Surfin' Goats and Upcountry

Yesterday we decided try upcountry again. As you may recall, last time we only made it as far as the Kula Lodge where we stopped and turned around. This time, Jen and Lisa came with us and we took the "shortcut" up instead of the Haleakala hwy. The shortcut was very pretty and it took us through the back country.

We stopped at the Surfing Goat Dairy on the way up. We took a quick tour and learned about the farm and Jen and Jessi fell in love with the young goats. They were just weaned from their mama's so they would try to suckle from Jen, Jessi and Lisa's fingers. They also had three dogs (2 border collies and 1 stray). Lisa fell in love with the stray. Now Jen wants to move to Maui and become a goat farmer! The adventerous ones (everyone but me!) tried some of the award winning cheese the dairy produces (they liked it!).

After the dairy we headed along the Kula hwy south to the Tedeschi Winery and Ulupalakua ranch store. There we picked up some snacks (ice cream, pasta salad and pina colada popcorn!) and had a washroom break. Jessi sampled some of the local wines and really enjoyed the sparkling pineapple wine and the pineapple-passionfruit white wine.

The road meandered south along the face of Haleakala. It was quite a beautiful drive! The terrain goes from ranch country to forests to barren lava-scapes. The road dips down to the ocean again and loops around to Hana if you keep going. We turned back where the road turns bumpy and unpleasant. On the way back we spotted a short-eared owl on the side of the road. It was quite a neat sighting for us!

We stopped at Ruby's diner on the way home and everyone had milkshakes and burgers. All told a great day!

Today is new years day so Hau'oli Makahiki Hou (Happy New Year!).