This was the day of our sunrise bike tour. We figured it would be best to do this excursion early on in the honeymoon since it required us to get up at 2:00 in the morning! This wasn't too terrible, since 2:00 Hawaii time is really 8:00 our time, but it was still pretty hard since Seth and I stayed up a little later than we wanted to the night before.
We were picked up at our hotel at 2:45 a.m. and brought to the Mountain Rider's bus location for a quick continental breakfast and a safety video. Then we were given wind breakers and piled onto a bus with ~20 other people and we started the almost two hour drive to the top of Haleakala. I tried to sleep on the way, but couldn't quite get comfortable enough.
It was freezing on the peak and I was glad they gave us windbreakers. We were about an hour early, arriving up top a little after 5:00 with the sunrise happening at 6:11 a.m.
After the sun was up, we all piled back into the bus and were driven down a little ways, right outside of the Haleakala park. Apparently they used to bike down from the very top, but aren't allowed to anymore, so they drive into the park to watch the sunrise and then bus back outside to start the bike tour.
Seth and I were fitted with helmets and bikes and off we went on the first 5 miles of the treacherous journey! Apparently more than 70,000 people do this bike tour every year, and it's fun, but was scary for me! You have to maintain speeds of 20+ mph while going down hill on a very windy road. Either I'm not a very good biker or my bike wasn't that good, because every time I'd break to slow down so I wouldn't hit the girl in front of me, I nearly creamed her. I had to stay so far behind her in order to not hit her, that I was worried about cars trying to pass me and get right in front of me. You're supposed to stay within like 5-10 feet of the person in front of you, and I was staying at least 20 feet behind because my breaks didn't slow down fast enough.
So after the first stop, I decided to give up my bike and join the two women riding in the van. That was a much better experience for me because I could take pictures and I was no longer fearing for my life. Win win!
Once the bike ride was over, we all piled back onto the bus and were driven back to our respective hotels. By the time we got back, it was only noon! So Seth and I decided to try out the beach!
For dinner, we went into Lahaina where we saw this guy:
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