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Hawaii Islands (Maui) |
| Lahaina
Historic Town |
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A wicked whaling boomtown of the mid-19th century, Lahaina preserves many old buildings despite commercialization. A walking tour brochure of the Lahaina Historical District is available from the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, housed in the Master's Reading Room (Front and Dickerson Sts. 808-661-3262. Mon.-Fri.), where visiting seamen came to beat the heat and read. Next door, the Baldwin Home (808-661-3262. Adm. fee) was erected of coral blocks and fieldstone by a missionary-physician in 1834; its rooms contain period items.
At the wharf is a replica two-masted freighter, the Brig Carthaginian (808-661-3262. Adm. fee), now a floating museum with exhibits on whales and whaling.
The 1859 Lahaina Courthouse (Wharf St. 808-661-3262) was built of coral blocks from a royal palace. The Old Prison (Wainee and Prison Sts. 808-661-3262) used wall shackles, thus its name Hale Paahao, the "stuck-in-irons-house."
Finally, the Wo Hing Museum (Front St. 808-661-5553) is a 1912 Chinese fraternal hall with a temple upstairs; in the cookhouse, see Thomas Edison's own home movies of Hawaii.
Above town, the Lahainaluna High School (Top of Lahainaluna Rd.) was the first educational institution west of the Rockies (1831). On the grounds is Hale Pai, the "house of printing," which in 1834 published Hawaii's first newspaper; inside is a replica press.
Whale hunting
The
first whaling ships arrived in Hawaii in 1820, the same year as the
missionaries – and had an equally dramatic impact. With the ports of
Japan closed to outsiders, Hawaii swiftly became the center of the
industry. Any Pacific port of call must have seemed a godsend to the
whalers, who were away from New England for three years at a time, and
paid so badly that most were either fugitives from justice or just plain
mad. Hawaii was such a paradise that up to fifty percent of each crew
would desert, to be replaced by native Hawaiians, born seafarers eager to
see the world. Soon King Kamehameha IV had established his own whaling
fleet, and the economy adapted to meet the sailors’ needs.
Cattle-raising began on the Big Island, and vegetables were grown on Maui.
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| Until the 1840s, Honolulu, which permitted
drinking, was the whalemen’s favorite port. Then potatoes and
prostitution lured them to Lahaina as well, which by 1857 stretched
for several miles. The sea was calm enough for ships to dock along the
open road, and a grassy marketplace stood beside a central canal. Both
Lahaina and Honolulu became notorious for such diseases as syphilis,
influenza, measles, typhoid and smallpox. At the peak of the trade, almost six hundred
whaling vessels docked in Honolulu in a single year. Decline came with the
Civil War – when many ships were bought up in order to be sunk as a
blockade of Confederate ports – and an 1871 disaster, when 31 vessels
lingered in the Arctic too long, became frozen in, and had to be
abandoned.
Whale-watching |
| Ironically,
the waters just off western Maui now rate among the world’s best areas
for whale-watching and research. Between January and March each year, and
for up to a month either side of that, humpback whales use the
ocean channels here as both sanctuary and playground. They did not do so
in the nineteenth century, although they would have been safe enough, as
humpbacks were not hunted at that time. When caught with the old
technology, they sank uselessly to the bottom of the sea.
The whales are often clearly visible from the
shore, but specific whale-watching trips can take you much nearer (with
money-back guarantees if you don’t see one). Operators include the
nonprofit Pacific Whale Foundation (tel 808/879-8811; $31).
Food and nightlife |
Lahaina’s
harborside malls contain a tremendous selection of restaurants, national
and local chain outlets (including a Hard Rock Cafe and a Planet
Hollywood) and takeaways, not all of them good by any means, but
covering a wider spectrum than the hotels.
- Cheese
Burger in Paradise, 811
Front St (tel 808/661-4855). Busy, crowded seafront restaurant,
perched on stilts above the water. Very much what the name suggests,
though as well as meaty $7–8 cheeseburgers they have fish
sandwiches and spinach nutburgers at similar prices.
- David
Paul’s Lahaina Grill, Lahaina Inn, 127 Lahainaluna Rd
(tel 808/667-5117). Upmarket dinner-only restaurant with Maui’s
finest Pacific Rim cooking; it’s slightly cramped and
unatmospheric, but the food is great.
- Pacific
‘O, 505 Front St (tel 808/667-4341). Pacific Rim cuisine
served in an attractive oceanfront mall setting; try the amazing $28
Shrimp Nui.
- Sunrise
Cafe, 693A Front St at Market (tel 808/661-8558). Small,
laid-back and very central cafe, with outdoor seating beside its own
tiny patch of beach. Espressos, smoothies, salads, sandwiches and
daily specials, with prices starting at well under $5.
Accommodation |
| If
you have the money to spend on resort-style accommodation, Lahaina
and the coast to the north have some good options, but there’s very
little available for under $90 per night.
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