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Maui

Diverse natural beauty and a wide range of activities and attractions have made Maui a wonderfully popular destination. A visit quickly confirms what is meant by "Maui No Ka 'Oi"...Maui is the best.

History
Lahaina, which served as both royal capital to the early kingdom and as 'whaling capital of the Pacific" for much of the 19th-century, provides an excellent perspective on Maui, form the missionary past whaling's heyday, when the port of Lahaina hosted hundreds of whaling ships that came for provisions and to rest after long months at sea. Thanks to grass roots preservation efforts, Lahaina has kept its 19th-century scale and authenticity through a unique collection of restored historic buildings that provide the town with a distinctive ambiance.


The Baldwin Mission Home, built in the 1830's for medical missionary Dwight Baldwin and his family, is a highlight of visit. But visitors can make a day of it by adding the Whale Museum aboard the brig Carthaginian II; Hale Pa'i, the missionary-era printing house whose presses printed some of Hawaii's first books and money. Hale Pa'ahao, the old prison and the Wo Hing Society Hall. A visit to the Jodo Mission adds a Japanese plantation workers who settled here in the 1880's and 1890's. The Pioneer Sugar Mill, located on the outskirts of town processes cane still grown on thousands of West Maui acres.

Head to the county seat of Wailuku for another glimpse of Maui's past, taking time to visit the Bailey House, a restored missionary residence built in 1842, that is also home to the Maui Historical Society. Nearby is the circa 1835 church named after the Maui-born chieftess Ka'ahumanu, favorite wife of Kamehameha and one of the first royal converts to Christianity. For a look at the plantation-era lifestyle that dominated Maui for more than a century, visit the Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Mill Museum, just across from the mill at Pu'unene.

The Whale Center of the Pacific at Ka'anapalis Whalers Village offers two complimentary museums with whales as the theme, one providing world-class displays of 19th-century whaling, the other equally interesting exhibits on the great humpback whales. The recently-opened Maui Ocean Center at Ma alaea, a state-of-the-art aquarium with tanks, exhibits and a walk through tunnel that bisects a man-made reef environment, adds an attraction with appeal to both adults and families.

 
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