The island of Maui consists of two volcanoes with a fertile valley in between, hence its nickname "the Valley Isle".

The westerly volcano is extinct and heavily eroded as can be seen in the scenic Iao Valley.

The Haleakala volcano in the southeast is dormant, its last eruption was in the 18th century, but suspicious plumes show there is still some activity down there.

Haleakala sports a majestic and colorful crater and reaches a towering height of more than 3 km.

 

Maui has a very diverse landscape, from lush tropical rainforests to barren lavafields and dry high mountain country. And of course there are the popular sandy beaches on the western shores around Kihei.

 

After many bloody battles Kamehamea I finally defeated the mighty Maui kings in 1795 and went on to establish his Kingdom of Hawai'i.

 

Thanks to the fertile volcanic soil and lush tropical rains, agriculture thrived, withmacadamia nuts, coffee beans, pineapples and sugarcane, but today water use is a major limiting issue.

In the 19th century Lahaina became an important whaling center and even today you can hunt whales here, be it only with a camera.

 

Presently tourism is  Maui's major industry, but high tech IT companies on the rise here. I wonder why.....

 

Maui is one of our all-time favorite vacation destination and we visited the beautiful Valley Isle many times, lastly in August 2003.