Whether you are a history buff (or not), a visit to the Historic Calasa Garage in Kula, would be an interesting day trip. The service station dates back to 1932, and has an old pump on display inside as well as some of the original glass bottles used for oil. Current owners Joe and Andrea Tomsen are in the process of restoring both the service station and the adjoining Plantation Bunkhouse home to their former glory.
We chatted with Andrea for a while and she told us a fascinating story of how they happened to move to Maui. Maui had been their favourite vacation destination for years, so they were no strangers to the island. One night while back in their Wisconsin home, Andrea had a dream. In her dream she was going to move to a place that had a view of a mountain top observatory to the east, and a view of the ocean with whales breaching, to the west.
The next time they were in Maui they were up in Kula and came across the Calasa Service Station. Since they were in the automobile business back home they were very interested in the station which was for sale and also had an adjoining home. As luck would have it a realtor appeared, who was about to show the house for rental. Andrea and Joe seized the opportunity to look around, and discovered that from a certain location on the property, they could see both the Haleakala observatory and the ocean just like in Andrea's dream. They even spotted a whale breaching. I guess they knew they were meant to buy the old station and Plantation house so in a very short period of time, they had returned home, sold everything they owned and moved to Maui.
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| T-Shirts for sale with photo of Calasa station on back |
You could combine this up-country Kula experience with a trip to the Surfing Goat Dairy and the Alii Kula Lavender Farm with a stop at the Kula Lodge for lunch.