flight. We arrived to the quaint airport of Molokai a bit early around 4:00 pm, but figured we would just hang out there until our flight at 5:35 pm, as there was nothing else to do. Security didn’t even open until 5:00 pm and once we went through, we realized there were no bathrooms (interesting). The weather continued to get worse, but we weren’t worried as flights were still taking off. At about 5:10 pm, they told us our flight was delayed until 6:00 pm…then at about 6:00 pm, they told us our flight had been canceled. Come to find out, this was record rain fall for the dryer island of Molokai (for some reason this seems to be a pattern for Josh and I, re: February in Kauai hiking the Kalalau trail). We knew our B&B was booked for the night and that there was a strong possibility if we didn’t get out, we would be sleeping on the bench in baggage claim at the Molokai Airport. I jumped in line at Island Air to see when we could rebook and Josh went to call Hotel Molokai..on the way he stopped at Mokulele Airlines to see if they had any flights going out. Turns out they had the last two seats to Maui on a 7:00 pm flight if we wanted them. Thankfully, we booked those on the spot just to be safe. We then went back to the Island Air counter to see what our options were. They said there was a possibility of an unscheduled flight coming in around 8:00 pm and we might get on it at 8:40 pm if the weather was ok…otherwise we wouldn’t get out until Thursday. Our instructions were to hang out at the airport and if the plane made it in, we would have seats. This did not sound promising. With the weather getting worse, I felt that there was a strong chance of us getting stuck in Molokai with no place to stay.
We went to hang out in baggage claim, as this would be where we would board for the Mokulele flight to Maui if it took off (obviously…it’s completely normal to board at baggage claim). Around 7:00 pm, they came over the speaker to say we were boarding and a guy opened the door and said “Josh row four and Nicole row five…run to the guy at the plane and he will take your bags”. We ran because it was pouring and quite windy. So when he said we got the last two seats on the plane, I didn’t realize the total number of seats on the plane was nine. Cozy. I, naturally, was in the last row seated between the door and cargo area in this snug prop plane. They closed the door and the pilot gave us a speech about how it would be a bit bumpy and would take us probably longer than usual to get to Maui. During this, I started to panic because my seatbelt wouldn’t work. The pilot had to come back and help me…because it was missing a piece that had been shut in the door…of course. So seatbelt on, door shut/secured and we were ready to go. Or so I thought…we sat there for what seemed like an eternity watching the sheets of rain blow sideways. This was not at all comforting so I decided to take this time to pop a dramamine..I figured it couldn’t hurt, right? Below: a picture from my seat of the plane.
Finally, we started to taxi and eventually took off..to say it was bumpy was an understatement. We circled and hung out in the air for about 45 minutes..being able to watch the pilots point to things on the radar is not comforting. After what should have been a 15 minute flight on a normal day, we landed in Maui safe and sound where we ran through the rain and wind again, picked up our bags off the cart and ran to the commuter terminal which was outside. After about five minutes, Josh asked a random bus driver how to get to the main terminal. We had more running through the rain in our future. Josh grabbed both bags (thank you Josh) and we ran for the main terminal. Once there, we finally found the Hawaiian Airlines check-in counter (we had done our research and knew there were three flights headed for Oahu that night that we would be able to catch). Again, we got the last two seats on the last flight out at 11:00 pm to Oahu. Did we want them? 100% ABSOLUTELY. So, tickets purchased, soaking wet, we headed to security to find something to eat to pass the time until we took off (and to make me feel better as the dramamine I took in desperation didn’t quite do the trick).
Three hours later after some food and Starbucks to warm us up, we were full, dry and taking off on a Boeing 717 (much preferred over the prop plane in rainy/windy conditions). We safely made it home to Oahu after midnight…just a few hours, and an additional island hop, late.
And with that, I will conclude the postings on our Molokai adventures!
Molokai: Trip 1 – Day 3
Day 3 started with yet another amazing breakfast with a beautiful fruit plate and baked oatmeal. Every morning we ate outside on a lovely wrap around porch. We had a view of the ocean and waves crashing against the rocks. We also had different types of coffee every morning that were wonderful.
This was by far the most exciting day for me…I had been looking forward to it since we booked our trip back in October. Today’s activity was taking a mule ride down 1,700 feet of beautiful sea cliffs to Kalaupapa Peninsula via the Kalaupapa Trail, which is about 3 miles long and has 26 switchbacks.
Josh just getting on the mule.
Josh and his buddy EB.
Me waiting to start down the trail.
Kalaupapa is a former leper settlement where the state once sent people suffering from leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, beginning in the 1860s. After the disease became treatable by Sulfa drugs, the forced separation was lifted. However, many of the residents remained in the settlement and still live there today. We also visited Kalawao, which was the original settlement on the peninsula. The settlement was moved to Kalaupapa because it had a better climate and was closer to the trail.
Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope are two of the prominent people who devoted their lives to helping those with Hansen’s disease. Damien ended up contracting leprosy and passing away from the disease. His original grave is located in Kalawao and he was canonized in 2009, becoming a Saint in October of that year. Mother Marianne continued Damien’s work in Kalaupapa. She died at the age of 80 in Kalaupapa and is still buried there today. She was canonized in 2012 and became a Saint in October of last year. If you haven’t read the book Molokai by Alan Brennert, I definitely recommend it!
Pretty much sums it up. First stop on our tour…the “bar”.
Looking towards the cliffs.
The town library. The second stop on our tour.
The town of Kalaupapa.
Third stop on our tour.
The last of several churches built by Father Damien. His grave is right outside the church.
Hanging out with the cat. Molokai had a lot of random stray cats…but they liked people!
In the early years, they used to drop the leper patients off between the islands and tell them to swim in. Obviously many of them didn’t make it to Kalawao.
The same type of rocks used to build the Heaui.
The peninsula can only be reached on foot, by mule or by small airplane. We chose the mule ride as it seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity…we were definitely not disappointed!
Ready to head back.
I looked up and all of a sudden Josh was leading us home.
Josh and EB leading the way home.
Buzzy our guide and owner of Damien Tours.
Trail back by the ocean
Waves on the trail.
Concentrating on hanging on!
Kalaupapa in the distance.
Getting further away from Kalaupapa as we head up the trail.
Steps on the trail.
The trail was leading us into the clouds.
The trail was pretty narrow in some places.
Kalaupapa from the top of the trail.
Trail along the edge/fence.
Giving the mules a break on the way back.
After getting back to the top we got a certificate that said we completed the trail ride, said our goodbyes, said many thank you’s and headed back to the B&B for a much needed shower. We took a quick shower and headed to Kaunala Bay for a sunset. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the sunset because it was too cloudy. However, we did see some pretty spectacular waves and people surfing. We then headed back into town and had dinner at Molokai Burger, one of the few places open for dinner that night (but only until 7:30 pm).
Molokai: Trip 1 – Day 2
Day 2 started with our first amazing breakfast at our B&B. Along with fruit every morning, 
each day we had something different as our main dish. This morning we had banana macadamia nut pancakes with caramel syrup. I think this was probably my favorite breakfast while we were there. It was incredible!
Even though it was raining, we had a hike to Halawa Valley planned on the east side of the island. We drove about an hour and a half there (a large portion of it on a one lane road towards the end), but the tour was rained out so we rescheduled for Tuesday. However, we were able to get a pretty cool shot of the waterfalls…since it was raining they were pretty big!
Falls we were supposed to hike to.
Inlet at Halawa Bay
This leads me to the second animal that we saw on the side of the road…a random bull. Just hanging out outside the fence wandering down the street. There is a ranch in the area and he had gotten out (presumably). He was so close to our car because of the one lane road!
On our hour and a half drive back to the other side of the island, it actually started to clear up and we had a beautiful view of both Maui and Lanai. 
After a few pictures and making it back to the two lane highway, we decided to try to find the ‘lli’ili’opaie Heiau. A heiau is a Hawaiian temple. This particular heiau was a “school” for sorcerers and was a very powerful 13th century temple that was known for human sacrifice. It is one of the largest left in Hawaii measuring at about 320 x 120 feet. We had to hike pretty high up the ridge to get a picture of it from end to end. The stones used to build this heiau were passed hand to hand in a human chain for eight miles over the mountains via the Wailua Trail. Thousands of round, water-worn stones were laid by hand to build this site without the use of any mortar or modern tools. I felt like it was the temple of doom and we were Indiana Jones…seriously. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. To get to the temple took us awhile to figure out as the entrance is located on private property. After wandering down the road looking for a gate with a sign (every driveway had a gate with a sign on it) we finally stopped and asked someone who was sitting on their porch. After walking about 10 minutes we finally found the gate. We walked another 10 minutes down a driveway, through the woods and over a dry riverbed and there was the heiau! We hiked up about 15 minutes to an amazing view of not only the heiau but also Maui and Lanai. It was one of the most amazing views I have seen yet!
Gated entrance to Heiau.
The signs on the road after the gate…we knew we were headed in the right directions!
Headed down a beautiful driveway.
These vines looked like snakes growing up the tree.
Rock wall along the driveway.
The start of the trail in the woods to the Heiau.
Looking at the Heaiu from above.
Fishpond in the distance.
Ridge and valley behind the Heaiu.
After our hike back down, we decided to stop at Mana’e Goods and Grindz for some chicken katsu. We split that, a veggie burger and a strawberry smoothie — it was all delicious! We then headed to Coffees of Hawaii to see some traditional Hawaiian music and dancing. We sat out on their big patio and listened to Na Ohana Hoaloha (link is to a YouTube video of what we did) for about an hour and a half and had their specialty coffee drink “Mocha Mama” (it was amazing).
We went back to the B&B and showered, changed and headed to Paddlers’ Inn again for dinner. However, the highlight of the evening was getting Molokai Hot Bread from Kanemitsu Bakery. At 8:00 pm every night but Monday, you can go down a back alley to an open half door and order “hot bread”. They will fill it with cream cheese, strawberry jam, blueberry jam or cinnamon and butter. It was INCREDIBLE. Josh and I ordered a strawberry jam and cream cheese hot bread…how we had self control to not finish the entire thing is beyond me. I already want to go back to Molokai just for the “hot bread”. I’m glad we did this on Sunday night…if the bakery had been open on Monday night I am 100% positive we would have headed back for more.
Where you order the bread.
They give it to you in a plastic shopping bag.
Bread filled with cream cheese and strawberry jam. SO GOOD!
Molokai: Trip 1 – Day 1
For my first inter-island trip, Josh and I went to Molokai for four days. It was quite an adventure. Molokai is located 25 miles east of Oahu and is 38 by 10 miles and has a population of about 7,000 people.
Our plane to Molokai
We left on the first commuter flight out on Saturday at 6:15 am and arrived by 6:45 am…an extremely short flight! The Molokai airport is in one word…quaint. There was one car rental place located in baggage claim, which was basically a bench and concrete where they put your bags, and two gates.
Molokai Baggage Claim
Molokai Airport
After we picked up our rental car and got our bags, we went to have breakfast at a place called the cookhouse. We were the only two people in there the entire time we ate. We both had the breakfast sandwich with breakfast potatoes (see below).
After breakfast, we had about seven or so hours to kill before we could check in to our B&B. So we decided to drive east along 450, which travels along the south side of the island, to see some of Father Damien’s churches. On the way, we stopped to take a picture of Lanai, which you could see very clearly from Molokai.
Now back to the history of the churches…Father Damien was a Belgian priest who is well-known for his work with leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) patients on Kalaupapa (more on that later in my Day 3 post). Our first stop was St. Joseph’s Church which was buit in 1876. The church always remains unlocked and vistors are welcome to enter. It was still decorated for Christmas and we were able to go in, look around and sign the guest book. Outside was a statue of Damien, a cemetery, beautiful flowers and a plaque describing who Damien was.
After we went to St. Joseph’s, we continued driving down 450 to see Our Lady of Sorrows Church. It is the second of the four churches that is left on the topside of the island that Damien constructed, and was built in 1874. Mass is still held in this church every Sunday at 7:00 am.
The alter at Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
Beautiful wood benches inside the Our Lady of Sorrows Church
The church with the ocean in the background.
After we visited the churches, we headed back toward the town of Kaunakakai to see the Kapuaiwa Coconut Grove. Along the way we passed multiple ancient fishponds that were created in the 13th century for the use by the royalty. These fishponds were all over the south side of the island.
The Coconut Grove was planted in the 1860s by King Kamehameha V to provide shade for his sacred bathing pools. Each of the 1,000 royal coconut palms represented a warrior in his army and only a few hundred of the palms still stand.
For the afternoon, we wandered over to the west side to Papohaku Beach (also known as Three Mile Beach), which is one of Hawaii’s largest white sand beaches. For the most part, we were here by ourselves. It was almost entirely empty, so we were able to sit and enjoy the massive waves crashing against the rocks. It was definitely not a beach you go swimming in…the waves were incredible (see pictures below). As we were watching the waves, we also got to see whales making huge splashes in the distance! We only saw them twice, but it was still extraordinary to see.
Waves at Papohaku Beach
Looking right from our spot on the beach.
Looking left from our spot on the beach.
We spent about two hours at the beach and then decided to drive to Mauna Loa (the town we were staying in) to see what was there. There was a general store and a kite shop…it was a bit creepy how quiet it was..kind of like a ghost town. We had about an hour and half until we could check-in, so we drove back into town and had lunch outside on the patio at the Paddlers’ Inn. This seemed to be the one restaurant that was open all the time…which included past 8 pm at night and on holidays (turns out this woud be good for us). Once we had lunch, it was finally time to check-in…we were both ready for showers, clean clothes and naps. We got to the Molokai Komohana around 4:00 pm and were greeted by Tom. He and his wife Karyl are originally from Michigan and retired in Molokai. They have been running this B&B for about six years now. They were both incredibly wonderful!
View from the porch of our B&B
After much needed regrouping, we went back into town for dinner at the Molokai Pizza Cafe. We were both exhausted and ready to head to bed after dinner as we had an early start the next day. On the way home we passed a random horse just wandering down the sidewalk on the road to our B&B. We found out later that this horse just roams around (halter and lead rope intact) the neighborhood. He belongs to a nearby neighbor, but I don’t think the horse ventures home much. Turns out this would be the first of many random animals wandering down the side of the road.
And with that, I will conclude our first day on Molokai!
Record rain in Molokai = Josh & Nicole stuck
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View of Maui (left) and Lanai (right) from Molokai
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Good Morning Molokai
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365 Days Of Hawaii 