Maui Hotels
There are many tourists who want short term accommodation in the region. Hotels in Maui are often used for tourists who require accommodation in the island. Some may want hotels with good views and in good scenic areas of the city. Some may want hotels that are well priced or hotels that are exclusive. Some may want hotels that are in tourist regions of the area. Some tourists or other visitors may want hotels that are close to the areas of the region they want to visit. So they may want hotel in a specific area of the Maui.
The island of Ma-ui or Maui is the 2 nd largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest island in Maui County. Three other islands, Lanai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai, also belong to Maui County. Kahului is the largest town on the island. Wailuku is the seat of Maui County.
Maui's
wide variety of landscapes have resulted from a unique combination of geology,
topography, and climate. Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands
is built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks, which poured out of thousands of
vents as highly fluid lava, over a period of millions of years. Several of the
volcanoes were close enough to each other that lava flows on their flanks overlapped
one another, causing several volcanoes to merge into a single island. Maui is
such a "volcanic doublet", formed from two shield volcanoes that overlapped
one another to form an isthmus between them.
Looking into Haleakala Crater
The older, western volcano has been eroded considerably and is cut by numerous
drainages, forming the peaks of the West Maui Mountains (in Hawaiian Mauna Kahalawai).
Pu'u Kukui is the highest of the peaks at 5,788 feet. The larger, younger volcano
to the east, Haleakala, rises to more than 10,000 feet above sea level, but measures
five miles from seafloor to summit.
Polynesians,
from Tahiti and the Marquesas, were the original peoples to populate Maui. The
Tahitians introduced the kapu system, a strict social order that affected all
aspects of life and became the core of Hawaiian culture. Modern Hawaiian history
began in the mid-1700s. King Kamehameha I took up residence (and later made his
capital) in La-haina- after conquering Maui in 1790, during the bloody Battle
of Kepaniwai.
I-ao Valley
On November 26, 1778, Captain James Cook became the first European explorer to see Maui. Cook never set foot on the island because he was unable to find a suitable landing. The first European to visit Maui was the French admiral Jean François de Galaup de La Pérouse, who landed on the shores of what is now known as La Perouse Bay on May 29, 1786. More Europeans followed: traders, whalers, loggers (eg of sandalwood) and missionaries. The missionaries began to arrive from New England in 1823, choosing La-haina- because it was the capital. They clothed the natives, banned them from dancing hula, and greatly altered the culture. They tried to keep whalers and sailors out of the bawdy houses. The missionaries taught reading and writing, created the 12-letter Hawaiian alphabet, started a printing press in La-haina-, and began writing the islands' history, which until then existed only as oral accounts[5]. Ironically, the work of the missionaries both altered and preserved the native culture. The religious work altered the culture while the literacy efforts preserved native history and language for posterity. They started the first school in La-haina-, which still exists today: La-haina-luna Mission School. The Mission school opened in 1831 and was the first secondary school to open west of the Rocky Mountains.
At the height of the whaling era (1843-1860), La-haina- was a major whaling center with anchorage in La-haina- Roads; in one season over 400 ships visited La-haina- and the greatest number of ships berthed at one time was about 100. A given ship tended to stay several weeks rather than days which explains the drinking and prostitution in the town at that time. Whaling declined steeply at the end of the 19th century as crude oil (petroleum) replaced whale oil.
Kamehameha's descendants reigned in the islands until 1872. They were followed by rulers from another ancient family of chiefs, including Queen Liliuokalani who ruled in 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown. One year later, the Republic of Hawaii was founded. The island was annexed by the United States in 1898 and made a territory in 1900. Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state in 1959.
Maui was centrally involved in the Pacific Theatre of World War II as a staging center, training base, and for rest and relaxation. At the peak in 1943-44, the number of troops stationed on Maui exceeded 100,000. The main base of the 4th Marines was in Haiku. Beaches (e.g., in Ki-hei) were used for practice landings and training in marine demolition and sabotage.
The Vibora Luviminda trades union conducted the last labor strike of an ethnic nature in the Hawaiian Islands against four Maui sugar plantations in 1937, demanding higher wages and dismissal of five foremen. Manuel Fagel and nine other strike leaders were arrested, charged with kidnapping a worker. Fagel spent four months in jail while the strike continued. Eventually, Vibora Luviminda made its point and the workers won a 15 per cent increase in wages after 85 days on strike, but there was no written contract signed.
Lanai has been under the control of nearby Maui since before recorded history. History seems sometimes to have forgotten little Lanai. The first inhabitants of this island may have arrived as late as the 1400s. According to the Hawaiian legends, man-eating spirits occupied the island before that time. For generations, Maui chiefs believed in these man-eating spirits. Depending on which legend one follows either the prophet Lanika-ula drove the spirits from the island or the unruly Maui prince Kaulua-'au accomplished that heroic feat. The more popular myth is that the mischievous Kaulua-'au pulled up every breadfruit tree he could find on Maui. Finally his father, Kakaalaneo had to banish him to Lanai, expecting him not to survive in that hostile place. However Kaulua-'au was able to outwit the spirits and drive them from the island. The chief looked across the channel from Maui and saw that his son's fire continued to burn nightly on the shore, and he sent a canoe to Lanai to bring the prince, redeemed by his courage and his cleverness, back home to Maui. As a reward, Kaulua-'au was given control of the island and he encouraged immigration from other islands.[4] True to himself Kaulua-'au had, in the meantime, pulled up all the breadfruit trees on Lanai, accounting for the lack of breadfruit on that island. The name Lanai is of uncertain origin, but the island has historically been called La-nai o Kaulua-au. One theory is that the phrase means day of the conquest of Kaulua-au.
The first people to migrate here, most likely from Maui and Molokai, probably established fishing villages along the coast initially but later branched out into the interior where they raised taro in the fertile volcanic soil. During most of those times, the Moi of Maui held dominion over Lanai. Even today, Lanai is part of the County of Maui, but apparently the Maui leaders primarily left the people of Lanai to their own devices. Life on Lanai remained relatively calm until King Kamehameha I or Kalaniopuu came over to take control, slaughtering people on every part of the island. His wrath was so fierce that when Captain Vancouver sailed past the island in 1792, he didn't bother to land because of Lanai's apparent lack of villages and population. It is mentioned that Lanai was the favorite fishing spot of Kamehameha out of all the eight islands.
La-nai was first seen by Europeans on February 25, 1779, when Captain Charles Clerke sighted the island from aboard James Cook's HMS Resolution. Clerke had taken command of the ship after Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay on February 14 and was leaving the islands for the North Pacific.
In 1922, James Dole, the president of Hawaiian Pineapple Company, bought the entire island of La-nai and developed a large portion of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.
Sometime around 1000, Kahoolawe was settled, and small, temporary fishing communities were established along the coast. Some inland areas were cultivated, and fine grained basalt was quarried for stone tools. Originally a dry, mesic forest environment with intermittent streams, the land changed to an open savannah of grassland and trees as a result of vegetation clearance for firewood and agriculture. People built stone platforms for religious ceremonies, set rocks upright as shrines for successful fishing trips, and carved petroglyphs, or drawings, into the flat surfaces of rocks. These indicators of an earlier time can still be found on Kahoolawe.
While it is not known how many people inhabited the island, the lack of freshwater probably limited the population to a few hundred. As many as 100 or more people may have once lived at Hakioawa, the largest settlement located at the northeast end of the island facing Maui.
Violent wars among competing chiefs laid waste to the land and led to a decline in the population. During the War of Kamokuhi, Kalaniopuu, the ruler of the Island of Hawaii, raided and pillaged Kahoolawe in an unsuccessful attempt to take Maui from Kamalalawalu, the King of Maui. From 1778 to the early 1800s, observers on passing ships reported that the island was uninhabited and barren, destitute of both water and wood. After the arrival of missionaries from New England, the Hawaiian government of King Kamehameha III replaced the death penalty with exile, and Kahoolawe became a male penal colony sometime around 1830. Food and water were scarce, some prisoners reportedly starved, and some swam across the channel to Maui to find food. The law making the island a penal colony was repealed in 1853.
An 1857 survey of Kahoolawe reported about 50 residents, about 5,000 acres of land covered with shrubs, and a patch of sugar cane. Along the shore, tobacco, pineapple, gourds, pili (pee-lee) grass and scrub trees grew. Beginning in 1858, the Hawaiian government leased Kahoolawe to a sequence of ranching ventures. Some proved more successful than others, but the lack of freshwater was an unyielding enemy. Through the next 80 years, the landscape changed dramatically, drought and uncontrolled overgrazing denuded much of the island, and strong trade winds blew away much of the topsoil leaving the red hard pan.
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It lies east of Oahu across the 25 mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of La-nai, separated from it by the Kalohi Channel. The lights of Honolulu are visible at night from the west end of Molokai, while nearby La-nai and Maui are clearly visible from anywhere along the south shore of the Island.
Molokai is known as the long time residence of Father Damien de Veuster, the Belgium priest who cared for sufferers of Hansen's Disease. Historically, a small north shore colony on Molokai Island, Kalaupapa, was a refuge for sufferers of Hansen's Disease, also known as leprosy. There are no active cases of Hansen's Disease on Molokai Island. Those who continue to live in the Kalaupapa colony are descendant families of the previously afflicted disease patients.
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