Living the Aloha Hi

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

2012-5-29--to Iao Valley and riding around S. Maui

I was surprised to see all the sugar cane growing all over the island. I had totally forgotten about that from my other trip to Maui with my Dad in 2006. In addition to being Hawaii's only producer of raw and specialty sugar, today Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company generates enough electrical power to handle all its plantation needs and provide 7-8% of all the electric power used annually on Maui. Probably would have been fun to tour the factory, but we didn't get around to it. Maybe next Feb. when Ken and I return for a little over 2 weeks instead of our usual Kauai trip.

One of the places Dad and I did go to and I thought Carolyn would enjoy was the Ioa Valley. Located in Central Maui just west of Wailuku. It is a 4,000-acre, 10-mile long park and is home to one of Maui's most recognizable landmarks, the 1,200-foot Iao Needle. The Needle overlooks Iao stream and the park has paths for easy hiking and sightseeing. At least I thought the hiking was easy--Carolyn had a different opinion.

There were other parts of the park that I actually found more interesting then the "needle", such as this little garden.

This is a view back toward the parking lot from about half way into our "hike". I also don't remember there being a charge for parking before, but there was a young man there collecting $5/car. Hope he wasn't just a clever entrepreneur!

Aside from its natural tropical beautiful, sacred Iao Valley has great historical significance. It was here in 1790 at the Battle of Kepaniwai that King Kamehameha I clashed with Maui's army in his quest to unite the islands. Even with Iao Needle serving as a lookout point, Kamehameha defeated Maui's forces.

More of the lush foliage.

The Puʻu Kukui summit area at the valley's head receives an average 386 inches of rainfall per year, making it the state's second wettest location after Mount Waialeale on Kauai. Much of this rainfall ends up flowing into the Iao Stream.

After wandering around Iao Valley for awhile, we headed back to the south side and drove down past Wailea to check out that area.

At one spot, we even stopped and dragged out the beach chairs and watched the ocean for awhile. Not sure what the name of this "beach" is, but it was a quiet peaceful place.

As we were driving around, we came across this cute little church in Kakena---Keawalai Congregational Church. It was founded in 1832. The land it's on was purchased in 1864 for $80. In the 50's, the climate of the area changed from fertile lands to the parched land it is now (global warming back then?) so many of the congregation left for easier living. Renovations began on the church in the 70's and continued little by little even today. Hawaiian tradition and culture are carried on here by using Hawaiian language, music, and dance in it's services.

I have no idea what kind of tree this is next to the church, but I thought it's flowers are really unique.

As we continued south, we came to vast lava beds. An interesting change of scenery that reminded me of the landscape of much of The Big Island.

Heading back towards Kihei, we stopped at a few more places. Here I was intrigued by the 2 types of Cardinals hanging out together.

We also saw 2 little critters run across the street in front of us. So I followed them to try and get a better view. We decided they must be yellow mongooses. Here one is keeping an eye on me from a distance before it took off into the brush.