RV Travels With Huggy

North of where we were staying, along the west side of the older mountain range on the island of Maui, is a place where the old Hawaiian royalty used to take their guests to party. When European explorers discovered the place that harbor was ideal for the ships of the time and it soon became a major port in the whaling industry. We drove up there about three times while on Maui and I have some photos of the town that I'll post here. It's Hawaiian name was Lele but we know it as Lahaina.


This tree has become one of the main landmarks of the town. I don't know if it is the largest Banyan tree in the world or not but it must be close to it. The tree was planted in 1870 and now covers over an acre of land. Pat is walking toward the tree as we are taking photos of it.


This is a view taken under the tree and shows how the limbs spread out. They have been supported which no doubt has helped it last and stay healthy. You can also see my favorite photographer taking a similar photo, but without her in hers.


The old Courthouse has been restored and is now a museum. This is right across the street from the harbor and just in front of the Banyan tree.


These cannons were positioned to protect the harbor from invaders but I don't think they were ever used for that purpose. It was interesting to read that they were all salvaged from ships that sunk, so it was a pretty low budget protection system.


These plants were near one corner of the old courthouse and close to the Banyan tree. Pat says the red flowers are red ginger. The plants in Hawaii are beautiful and prolific. This is one of Pat's photos with the Sony camera.


The same area as the previous photo but this one shows more of the Banyan tree behind the courthouse.


Lahaina has become quite an artists colony with many art galleries. There is also a lot of shopping for other things there. This little shopping mall is across Front Street from the Banyan tree park. This was just a few days before Halloween and as you can see they really get into decorating for that holiday. This is another of Pat's photos with the Sony.


This photo shows a bit of the coast line of Lahaina and was taken from our trip on a glass bottom boat. I'll post some photos from that trip in the next post. You can see the foothills of the West Maui Mountains and the clouds that are usually hanging over them. It looks threatening but we experienced no rain and the temperature was in the upper 80s every day that we were there. But it did get a lot cooler when we went up Mount Haleakala.


We were told that sometime last year an Englishman arrived after dark in this sailboat and dropped his anchor. I guess he wanted to wait for daylight to enter the harbor, thinking it would be safer. Well, as you can see, he anchored in the wrong place and the boat ended up on the reef and sinking. I do not know why it is still there and has not been salvaged, but there it is for all the world to see. It isn't just the old sailing ships that get sunk on Hawaiian reefs!


A major food crop on Maui is sugar cane. There is less of it now than there used to be but in older days this locomotive was used along with another to pull rail cars from the fields to the factories. Now the Sugar Cane Train operates daily as a tourist attraction, taking people on an 8 mile trip north from Lahaina and back. We tried to ride it after our glass bottom boat trip but missed the 13:00 trip by six minutes. We didn't want to wait nearly two hours for the next trip, so just bought some things in their store & took some photos before leaving. I did ride this train in 1997 while I was there and it is a fun trip.


The flowers and other plants of Hawaii are amazing. They are all over the place and do very well in the climate there. This is another of Pat's photos with the Sony.


Here is another flower that is just a few feet from the last one. These are along the sidewalk near the old cannons at the harbor.


This is a street scene in Lahaina, looking south along Front Street. The Wharf shopping mall is on the left, the Banyan tree park on the right and the harbor just a block west of here, across the street from the old Courthouse that is behind the Banyan tree.


This one was taken from about the same place as the last photo but looking north along Front Street. North of Lahaina there are some great beaches and hotels but I have never been up there. The island of Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands and over 700 square miles, so it is pretty large. Much of it is wild due to the mountains & volcanoes and there are no roads that go through those mountains. On both parts of the island the roads that go around the mountain ranges are not passable in a car so it can take a long time to get to a lot of places. To go south to the town of Hana means driving the Hana Highway, which is about 57 miles of mostly one lane road with a speed limit over much of it of 15mph. There are also over 50 bridges on that roadway, most one lane. I don't know how long it would take to really explore the whole island.


Here is Pat heading into The Wharf shopping mall, doing what we did so well while over there. Shopping.

Labels: Flowers, Hawaii, Photos, Small towns, Trips to see things