Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [274]
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WALK FACTS
Start Banyan Tree Sq
Finish Pioneer Inn
Distance 1.5 miles
Duration 2-3 hours
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Turn right on Front St to reach Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church (3; 561 Front St), which has a colorful interior depicting a Hawaiian Madonna, an outrigger canoe and Hawaiian farmers harvesting taro. The site was once a summer home of Hawaii’s last monarch, Queen Lili′uokalani. South of the church you’ll find a foundation, all that remains of Hale Piula (4), Lahaina’s halfhearted attempt at a royal palace. It was abandoned in mid-construction because Kamehameha III preferred sleeping in a Hawaiian-style thatched house. The site, fronted by Kamehameha Iki Park (5), is now used by local woodcarvers to build traditional outrigger canoes.
Across the street is Malu′uluolele Park (6), which once held a pond-encircled island, Moku′ula, that was home to ancient kings and the site of an ornate burial chamber. In 1918 it was landfilled to make a county park containing ball fields, tennis courts and barely a hint of its fascinating past.
Turn left on Shaw St, then left on Waine′e St to reach Waine′e Church (7; Click here). Stroll through the church’s old cemetery, where several of the most pivotal figures in 19th-century Maui are buried. Evocative inscriptions and photo cameos adorn many of the old tombstones.
You’ll find one of Lahaina’s more notorious sights, Hale Pa′ahao (8; Click here), on the corner of – guess where – Prison St. Take a peek into the old prison cells where drunken whalers once served time for debauchery.
Continue north along Waine′e St to reach the c 1846 Maria Lanakila Church (9), Maui’s first Catholic church. The adjacent Seamen’s Cemetery (10), despite its name, has only one seaman’s tombstone identified. However, ship logs indicate that many whaling-era sailors were buried here, including a shipmate of Herman Melville’s from the Acushnet.
Heading back toward the waterfront, on the corner of Front and Dickenson Sts, you’ll reach the Masters’ Reading Room (11). This was an officers club during the whaling heyday, where captains could watch out for potential rabble-rousing in the nearby harbor. This coral block building and the adjacent Baldwin House (12; Click here) museum now belong to the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, which oversees Lahaina’s historical sites.
Return to the harbor, stopping to view the Brick Palace (13; Click here) and the Hauola Stone at the rear of the library.
Cap off your tour with a cold brew at the atmospheric Pioneer Inn (14; Click here), the most prominent landmark on the harborfront. For half a century this veranda-wrapped building was Lahaina’s only hotel; Jack London slept here. Despite its whaling-era atmosphere, with swinging doors and ship figureheads, it was actually built in 1901, after the whaling days had passed, but nobody seems to notice or care.
LAHAINA FOR CHILDREN
Kids love that awesome banyan tree (Click here), whose dangling aerial roots invite at least one Tarzan-style swing. Little tots will want to ride the Sugar Cane Train (below). The rest of the clan can take the plunge with a surfing lesson from kid-friendly Goofy Foot Surf School (Click here). Prefer to go deeper? Atlantis Submarines (below) turns the ocean into a dazzling aquarium.
TOURS
Lahaina Harbor abounds with catamarans and other vessels catering to the tourist trade. You’ll find scores of day cruises, from whale-watchers and glass-bottomed boats to daylong sails to Lana′i.
Atlantis Submarines ( 667-2224, 800-548-6262; www.atlantisadventures.com; adult/child under 12 $90/45) See the world from a porthole aboard this 65ft sub that dives to a depth of 130ft to see coral, tropical fish and the sunken Carthaginian, the sailing brig that played a role in the 1965 movie Hawaii. Tours depart from 9am to 2pm from Lahaina Harbor.
Pacific Whale Foundation ( 879-8811, 800-942-5311; www.pacificwhale.org;