The smell of fear

The title of this entry says it all. Our first two days in Maui have been, shall we say, testing.

We very quickly realised that we needed a car, and fast. Not only does everyone have one but it is essential because most of the best places are not done by bus. Also highly important was access to Kite Beach for me and a good wave for Loz so on our first morning we got onto Craigslist and started looking.
4 hours later and after trekking to the other side of the island we were the proud owners of a 1986 Ford Bronco, complete with leaking transmission, leaking tire, broken fuel gauge and the most retro interior you’ve ever seen. But Buck (after a bucking bronco) as he’s been christened was ours for $650, a pure bargain.

However, this is where the fun begins. Loz and I decided to take the north road back to Kahului (where we live) instead of the south road, the way we’d come on the bus. We didn’t know this at the time but this was like saying I’m going to swim to France instead of take the Euro tunnel. What we also didn’t know was that Rob, our not so reliable vendor had sold us the truck with a near empty fuel tank and as the gauge doesn’t work, this was NOT cool.
So off we set of in high spirits and began the journey north around the coast stopping at a local vista spot in the middle of nowhere to take some pics. It was only when the engine wouldn’t start up again that we looked over at each other, panic replacing the jolly smiles of seconds before. We tried again…nothing. Turning over but not firing up. My stress levels were heightened by the 100ft cliff drop meters behind our dead truck.

Thanks to the guardian angels some randoms on vacation came down to the vista point not long after and drove Loz back to a gas station complete with our portable gas tank (which I’d luckily negotiated from Rob) to get fuel. It turned out that was the problem and nothing mechanical but it was still an unnecessarily grim situation to be in.
The portable gas tank only gave us 2 gallons worth of fuel and seeing as Buck is a real gas guzzler we were playing with fire the whole way home, especially on the 8 mile stretch of steep uphill single lane death trap roads we had to negotiate. The journey consisted of Loz swearing and me screaming.
Unfortunately Buck failed on us once again 3 miles from home and I had to do the demeaning hitchhike thumbs up pose to get more gas with complete randoms.
It was safe to say that when I got back to the studio that night I was emotionally shot to pieces.

And finally…that brings me to today. Today we’d planned to have a nice relaxing beach day. We wanted to drive to Paia and relaxxxx. But Buck wasn’t through with us….just as I’m cruising down the highway we started to smell something, something similar to burning rubber on steel. Oh hang on, that’s exactly what it was.
We arrived in Paia and suddenly the brakes didn’t work, they just didn’t work! It was like pushing my foot into a sponge. There was some more screaming and I managed to stop the car with the emergency stop break. We got out and the truck was smoking, an intensely rank smell filling the air. More looks of horror from Loz and I followed by quickened heartbeats.

I think the guardian angels have had to hire out extra help to look after us because this next bit is weird. I’m feeling utterly miserable at this point and we go to the local gas station to see if they know a mechanic that might be available on a Sunday. In our heads all we can think about are the $$$.
Then as I’m telling the cashier our brakes are $*#!ed a slightly eccentric but nice local guy standing behind me says he does brakes and will come take and look and do them for us there and then. I couldn’t believe it and still can’t.
This guy, replaced all our front brake pads which it turned out were NON-EXISTENT for $50. I still don’t know what we would have done without him…probably be sitting back in Paia crying.

Anyway, we got home and are praying Buck behaves himself from this day on. We’re going to attempt the Paia beach day again tomorrow and erase today from our minds.

I don’t think Maui is what Loz what expecting at first, it’s quite shanty townish in areas and pretty isolated. There’s a strong feeling of localism in some of the towns but having been to Antigua I’m finding it quite similar to my experiences there and really like it. There’s definitely going to be lots to explore over the days.
Right now it’s 2.30am and I’m off to nurse these blistered fingertips in some ice so I’ll be able to write the next entry in much better time than this one! Night night zzzzzzz.