HAWAIIAN ISLANDS OVERVIEW
The Hawaiian Islands were born in flames under the sea millions of years ago. This isolated chain is situated atop a hot spot in the earth’s crust, some 5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean. As the ocean floor moves (about six inches/year) molten lava pushes through and provides building materials for the islands. Eventually, each island drifts beyond the hot spot and ceases to grow.
At present, Hawaii Island (the Big Island) is the only inhabited island still growing. A new island, Loihi, is building about 20 miles off the Big Island coast, but it’s still about 2,000 feet beneath the surface and about 30,000 years away from any beachfront development. Buy now; get in on the ground floor.
The Archipelago reaches northwest about 2,000 miles from the easternmost island, Hawaii, to Kure Atoll, about halfway to Japan. Included in the archipelago are numerous coral atolls, the major inhabited islands and Midway Island. All the islands and atolls in the chain between the Big Island and Kure, except Midway, are part of the State of Hawaii. That makes it the longest state in the nation. They are about 2,500 miles from the mainland U.S., and about 4,000 miles from Japan; in short, they’re a long way from anywhere.
The islands were first settled somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago, with two distinct waves of Polynesian voyagers arriving about 400 years apart. These travelers from the South Pacific negotiated some 4,000 miles of Open Ocean with no navigational aids beyond the stars and their knowledge of currents, winds and other oceanic phenomena. The settlers brought with them a rich and lyrical language, a complex society and a well-tested way of life.
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BIOLOGY The
Hawaiian Islands have a wide variety of plant, marine and animal life.
Vegetation zones include: coastal, dryland forest, mixed open forest,
rain forest, subalpine and alpine. More than 90 percent of the native
plants and animals living in Hawaii are found nowhere else in the world,
and a greater variety of fish exist in Hawaiian waters than elsewhere.
The humuhumunukunukuapuaa is the unofficial state fish.
ECONOMY Hawaii's
cost of living is one of America's highest, its per capita personal
income below average. In fact, Hawaii's cost of living for a family
of four is estimated to be approximately 27% higher than the U.S. average
for a comparable standard of living. In 1999, Hawaii's average per capita
personal income of $27,544 was 3.5% below the U.S. average - the price
of living in Paradise!
The 1990's has been the worst decade in Hawaii's economic history since
World War II due, in large measure, to the decline in tourism from the
East and the demise of the sugar and pineapple industries. To meet the
challenges of the 21st Century, Hawaii is working to diversify its economy
with a focus on industries such as science and technology, health and
wellness tourism, diversified agriculture, ocean research and development,
and film and television production 185,860 public school students and 36,226 in private schools
Data Source: DBEDT |
Source: http://www.global-town.com/history.html
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Maui, the Valley Isle, is the second largest of the populated islands, with about 1/5th the land area of the Big Island. Maui county also includes the islands of Kaho'olawe, Molokai and Lanai. We'll be adding sections for the latter two islands within a few weeks, so check this page again if you'd like information about them. Maui is my favorite of the Hawaiian Islands. My favorite place on the island is Kapalua |
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Molokai and Lanai, lying just to the west, and Kaho'olawe to the southwest, were once part of Maui. All four islands were formed by a group of six volcanos. The largest of these, Haleakala in central Maui, rises more than 10,000 feet above sea level and offers spectacular views when it isn't fogged in. The islands were separated from one another when sea levels rose and flooded the deep valleys between the volcanos. The channel between Maui, Molokai and Lanai is much shallower than the surrounding ocean, and provides shelter for a great variety of marine life. Magnificent humpback whales populate the channel during the winter months, giving birth to their calves and delighting marine scientists, whale watchers and marine tour operators.
The island is divided into several distinct geographic areas. West Maui is isolated from the rest of the island by the mountainous remnants of the one of the volcanos which helped create the land. Lahaina, Kapalua, Kapahulu (where one of the island's two major airports is situated) and the Ka'anapali resort area are all located along the coast of west Maui. Central Maui is dominated by the dormant volcano, Haleakala ("House of the Sun" in Hawaiian). Although the volcano has not erupted in almost three hundred years, it is not considered inactive. Lahaina, on Maui's west coast (the thumb-shaped penninsula at the upper
left of the map above), was the first capitol of the Nation of Hawaii,
and for many years was the major commercial port in the islands. West Maui, inland from the beaches and resort areas, is still ranch country. The hills and mountains are sometimes reminiscent of the mainland Southwest, and sometimes of the Scottish highlands, but most often of nowhere else in the world. The light and colors -- you can find a thousand shades of green alone -- are stunning. Just across the mountains which separate west Maui from the rest of the island are the towns of Kahului and Wailuku on Maui's north shore. Maui's international airport is situated just outside Kahului. From here, Lahaina, Kihei and the west Maui resorts are 30-60 minutes away, as are the south shore resorts and the road to Haleakala's summit.
The small town of Pa'ia, about 10 miles east of Kahului, is the last stop on the north coast before you enter the road to Hana, on the east side. A few minutes from Pa'ia is Ho'okipa Beach, considered the premier windsurfing spot in the world. If you're planning a trip to Hana, stop in Pa'ia to pick up a box lunch. The Hana road is one of the great driving experiences of all time, so long as you allot enough time (all day) and you have the sense to defer to local vehicles. For visitors, it is not a drive meant to get from point A to point B; the point is the drive. (We recommend renting a Jeep or a mid-sized sedan for the trip; anything larger and you'll find yourself the recipient of an impromptu Pidgin lesson as you scrape against a cliff on the inland side of the road while backing around a blind curve to make room for an annoyed local guy in a pickup headed for Kahului.)
To one side of the road are breathtaking cliffs and tropical valleys plunging down toward the ocean, and to the other you'll see thick jungle in which are hidden numerous small waterfalls and diving pools. There are frequent opportunities to pull off the road to take photos or simply to get out of the way of the traffic building up behind you, which is a polite thing to do and which forces you to enjoy the spectacular surroundings. Hana itself is a beautiful little coastal town with a great general store, one large hotel and a few bed and breakfast inns. The windward (east) shore gets a lot of rain, so the area is quite tropical; lots of lush vegetation and jungle. A few miles on the Kahului side of town is Wainapanapa Park, which is generally not crowded and which includes a perfect little black sand beach. On the other side of town is Oheo Gulch (commonly called the Seven Sacred Pools), another beautiful spot, and one from which we've seen whales making their way along the coast toward Lahaina. If you're the adventurous sort and you're in a Jeep, you can continue on past Hana to the point where the road turns into more of a symbolic gesture than an actual road. This cratered dirt track takes you around the south shore, through a very sparsely inhabited part of the island mostly occupied by cows. You'll find a few places (two, actually, one of which is an old delivery van) to stop for refreshments, and you'll find the sorts of views which remind you that you're on a small rock in the middle of a very large ocean. Following this alleged road will lead you to County Road 31, which is paved and will take you through upcountry Maui back toward Kahului. You can, however, continue around the south shore on the unimproved road, which will eventually lead you to Makena and State Road 31. 31 runs through Makena, Wailea and Kihei until it intersects with State Road 30, which will deposit you in Kahului or Lahaina, depending on which way you turn. On a good day, with no rain, you can circumnavigate the island in about 14 hours. You can't really get lost, but you can get marooned or run over by a cow. On the other hand, the trip can be a lot more fun than baking on the beach or abusing a golf ball if you're in a certain frame of mind. Heading inland, toward central Maui, introduces another sort of landscape altogether. Central Maui is agricultural territory, where most of Hawaii's remaining sugar plantations are located. The roads are uphill all the way. No matter where you start, you're headed toward Haleakala.
The major towns on the slopes of Haleakala are Makawao, on the northern slope, and Kula on the west. Between the two is the pleasant little town of Pukalani. Kula is where our friend Arturo gets the Maui onions for his salsa. Makawao used to be a cowboy town, but has transformed itself into more of an artists' colony. You won't find any major resorts up here, but a number of bed and breakfast inns offer comfortable accomodations. This is a fine area to visit if you like hiking, bike riding, horseback riding or just hanging out far from the madding crowd. You can head south from Kula toward the towns of Keokea and Ulupalakua, or east toward the Haleakala summit. The former choice will eventually put you on the back way to Hana (dirt road, cows, etc.), while the latter directs you to the best place in Hawaii to catch a sunrise. |
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Kauai, the Garden Isle, is an island of firsts. It is the oldest of the inhabated Hawaiian isles, and has drifted the farthest from the ocean floor hot spot which continues to build the chain. I have spent many happy days on the island, over 400 days since 1975.
Because of its age, Kauai was the first of the five major islands to develop the lush forests and vegetation which the world has come to associate with Hawaii. Erosion has created some of the most dramatic landscapes in the islands while reducing what was once a truly massive volcano (Waialeale) to a height of about 5,000 feet at its summit.
Kauai's inhabitants were the first Hawaiians to come in contact with Europeans, when Captain Cook landed near Waimea in 1778. The first major sugar plantation in Hawaii was located here in the 1830's, near Kohala; around 1840, it became part of the first major financial scandal in the young nation's history.
Mostly, though, Kauai is known for its sheer splendor. It is not heavily populated or developed, and its resort areas are concentrated in only a few locations around the island. Princeville, on the North Shore, is probably the best known of these.
Among the natural attractions of Kauai is Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Waimea Canyon is a huge, lush rift a few miles inland from the Na Pali Coast on the leeward side of the island. Ten miles long and 2-3,000 feet deep, the canyon offers breathtaking views, spectacular waterfalls and some of the densest rainforest in Hawaii.
Further inland from Waimea Canyon is what may be the wettest spot in the world, on the northeast slopes of Waialeale. This area receives in excess of 450 inches of rain annually. Millenia of runoff from the mountain has carved out many of the rugged Windward valleys and canyons which help to make Kauai one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
Although Kauai is less developed than the other large islands, it is dependent upon tourism for a large part of its income, with agriculture accounting for the other major share. Hurrican Iniki, which struck in 1992, wreaked havoc upon both economies, destroying or damaging most of the island's hotels and ruining crops and orchards everywhere. The island is still recovering, and visible signs of the storm's passage are still to be found almost anywhere you look.
Kauai has become something of a tourism battleground in the wake of Iniki. Tourism brings desperately needed jobs and tax dollars, but few people want Kauai to suffer the sort of raging development afflicting Oahu and, more recently, some parts of Maui.
Eco-tourism is seen by many as the ideal solution, and Kauai offers more low-impact tourism opportunities -- regulated hiking, bicycling and other nature-oriented activities --than the other islands. Traditional resort developments are still thriving, though, and it remains to be seen whether a kinder, gentler sort of tourism can thrive here, or can attract visitors in numbers sufficient to satisfy the needs of the economy and the people who most control it.
HAWAII JOURNAL
K-12 students (1999):
