About Haiku's Huelo

Kaulanapueo Church in Huelo, Maui, Hawaii

Along the winding Hana Highway is a community known as Huelo, which is really a part of Haiku, Maui. A well known landmark is the Door of Faith Road, which brings you to the Kaulanapueo Church in Huelo. This historic Protestant church was established in 1853 and is still used for worship, with services in the Hawaiian language. The church walls are made of stone, creating a cool interior for a comfortable experience while attending services.

Haiku is on Maui's north shore, where the tradewinds bring refreshing rains to nourish lush growth. Coconuts palms, banana plants, and tropical flowers are plentiful in this rich environment. Garden enthusiasts enjoy planting and growing crops all year round, and you'll find a lot of organic farms here.

This community has seen a lot of changes over the decades, when this area transitioned from a sugar and pineapple growing region, then to cattle farming, up to the present day. Nowadays there a many smaller farms as well as homes which range from humble shacks to multi-million dollar oceanfront estates. For the most part, residents here enjoy a more natural lifestyle than you will find in the resort towns... natural beauty is everywhere you look, and people are very laid back.

Some find the deeply spiritual atmosphere much to their liking, and would not choose to live anywhere else. Here in Huelo, it seems you are a little more connected to the a'ina (the land), the water, the plants, and the history of Hawaii.

If you're driving the Hana Highway, be sure to take this detour if you're interested in something unique and historical on Maui.

Water = Beer

Just want to say thanks to my hubby for helping out a neighbor...

We live off the grid on Maui, which means there are no county services in our part of Haiku. For water, we use a catchment system where the rainwater ends up in this attractive Scafco (converted grain silo) water tank. It holds 12,000 gallons which is way more than we need, as there's only 2 of us tapping into it. The rain is channeled off the house's metal roof by way of rain gutters and pipes. A pump and pressure tank deliver water back to the household system.

All our neighbors are in the same boat, either using catchment systems or drilling wells for water. Some neighbors are newbies and don't have adequate systems in place for times when there is little rain, like right now.

A neighbor down the road has a family of 4, and his small water tank ran dry. They were going to the beach park every day to shower and fill up some water jugs just to get by. That's no way to live! My husband was working to prepare the site for their new and improved water tank and offered to help. He happened to have a 300 gallon portable tank kicking around and delivered it in the bucket of his backhoe one day. Boy were they glad to see that! Since then it's rained a few times and they are probably "out of the woods" by now, though still being cautious with their usage.

So one day after that the neighbor shows up with a case of Steinlager beer. Boy was I glad to see that! I don't go into town every day, and we were out of beer. I really didn't want to go anywhere, so this was good timing.

Anyway, that's how you turn water into beer... pretty simple huh?

Thanks Murray, and thanks also to the neighbor. It's nice to have neighbors like that.

Aloha from Haiku Maui - The Hunter

(This is my contribution to the Back to Nature contest that Christina Williams came up with. I don't expect it to be an entry that will compete with the others, but wanted to participate for the points! Good luck to all the other entries!)

Twin Falls Maui

One Sunday my 86 year old dad said to me..."I want to go up to that Twin Falls place and go for a walk, how far is it up to the falls?" I thought about it for a minute and imagined him up there slipping in some mud and falling, with nobody around to help him or call, and said "I don't know, but why don't I go with you and we'll find out?" So we got in the car and drove there, all of about a mile away if that. It was a beautiful sunny day in Haiku, the only one we had had in a couple of weeks. The ground was starting to dry out, so the trail was OK.

I have to admit that even though Twin Falls is so close, I haven't been up their trail in probably 12 or 15 years. My memories of it was a narrow slippery hiking trail that didn't impress me much back then. Well, things have changed for the better. The new owners of the property have been busy improving the trails into nicely graded and crowned roads. The trail might have been about a half mile, and then it narrowed out and got muddy. Most of the way was a gradual incline, and easy traveling for me and my old dad. He was keeping up alright. We stopped to admire the lush tropical foliage like the kukui trees, the coffee beans, and bananas. Saw a bright green anole lizard scamper across a brilliant red ti leaf... too fast to snap a picture.

We had to cross over a weir which is part of the East Maui Irrigation canal system that carries rainwater to the central valley to irrigate the sugar cane fields. I helped my dad over it, and he was very gung ho to see the waterfall on the other side. We met some people from Alabama, and some others from various places around the world. They were all enthralled with the trail and abundance of greenery and water. I tend to take this all for granted, having lived here so long. It was refreshing to get another perspective and see it as a tourist for a change.

It was a really great day out for us and I want to go there again. Maybe take my bike next time. Now I can see why the tourists flock to Twin Falls!

I forgot to mention that they have a fruit stand in the parking lot along the Hana Highway. Be sure to get something yummy if you stop here on your way to Hana.

Here's a picture of the waterfalls at the top of the trail. Since it was so muddy and the streams were running high that day we didn't venture all the way over to it. You do have to be aware of flash flooding here, as it's dangerous to cross streams when there is a lot of rainfall. People can die by being careless, so proceed with caution.