Things We Learned in Maui

There are 132 Hawaiian Islands, atolls, shoals and reefs! Maui is the 2nd largest island in the Hawaiian chain. Maui is approximately 48 miles (76.8km) long and 26 miles (41.6km) wide, totaling 728 square miles. It is known for long stretches of beautiful beaches, Haleakala, surfing, humpback whales, the road to Hana, snorkeling and turtles. Maui started five million years ago. It was the result of volcanic eruption on the ocean floor creating two adjacent volcanoes. These volcanoes formed into one island and became Maui. Paddling outrigger canoes, the first ancestors of today's Hawaiians followed the stars and birds across the sea to Hawaii, which they called "the land of raging fire." A dog-bone fish hook found at the southernmost tip of the Big Island has been carbon-dated to A.D. 700 and some recent archaeological digs at the Maluuluolele Park in Lahaina predate that. In the early years there were three kingdoms on Maui: Hana, Waikulu, and Lahaina. Piilani was the first ruler to unite all of Maui. His rule was a time of not only peace, but Piilani also built fishponds and irrigation fields and began creating a paved road about 6 feet wide around the entire island. Then in the 1700s, Captain Cook found Maui. After that, King Kamehameha united all of Hawaii. Starting in the 1800s, sugar was the primary revenue source for the island. Today, there is one remaining sugar cane producer on the island called A & B Sugar. Sugar cane begins with a 12 inch long "slip" cut from a stalk of cane that is machine inserted into the earth. The sugar cane is watered and fertilized and then it is harvested 24 months later. It can grow to be 30 feet tall before harvested. A single cane stalk can produce three crops. Then the field is replanted with new slips. An acre of land can yield over 90 tons of cane or 12.5 tons of raw sugar. In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the union. Now, the primary industry is tourism. As tourists, we visited West Maui ( the olivine pools, the blow hole, the dragon's teeth), Lahaina, the needle, Haleakala, molikini, turtle cove, Wai'anapanapa State Park with a black sand beach and lava tube, Kam beach where you can learn to surf, and lots more. Some of our surfing pictures are on the slideshow at left.