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, while the one to the east is dormant, its last eruption was in the 18th century.
The landscape
on Maui is very diverse, from lush tropical rainforests to barren lavafields and dry high mountain country. And of course there are
the famous sandy beaches on the western shores.
The Haleakala volcano with its majestic and colorful crater reaches a towering
height of more than 3 km.
The
Kingdom of Maui first only ruled over the western part, but in the 15th century all of Maui came
under their control.
After many bloody battles
Kamehamea I finally defeated the Maui king in 1795 and went on to establish his
Kingdom of Hawai'i.
Thanks to Maui's fertile volcanic soil and lush tropical rains, agriculture is an important industry
with coffee, macadamia nuts, pineapple and
sugarcane.
For good reasons tourism is an important industry as well and
recently high tech IT companies are on the rise.
Maui is one of our all-time favorite vacation destination and we have visited the
Valley Isle many times, the last time was in August 2003.