Maui
Did you know that the state of Hawaii stretches a distance
of 1500 or so miles across the central Pacific Ocean? The Northwestern islands,
the oldest in the chain, are now small atolls a thousand miles closer to Tokyo
than San Francisco. Those little islands were once volcanoes which over the
millennia have eroded to near sea level and someday the main islands will do
the same as another island comes from the seam opening in the sea off the
Southeastern side of the big island of Hawaii.
Maui, Molokai and Lanai were once a connected mass of
separate volcanoes; one big island. The island of Maui is actually two separate
volcanic islands connected by the eroded soils from each. Haleakala, the mountain
on the large Eastern part, is more than 10,000 feet above sea-level.
Maui is named for the eldest of Hawai’i Loa’s children. Over
the centuries he became known as a Polynesian demi-god who dragged up New
Zealand and Hawai’i from the bottom of the sea and slowed the sun down so his
mother could dry the tapa cloth she made.
The population of Maui has grown more than three-fold since
I served as Superintendent of Haleakala National Park in the first half of the
1970s. Condos, suburban housing and hotels have created a boom in the
population while entertainers and other wealthy people have built palatial
homes and estates.
There are remnants of old Hawaii in the deep valleys of West
Maui and on the coast of East Maui from Keanae around to Hana, Kipahulu and
Kaupo. People of Native Hawai’ian ancestry are only about 10 percent of Maui’s
current population. But the memory of the tens of thousands of people who lived
there prior to European contact may be seen in the faces of Hawai’ian elders
and children in Hana, a cultural oasis isolated by a difficult road trip from
the big hotels at Wailea and Kaanapali. One of the reasons for my novel is to
honor the memories of a great civilization and people who settled these islands
a millennium and a half ago.
The first third of my novel, Kolea, takes place on Maui and the descriptions of places are as
real as I can make them. I have hiked, climbed and ridden horseback over all of
the places I describe. But this is a fictional story and I have taken the
liberty to shuffle the geography a bit from time to time. I’m a storyteller not
a geographer. If you come back tomorrow I’ll give you a tour of Molokai.
Please feel free to share this blog with anyone. Thanks Russ Cahill
1 comment:
I had no idea that the state of Hawaii was that large. I'd like to live on one of those isolated islands as long as it had a Starbucks, I think my Wrangler wearing sweetheart would accompany me.
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