Lahaina

Pioneer Hotel from the water

 Lahaina, the ancient capitol of Hawaii, is a fun combination of old and new, of fine art and kitschy tourist stuff, of history and activity hawkers, and some excellent restaurants side-by-side with Cheeseburgers in Paradise, Bubba Gumps, and gelato stands. The showpiece is the old Pioneer Hotel built in the early 1900s and long the only hotel on the island. It still hosts overnight guests and has a nice bar and grill for breakfast, lunch, dinner. The back side has some of those kitschy tourist shops while the front faces the harbor with its line up of 20 or more excursion boats offering snorkel and scuba tours, whale and dolphin watching tours, and dinner cruises combined with and occasional star-gazing tour. What more could you ask for in paradise?

The iconic Pioneer Hotel

Downtown street

We spent several house just wandering Front Street taking in the sights, stopping for a $5 Mai-tai, and enjoying a bowl of gelato to cool off in the sun. We spent most of our store time wandering through several of the fine art galleries talking to the sales people and marvelling at some of the prices. We purchased some of our favorite prints here back in the early 1980s at the Lahaina Gallery. Robert Lyn Nelson had just started out with what has become a standard over and under view of the water. He puts surface of the ocean near the center of the painting showing both what is under the water and the landscape above. Others have copied the style, but he is still the best. Lahaina Galleries is still in business and still offering his works. He has, of course, expanded his repertoire and now offers more standard views of the waterfront, city-scapes and even some abstract works. We were happy to see the prices on these pieces which are 3-4 times what we paid for them. 

Old Fort

This is one tree

On our evening stroll, we entered a different gallery, drawn in by the large African pieces that reminded us of our two trips to that continent. The artist and his children who are following in his footsteps were born in Zimbabwe and their animal depictions are so life-like we almost felt like we had returned to southern Africa. One painting of elephants in Ethosha showed the animals returning to the spot where another of their herd had recently died. That reminded us of waking up on our first trip to the article in the morning newspaper about the elephants who returned to the home of Lawrence Anthony two years since their last visit to mourn his passing. Anthony had saved this small herd of rogue animals who had been about to be put down. He took them on in his young game reserve and nurtured them to peacefulness by becoming their friend and mentor. He broke some of the ‘rules’ as he did so, but succeeded in settling them down so they could become a part of his game reserve. His memoir, The Elephant Whisperer, is a great read that may change how you think about these magnificent animals and their abilities. 

This rock was used by women giving birth

One of several old homes in Lahaina

On another day we had planned to drive down the coast to Hana, a 60 mile drive that requires about three hours if you don’t stop. However, the weather forecast promised rain, so we chose instead to head to the other side of the island in the rain shadow and visit one of the few National Wildlife Refuges on these islands. We weren’t expecting to see many birds with the strong winds we faced, but expected to have an interesting day anyway. We weren’t disappointed as we saw most of the shorebirds we expected and enjoyed a nice conversation with the volunteer at the visitor center. Because most of Hawaii’s wetlands were drained and turned into farmland or fish farms or built up into condo developments, the state has less than 10% of its original wetland remaining. Much of this refuge had been fish farms, but they have gone leaving some good land for the shorebirds and ducks that live here or winter here. The two most numerous birds are the Hawaiian coots and Hawaiian stilts. Coots are those black duck-like birds that seem to be everywhere. They are easily identified by their white bills and solid black bodies. Stilts are even easier to identify by their long, long legs and striking black and white coloration. Both are similar in appearance to those we see on the mainland, but each is a separate species as they have evolved separately over the hundreds of years they have been isolated here. We also enjoyed watching a small flock of sanderlings. Sanderlings are those shorebirds who flock together running up and down the beach at the edge of the breaking waves picking little bugs out of the sand. They seem like they are afraid of the advancing water, but are always just at the margin between wave and sand. The refuge includes a long boardwalk through the ponds near the seashore and a separately entered area a bit inland made up of former fish ponds now favored by the several ducks that make their way here for the winter. Only one of these ducks is endemic to Hawaii, but it is so closely related to the Mallard that they interbreed and the only ducks we saw here were the hybrid result of that interbreeding. The pure Hawaiian Ducks are still seen on Kauai and the Big Island, but it is probably inevitable that those will interbreed themselves out of existence over the next many years. 

Stilt

It’s been over thirty years since we have visited Maui. This trip has shown us how much of a mistake it has been to not travel here more often. Or perhaps it wasn’t that much of a mistake given the other fabulous places we have been, but we will be back here again and it won’t be another thirty years in the future. Linda is already planning for an extended visit to this Aloha State in 2019. Next time we will include the Big Island in the itinerary and will certainly make it to Hana.