Perfect Days # 31- #33 – North Shore

Vacation Rentals

By Northshore, we mean the coastal area of Kanaha, Spreckelsville, Pa’ia, Ku’au, Ho’okipa and Huelo, and also Haiku and the area surrounding Baldwin Avenue up to Makawao. Besides uncrowded, sandy beaches ideal for long beach walks, watching or joining windsurfing and kiteboarding, browsing in shops and local art and galleries, the main attractions in Pa’ia, Ha’iku and Makawao are a multitude of choices for meals and dining and some of the best values in vacation rental accommodations on Maui.

In Perfect Days #31-#33 you’ll spend three nights in a vacation rental on the North Shore for leisurely enjoyment of Pa’ia, Kanaha, Spreckelsville, Ku’au, Haiku, Pauwela, Huelo, Makawao and Olinda and Kula in Upcountry. On the fourth day, early in the morning you’ll leave the North Shore for Hana and the Road to Hana should feel like a much different experience after staying on the North Shore. Visiting scenic North Shore coastal locations (that most visitors miss) like Maliko Bay, Kui’aha Bay, Pauwela Point, Uaoa Bay, Kahuna Point, Halehaku Bay, and Huelo peninsula in many respects will resemble the coastline along the Road to Hana east of Huelo.

For around $500-$1000 per week, a couple or a family of 4-6 can have excellent lodgings on the North Shore surrounded by tropical beauty. For special occasions like honeymoons, other romantic occasions or family reunions, the choices of unique accommodations on the North Shore or on mountainside estates are unsurpassed on Maui (except in Hana).

Lodgings on or close to local beaches can be expensive -- $175 to $500 per night. For around $200 per night, 2 or 3 persons can have a 1-bedroom oceanfront cottage on a beautiful estate next to Baldwin Park Beach. Baldwin Beach is off-limits to windsurfing and kitesurfing and is ideal for running, walking and swimming. Baby Beach (not to be confused with the Baby Beach in Lahaina) at one end is especially perfect for children but you’ll see lots of small children dashing in and out of the water at Baldwin Beach. A few really nice vacation rentals are right near Baby Beach. Five minutes from Pa’ia or Kahului, 4 people can rent their own house next to one of the world’s best windsurfing sites for $170-$235 per night depending on the season.

Extending about 1½ miles, Sprecklelsville’s white sandy beach sees relatively few tourists. The best way to enjoy Spreckelsville Beach and the beaches to the east and west is to rent a suite, apt., cottage or house directly on or near the beach. Besides the view, one of the main attractions of oceanside accommodations is that, in the best windsurfing location in the world, you can launch from your own private white sand beach!

Drive east on Hana Hwy., turn down Stable Rd. and bear left to Papio Beach and Aina Lani where brand new, deluxe beachfront 1-br units rent for $155/nt for 2 persons and 2-br units cost $240 for 4 persons. In addition to a beautiful oceanfront location, Aina Lani provides free use of kayaks, mountain bikes and beach equipment. A nearby bike path (also great for roller-blading) heads down to Kanaha and now around Kahului Airport. In the Stable Rd. area, in addition to Aina Lani you’ll find a cluster of beach houses including Tradewinds Beach House, Albert’s Secret Beach, Ray’s Friendly Beach, and North Shore Beach.

(The one downside of Spreckelsville vacation rentals is that you can hear planes taking off from Kahului Airport. Also, Maui County has ordered the closing of ground floor units in the Stable Rd. area, as a tsunami precaution, even though none has occurred or is expected in this area.)

Pass Stable Rd. and turn down Alakapa St. and bear left to Coconut Cove, a sandy private beach where you’ll find studios and 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-br units from $150 - $415. The windsurfing launch from the beach in front of Coconut Cove is for residents of Coconut Cove only. (Coconut Cove beach erodes in summer and returns in late fall.)

Drive east on Hana Hwy. past MM4 to Nonehe St. (just before MM 5), turn left on to it to Kealakai Place and parking next to Spreckelsville Beach. To the east is the Maui Country Club golf course (a 9-hole course open to the public on Mondays). To the west on Nonehe St. is Andy’s Cove -- a studio (“Love Shack”), and 1-, 2- and 3-br cottages rent from $85 - $275/nt. (6 people).
Inland, in Haiku, surrounded by acres of tropical gardens and lush countryside, with marvelous ocean views, and just a few minutes from several beaches, you can rent a cottage for as little as $50 per night, depending on length of stay, or a 2-bedroom house for only $100 or even less. Most vacation rentals in Haiku cost more than $100 for 2 or more bedrooms. The more than 100 lodging choices inland on the North Shore surely include several that will please anyone in terms of location, size, price, style and amenities.

Kanaha Beach Park

The long Spartan Reef offshore from Kanaha Beach provides wave-free snorkeling. Kahana is a windsurfing and kiteboarding mecca, especially for beginners and intermediates. Ho’okipa is for advanced windsurfers. Action Sports offers a variety of 1, 2, 3 and 5-day windsurfing and kiteboarding lessons. Learning how to windsurf or kiteboard or to improve your skills in these watersports is reason enough to stay at one of the many choices of vacation rentals on the Windward Coast.

Spreckelsville Beach to Ho’okipa Beach
About a half-mile to the east (toward Pa’ia) from Kanaha, Spreckelsville Beach provides more walking or jogging for another 1.25 miles around Papaula Point to Sugar Cove. Continue along the shore to Baby Baldwin Beach and walk another .75 miles along the beach under shady ironwoods, palms and kiawe trees to Baldwin Beach Park, 1 ½ miles from the center of Pa’ia. At Baby Baldwin Beach, Wawau Reef just offshore creates a sandy-bottomed swimming area near shore that, as locals know, is one of the safest, most enjoyable swimming spots on Maui.

Practically everyone on the North Shore starts the day with the surf report to find out surfing and windsurfing conditions that morning. When conditions are really good, you won’t find many people in local shops, offices and restaurants, including people who work there. Get some coffee or breakfast at Café des Amis, Cakewalk Pa’ia Bakery, Charley’s, Livewire Café or Moana Bakery, and drive to the viewing area above Ho’okipa Beach Park.

Make sure you don’t get killed when you make the left turn into the unmarked parking area on the bluff above Ho’okipa. (Down below in the park with the Pavilion, groups of surfers and windsurfers from around the world congregate and occasionally party. Ho’okipa is a fun place.) Expect to see some of the best windsurfers in the world riding the waves, often 10’ high and sometimes as high as 20’.

In later October or early November, mark you calendar for the Pro Windsurfing World Cup at Ho’okipa. Depending on surf and wind conditions you may see surfers and windsurfers anywhere out in the water, board surfers most likely closer to the bluff. (Although published lore says that surfers leave the waves to windsurfers after 11am, don’t believe it.)

Restaurants & Stores

Within a 10-minute driving radius of Pa’ia, you’ll find a remarkable number and variety of places for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition to the Hali’imaile General Store and Mama’s Fish House, in a category by themselves, we recommend:

• Pa’ia: Anthony’s Coffee Co., Café des Amis, Café Mambo, Charley’s, Hana Juice Bar, Jacques Northshore Restaurant & Bar, Milagros Food Company, Moana Bakery & Café, Pa’ia Fish Market, and The Vegan Restaurant.
• Makawao: Casanova, Café ‘O Lei, Country Café, Duncan’s Coffee Shop, Down to Earth, Kitada’s, Komoda Store and Bakery, Makawao Steak House, Polli’s Mexican Restaurant, and Stopwatch Bar & Grill.
• Haiku: Colleen’s Pizza & Bakeshop, Hana Hou Café, Island Tacos, Kaimura Saimin Shop, Lynne’s Café and Veg Out.

If you want to understand quintessential Pa'ia, drop into Livewire (137 Hana Hwy., across from Charley’s and it couldn't be more different), order an oversized coffee, latte or an ice blend, find a comfortable chair, pick up a newspaper or magazine, and head upstairs to check your email on one of the dozen or so PCs. You can go online for $0.15 per minute or $3 for 20 minutes. The baked goods are better than most places in town.

Someone really cares about the quality of coffee and baked goods. That's my kind of guy. Ben Holz, the owner, is his name and his breakfast menu includes fresh bagels, cream cheese, hummus or smoked salmon, smoothies, and a very tasty breakfast burrito filled with eggs, peppers and cheese. Four nights a week you can hear live music starting at 7 p.m. (Saturdays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when anyone can perform.)

Instead of the familiar yellow awning and outdoor tables of Picnics Restaurant on Baldwin Avenue, the popular stop for picnics on the way to Hana, you’ll find Café Mambo. In addition to a very tasty breakfast, in the tradition of the former occupant of the restaurant you can order picnics to go. In Pa'ia almost anything goes, call it eclectic, and Café Mambo epitomizes this local style and attitude. Here's a restaurant decorated like it serves Latin cuisine but menu selections span Mexico (fajitas), Italy (Bruschetta), the Middle East (Falafel), and Spain (Tapas). For dinner, try the mixed tapas platter or perhaps the paella.

Veg Out, located in Haiku Town Center, has been feeding satisfied customers for more than four years. Like the folks at Café Mambo, owners Cindy and Dan-o also offer a really eclectic menu of vegan and vegetarian selections ranging from Mexican to Italian to the Far East. You can order (including take-out) everything from pizza to spring rolls, chili to Pad Thai, and even dishes with dairy -- small and large Pesto Goat-Cheese Pizza that includes chevre goat cheese and mozzarella along with artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes. Try a small Etsalada Salad built with Mexican beans and tofu and a Maui Taro Burger or any other the other dishes. Like Hana Hou Café, and Island Tacos, Veg Out is another authentic North Shore dining secret that you're not likely to look for, find and try unless you hang around the area for a couple of days. (810 Kokomo Road, next to the Haiku Post Office, Mon-Fri, 10:30am. -7:30pm., Sat., 11:30am-6 p.m. (575-5320)

Many restaurants on the North Shore offer take-out and you also can pick up a meal or the fixings for lunch at several local stores:

• Fukushima Store (815 Haiku Rd, 6:30am-8pm) sells sashimi, sushi and lots of other local favorites, and may have the best hot dog on Maui to be eaten, of course, with a bag of Maui chips.
• H&P Market & Seafood/Nagat Store (Hana Hwy., 579-9252, jam-up, 6pm, Sat., 6am -1pm, Sun), sushi, sashimi, poke, noodles, saimin, and hot dogs.
• Ku’au Mart (701 Hana Hwy., 579-8939, 6:30am-8pm, 8am-8pm Sat., 8am-1pm Sun.), plate lunch specials, musubi, sushi, hot dogs, and pastry.
• Pa’ia Drive-in (149 Hana Hwy., 579-9414, 6am-2pm), general store, burgers, sandwiches.
• Pa’ia General Store (149 Hana Hwy., 579-9514, 6am-9pm), sandwiches, salads, and cakes.

Pa’ia Shopping
Shopping in Pa’ia is covered in detail in “Browsing, Shopping & Eating.” Colorful Pa’ia is one of the best places on Maui to shop for antiques and collectibles, local art and crafts, and a variety of vintage goods that fit right in with the town’s atmosphere. Pa’ia has attracted a variety of unusual boutiques like Hemp House (16 Baldwin Avenue) and Moonbow Tropics (36 Baldwin Avenue) that sell Hawaiian-style apparel.

Don’t miss artist-owned and -operated Maui Crafts Guild (43 Hana Hwy., 579-9709) that showcases high quality crafts made by its members. The two-story gift gallery includes beautiful basketry, hand-painted fabrics, unusual jewelry, beadwork, all types and styles of pottery, sculpture, glasswork, and hundreds of other items. The Arthur Dennis Williams Gallery (579-9331), located in the same building, shows this gifted sculptor’s wood, stone and bronze work. Nearby the Contemporary Gallery (65 Hana Hwy., 579-8727) shows work by local artists Piero Resta, Mickey Eskimo, Keli Murata, Wilma Nakamura, Shane Carey, John Aubuchon, Sheldon Wallau and others.

Pauwela Point & Kui’aha Bay

For visitors who want to hike or bike for a few miles or joggers looking for a dirt road without cars, from Hana Hwy. park near the Haiku Community Center and proceed down dirt  Pili Aloha Lighthouse Road to the grassy bluffs around the light beacon. From this beautiful blufftop setting, hike, jog, bike or drive to Kui’aha Bay. Park and walk to your right as you face the water down to the beach for wonderful views. The pretty boulder beach is lined with coconut trees. In winter the area to the east of Pauwela Point sees waves 50- to 60-feet high -- legendary site of the Jaws surf competition.

Uaoa Bay

Just before MM15, the Maui Grown Market and Deli is a good stop for drinks or snacks. For those of you with time to spare, drive about a mile past the Maui Grown Market (if you pass Kaupakalua Rd./Hwy. 365 you’ve gone too far) to Holokai Rd. (on both sides of Hana Hwy.), turn left on Holokai and drive to its end near Uaoa Bay, with a beautiful view of the ocean. (About a half-mile down Holokai Rd., on the right, the mailbox on a stone pillar (#240) belongs to one of our favorite North Shore vacation rentals, Maui Ocean Breezes. Just two blocks from the ocean, on a 2½-acre tropical estate full of fruit trees, you have a choice of a 2-br cottage, a 1-br Ohana and a studio.

Kahuna Point
Another rarely visited, scenic and historic destination, the Halehaku Heiau is just a short drive or walk down a gravel road to Kahuna Point above the steep cliffs of wild Halehaku Bay. Just a short distance past MM16 on Hana Hwy., but not yet to Kaupakulua Ave., turn left on Haumana Rd. and then at the fork follow gravel Kulike Rd. about 1 mile to the end and park at the guardrail. A trail leads from the guardrail to Kahuna Point, a scenic viewpoint over the bay and an excellent spot to see whales offshore in winter. The heiau is in the other direction, inland, down to a stream, and around a bend where the heiau is built into a hillside. The remaining terraces and two platforms of the ancient Halehaku temple built of beach boulders date back as much as 500 years.

Huelo
After MM16, numbers changes from Highway 36 to Highway 360, and mile markers go back to 0. Just before MM4, on a blind curve, look for a double row of mailboxes on the left-hand side by the pay phone. Down the road lies Huelo between Waipio Bay and Hoalua Bay, presided over by historic Kaulanapueo Church, in use since 1853 and one of Hawaii’s finest restored churches. In a real sense its small graveyard records the story of the village.

Call ahead and visit some of Huelo’s vacation rentals and B&Bs, some in spectacular locations on the cliff with panoramic views from breakfast patios overlooking Waipio Bay. One of the most magnificent is Guy Fisher and Doug Self’s Huelo Point Flower Farm, a beautiful private estate on the edge of the cliff. Another fabulous property in Huelo is Jeff and Sharon Stone’s (another one) Lookout House a perfect location for two couples to stay or a large families, kids in the loft.

Makawao & Olinda Excursions

Perfect Days #31 & #32 are reserved for exploring the coastal communities and beaches of the North Shore, getting your bearings, relaxing and perhaps taking advantage of watersports or at least watching others do so.

On Perfect Day #33, head up to Makawao and walk the falsefront stores on both sides of the Baldwin Avenue and Makawao Ave. to browse in boutiques, art galleries, general stores, restaurants, and maybe even a health emporium for massage therapies, and treatments for body, skin and soul.

If you enjoy art and crafts, you’ll stop at the Hui No’eau Visual Arts Center on the way up Baldwin Avenue and the galleries of Makawao will keep you very busy on both sides of lunch. The shops and boutiques of Makawao are even more interesting than Pa’ia. Have breakfast in Pa’ia, for much better choices than Makawao, or drive directly up to Kula Lodge (Hwy. 377 just before Crater Road), for a combination of great views and breakfast, and then work your way down to Makawao.

After breakfast at the Kula Lodge, stop at the nearby Sunrise Market Protea Farm to see proteas and, for just a very casual breakfast at picnic tables, to have pastries, juice and coffee, and perhaps fill up your picnic basket with sandwiches. This breakfast excursion into Kula can provide a good feel for Upcountry and its views from 2500’ on the south side of Haleakala.

Instead of returning to Makawao after breakfast, the morning might even include a drive up Crater Road to the Summit, still returning to Makawao for lunch and strolling around the town.

Before leaving Makawao and Upcountry, a “must drive” up Olinda Rd. to the top will provide unforgettable memories of eucalyptus trees lining the road and great views of the Central Valley and south coastline. Seeing the Olinda Country Cottages & Inn about 3½ mile above Makawao, and staying for a while to visit may inspire you to stay there next trip for a completely different kind of Maui vacation.