Central Maui

Central Maui isn't exactly tourist central; this is where real people live. You'll most likely land here and head directly to the beach. However, there are a few sights worth checking out if you feel like a respite from the sun and surf.

Kahului

Under the airport flight path, next to Maui's busiest intersection and across from Costco and Kmart in Kahului's new business park, is a most unlikely place: the Kanaha Wildlife Sanctuary, Haleakala Highway Extension and Hana Highway (tel. 808/984-8100). Look for the parking area off Haleakala Highway Extension (behind the mall, across the Hana Hwy. from Cutter Automotive), and you'll find a 50-foot trail that meanders along the shore to a shade shelter and lookout. Watch for the sign proclaiming this the permanent home of the endangered black-neck Hawaiian stilt, whose population is now down to about 1,000 to 1,500. Naturalists say this is a good place to see endangered Hawaiian koloa ducks, stilts, coots, and other migrating shorebirds. For a quieter, more natural-looking wildlife preserve, visit the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Preserve, in Kihei.

Puunene

This town, located in the middle of the central Maui plains, is nearly gone. Once a thriving sugar-plantation town with hundreds of homes, a school, a shopping area, and a community center, Puunene is little more than a sugar mill, a post office, and a museum today. The Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., owner of the land, has slowly phased out the rental plantation housing to open up more land to plant sugar.

Waikapu

Across the sugar-cane fields from Puunene, and about 3 miles south of Wailuku on the Honoapiilani Highway, lies the tiny, one-street village of Waikapu, which has two attractions that are worth a peek, especially if you're trying to kill time before your flight out.

Relive Maui's past by taking a 40-minute narrated tram ride around fields of pineapple, sugar cane, and papaya trees at Maui Tropical Plantation, 1670 Honoapiilani Hwy. (tel. 800/451-6805 or 808/244-7643; www.mauitropicalplantation.com), a real working plantation open daily from 9am to 5pm. A shop sells fresh and dried fruit, and a restaurant serves lunch. Admission is free; the tram tours, which start at 10am and leave about every 45 minutes, are $14 for adults and $5 for kids 3 to 12.

Powerful plantations -- Coffee, pineapples, and even macadamia nuts are all grown on huge farms in Hawaii. But the biggest (and baddest) of them all were the once-dominant sugar plantations. Sugar was Hawaii's claim to fame long before the tourists arrived, with the first plantation opening in 1835. At one time, more than 240,000 acres of sugar cane were under cultivation. But just as quickly as sugar boomed, it went bust, the victim of cheaper labor and cheaper shipping costs elsewhere. In the late 1970s Hawaii produced nearly 1.2 billion tons of sugar; today it produces less than 200 million. Though most of the plantations are long gone, with fields of cane giving way to resorts and golf courses, their impact on Hawaiian culture should not be underestimated.

Plantation Life :Low wages. Abusive overseers. Poor conditions. For plantation workers, these things were all part of the job. The immigrant laborers who built sugar into Hawaii's primary industry were generally treated like indentured servants. They signed binding contracts that required they pay off the cost of their transportation to the islands and their living expenses. Their paltry wages (41¢ per day in 1841) were quickly eaten up by exorbitant rates charged by the company store. A song popular with sugar plantation laborers summed up their lot in life.

Plantations & Politics: Many of Hawaii's first white families were missionaries who "came to do good and stayed to do well." Five prominent families (the Big Five) saw in sugar the potential for major profits, and they wasted no time in making sure their stranglehold on the industry was secure. From the beginning, the U.S. was the predominant beneficiary of all that sweetness. Just one problem: Hawaii was independent, which meant there were trade tariffs to be paid. No matter -- white businessmen simply banded together to push through "reforms" that gave them more and more power. Sanford Dole, the son of missionaries, was an advisor to Queen Lili'uokalani, but he was also interested in promoting the cause of his family's plantations. He helped lead the 1893 U.S. Marine-backed coup that overthrew the monarchy, then got himself named president of Hawaii from 1894 to 1900, and served as provisional governor after the U.S. annexed the islands.

Wailuku

This historic gateway to Iao Valley is worth a visit, if only for a brief stop at the Bailey House Museum and some terrific shopping.

Iao Valley

A couple of miles north of Wailuku, past the Bailey House Museum, where the little plantation houses stop and the road climbs ever higher, Maui's true nature begins to reveal itself. The transition from suburban sprawl to raw nature is so abrupt that most people who drive up into the valley don't realize they're suddenly in a rainforest. The walls of the canyon begin to close around them, and a 2,250-foot-high needlelike rock pricks gray clouds scudding across the blue sky. The moist, cool air and the shade are a welcome comfort after the hot tropic sun. This is Iao Valley, an eroded volcanic caldera in the West Maui Mountains whose great nature, history, and beauty have been enjoyed by millions of people from around the world for more than a century.

Iao (Supreme Light) Valley is 10 miles long and encompasses 4,000 acres. The head of the valley is a broad circular amphitheater where four major streams converge into Iao Stream. At the back of the amphitheater is rain-drenched Puu Kukui, the West Maui Mountains' highest point. No other Hawaiian valley lets you go from seacoast to rainforest so easily. This peaceful valley, full of tropical plants, rainbows, waterfalls, swimming holes, and hiking trails, is a place of solitude, reflection, and escape for residents and visitors alike.

To get here from Wailuku, take Main Street; then turn right on Iao Valley Road to the entrance to the state park. The park is open daily from 7am to 7pm. Go early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the sun's rays slant into the valley and create a mystical atmosphere. You can bring a picnic and spend the day, but be prepared at any time for a tropical cloudburst, which often soaks the valley and swells both waterfalls and streams.

For information, contact the Division of State Parks, 54 S. High St., Room 101, Wailuku, HI 96793 (tel. 808/984-8109; www.hawaiistateparks.org/parks/maui). The Hawaii Nature Center, 875 Iao Valley Rd. (tel. 808/244-6500; www.hawaiinaturecenter.org), home of the Iao Valley Nature Center, features interactive exhibits and displays relating the story of Hawaiian natural history; it's an important stop for all who want to explore Iao Valley. Hours are daily from 10am to 4pm. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for children 4 to 12. Rainforest walks are led Monday through Friday at 11:30am and 1:30pm and Saturday and Sunday at 11am and 2pm. Wear closed-toe shoes (no sandals) suitable for an uneven trail. The cost, which includes a visit to the museum, is $20 for adults and $10 for children 5 and older (younger children not allowed). Book in advance.

You can take the loop trail into the massive green amphitheater of Iao Valley for free. The public walkway crosses the bridge of Iao Stream and continues along the stream itself. The .35-mile paved loop is an easy walk -- you can even take your grandmother on this one. A leisurely stroll will allow you to enjoy lovely views of the Iao Needle and the lush vegetation. Others often proceed beyond the state park border and take two trails deeper into the valley, but the trails enter private land, and NO TRESPASSING signs are posted.

The feature known as Iao Needle is an erosional remnant consisting of basalt dikes. This phallic rock juts an impressive 2,250 feet above sea level. Youngsters play in Iao Stream, a peaceful brook that belies its bloody history. In 1790, King Kamehameha the Great and his men engaged in the battle of Iao Valley to gain control of Maui. When the battle ended, so many bodies blocked Iao Stream that the battle site was named Kepaniwai, or "damming of the waters." An architectural heritage park of Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and New England-style houses stands in harmony by Iao Stream at Kepaniwai Heritage Garden. This is a good picnic spot, with plenty of tables and benches. You can see ferns, banana trees, and other native and exotic plants in the Iao Valley Botanic Garden along the stream.