My grandparents' hotel is in Wailea, but they fancy driving the Southern Road to Hana.
Is Google Maps beneath correct? Must they truly waste gasoline and time to drive the circuitous meandering loop?
If Google Maps is correct, why hasn't a direct road been built? The land between Wailea and Highway 37 looks flat, unbroken? Does the cost outstrip the potential amount of traffic?
It turns out that there is a road, but you can't use it. See The Deal With Oprah Winfrey’s Private Maui Road for more details.
And not just any road, either: Oprah’s road is concrete and asphalt 12 feet across. Goodfellow Brothers paved it in December 2010. The road stretches from the water tank at Kealakapu Road near Piilani Highway in Kihei to Keokoa, near Haleakala Highway. It’s a road locals have been waiting for 40 years — a potentially golden road that could radically ease traffic congestion in Central Maui.
That is, if the public could use it, which it most certainly cannot. “The paved road, drainage swales and detention ponds will be privately maintained,” stated a June 2009 Drainage Report on the effects of paving the road prepared by Wayne I. Arakaki Engineer LLC for OW Ranch, LLC, (the initials reportedly stand for “Oprah Winfrey”) and kept on file with the Maui County Planning Department. “This is a private roadway and will not be open to the public.”
If you switch Google Maps to topology view you'll see that where your arrow lies goes from sea level to 600 meters (2000 feet) in the distance of 5km
That's a 12% incline for 5 kilometers. It's probably not too much of an issue going up that hill, but going down it you run the possibility of cooking your brakes over such a distance. Most people don't know how to shift down a gear to ease up on the braking.
Secondly, I'm not sure why Google Maps has given you the route that it did as going clockwise around the island appears to be a much shorter journey
Perhaps there was bad traffic on the day you planned the journey?
There seems to be a 5 km dirt road between Wailea and Route 37:
Google calls it "Unnamed Road" and it's marked as a trail, but cars and trucks can be seen driving on it, and there are no gates at either ends that would prevent it from being accessed from the main roads.
If your grandparents have never driven the road to Hana, then itʻs best to take the normal route along the Hana Highway. Traffic will be an issue everywhere so that should not be a factor. Depending on when they leave, the "alternate route" will get them to a section where in most cases, they will have to have some skills as drivers coming the other way will not expect them, causing a good deal more stress. As the tour vehicles come around the island, they will have to back out of the way in some cases which, depending on where they meet them, will be harrowing.
To appreciate the "alternate route" you should really know what you are missing on the normal route so you have a better idea of what to expect.
The road on the backside itself is under constant repair. A minor storm can make sections of the road impassable until the county crews get out to repair it.
There are things to do while on Maui to make the day more enjoyable and if you follow them, no matter which way you go to Hana it will be better.
