Wow! What an amazing Road to Hana experience!
Rarely does an experience warrant the time and energy to offer feedback, but this one surely does.
My husband and I are from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We were visiting the Hawaiian islands (via Norwegian Cruise ship Pride of America) to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary....a once in a lifetime trip. We worked privately with our travel agent to arrange for interesting excursions and were lucky enough to score 2 seats on Bjorn's bus.
Bjorn was eager to welcome us and presented me (and each of the ladies) with a fresh plumeria blossom for my hair as we boarded his bus.
With 22 passengers including 8 children under the age of 10, we took off on what would be a 9 1/2 hour road trip to remember!
Bjorn had a sharp wit and warm personality and a gift for story telling. He started talking and pointing and explaining at 8:30 am when we boarded and didn't stop entertaining us until we pulled back in to port and exited his bus at 6:00 p.m.! It was like he was made for that job. He executed as if it wasn't a job at all - more like he wanted to share his island with everyone he could - and today, we were the select 22.
We learned about the Hawaiian alphabet - only 12 (now 13) letters. Every word in Hawaiian ends in a vowel. He taught us the meaning of many Hawaiian words, a few were retained.
Bjorn had an acute attention to detail. It made ALL the difference.
Warning us of the very narrow winding roads - those with motion sickness may be uncomfortable, he offered us all - from a coconut dish - a generous slice of candied ginger to settle the stomach.
At our first scenic overlook, Bjorn set out breakfast muffins, scones, tangerines, coffee, tea, water and juice while we captured photos, used the rest rooms and shopped the local craft vendors. At another rest stop/scenic bluff, he welcomed us back onto the bus with a taste of raw sugar cane. He told us that Hawaii used to be a huge producer of sugar cane, but no longer is. The sugar cane on the island now grows wild and abundantly, but not for commercial production.
The winding, single lane, sometimes unpaved road was white knuckle, nail biting, scary stuff. Al and I agreed that we were glad Bjorn was driving and not us! At one point, we came across a tow truck, police car and someone who got too close to the edge and his pick up truck was leaning dangerously toward the cliff below.
We sat patiently (and idly for 20 minutes or more) and watched in awe as the tow truck righted him and sent him on his way - all the while Bjorn continued his oration, telling stories of King Kameamea, the influence of the Cook family to the settlement of Hawaii. "No snakes" in Hawaii, we were introduced to the now native badger at our lunch stop at the black sand beach.
We learned that the state flower of Hawaii is the yellow hibiscus. Bjorn picked and displayed a colorful sampling of indigenous flowers on the dashboard of his van.
Names dropped of famous people who lived on or owned property on the island; - Oprah and her perimeter wall, Pat Benetar, Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Gene Simmonds, etc.
As we passed so many various plants, trees, bushes in the jungle, Bjorn pointed them out by name, then passed around samples of pods, nuts, rocks, and pictures so we could see, feel, touch them. He knew each waterfall by name and told us of the changing landscape and danger during flash flooding, displaying other pictures - all the while carefully navigating the treacherous roads, threading the needle and cracking jokes- entertaining us non-stop, only pausing occasionally - letting us enjoy the Hawaiian music he played in the background.
We were struck by the changing scenery, climate, backdrop of Maui - there's jungle, forest, mountains, valleys, tundra, dry space vegetation. So wet and lush and rainy on part of the island, then dry and barren on the other Volcanic activity adds to the island. Bjorn pointed out the various stages and introduced us to the youngest part of the island.
Before the end of the tour, Bjorn took a group photo of the passengers....as a remembrance of the day. He collected our email addresses and - as promised, shared the photo with us via email. We just received his email....and it brought back the magic of the day.
Thank you Bjorn, and Roberts of Hawaii for helping to make our once in a lifetime trip so memorable.
We would highly recommend Roberts of Hawaii excursions (assuming we're on Bjorn's bus, of course).
Many thanks. MAHALO!
Sincerely,
Alan and Carol B
(Oh, and remember the 8 kids on the bus under the age of 10?? Bjorn strategically had fun colored bottles of bubbles - for them to blow in the wind. And, he just happened to have just the right number of "tree pod aliens" so each of the kids could take one home with them....brilliant....the little things make ALL the difference) read more