“Hike to the magical bamboo forest.”

That was my directive from a friend of mine who had recently visited Hana.

She didn’t do it, but she had heard about it. And since she called it “magical,” I had to see it now.

So even before we started the long drive down Hana Highway to the small coastal town in Maui, I had planned to find the bamboo forest, located on the trail to the 400-foot Waimoku Falls in Kipahulu, a half-hour drive from Hana.

Then I booked a tour of Ono Farms, a 300-acre organic farm that offers fruit tasting, and decided we were going to spend our second day in Hana exploring the outdoors in Kipahulu.

Derek had no choice.

Here’s what it all looked like:

Papayas

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Any good local farm will have papaya. Well, Ono Farms has two kinds: the traditional one (left) and the sweeter strawberry version (right), which I preferred.