I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived on Maui for a relaxing holiday at the end of a three week yacht trip, but I left feeling sunbathed in aloha. All the stereotypes of Hawai’ian life are alive on this tropical island. Ukulele-strummed melodies waft from every shop corner, beaches are packed with beautiful people and the living is laid back. But that is what makes it just so enticing.


The second largest island in the Hawai’ian archipelago, Maui was enchanting from the moment I stepped off the plane and was adorned with a fresh orchid lei.


I over-stayed my long weekend on the island. Not wanting the experience to end, I spent one, two, three days more than expected. Every day I was whisked away to some fantastic and hidden destination, accompanied by a diverse range of people from a legal pot grower to a talented busker to a member of the island’s gay-straight alliance.


An insider’s guide to the famous holiday destination means I now have the best secrets to share.
 A poetry slam at one of the Maui’s top restaurant-come-night clubs – Casanova’s in Makawao – started my first night on a high. Won by an indigenous Hawai’ian from the neighbouring island of Molokai, it was an intense and engaging insight into life on the island state.


Maui has a rich and fascinating history. Like most Pacific nations, the islands of Hawai’i were collonised in the 1700s and almost half the native population of 400,000 were wiped out due to European diseases. Pre-colonisation, Maui was divided into two kingdoms, and in the 1800’s King Kamehameha the Great declared the island the official capital of the Hawai’ian Kingdom.
Fast forward through development, missionaries, plantations and Hawai’i becoming the 50th state of America in 1959, and you will now find a destination dripping with culture. What’s interesting to learn is that Hawai’i was also the first state to push for same sex marriage rights in the early 1990s. Although this wasn’t achieved right away – civil unions will be legal from January 2012 – it makes Maui an even more fabulous destination these days.


On my second day, strolling through the kitsch and organic night markets in the capital of Kahului was a fun way to soak up more than just the tourist trail. Waterfall jumping and tramping through a bamboo forest also rated highly.
The Hana Highway snakes along the northern coast of the island and is less stomped by tourists, and more frequented by locals. Much of the coastline is rocky, jagged and dramatic so exploring this side of Maui was a fresh and rewarding way to see more than just beach and palms. 
And what could be a better way to end a morning of swimming and exercise? Smoothies, hotcakes or gourmet pizza at one of the many organic cafes and restaurants which dot Maui’s coast.


Highly recommended is the picturesque town of Paia – like all of Maui it is a haven of organic food and locally made products.
After four days of exploring, I somehow I stumbled across a beach party in secluded Little Beach, just off the tourist trail in Kihei, south Maui. Not quite feeling the need to embrace nudity like some of the more relaxed locals, I was still drawn in by the surreal experience. The sun set across a white sandy bay and as dusk drew, naked bodies became silhouettes, sand became shimmery, and drum circles turned into fire circles.


Just when I thought Maui couldn’t get any better, a trip up Haleakala Volcano to watch the sunrise the next day, followed by sunset then fireworks watched from the seawall of resort town Lahaina, topped my week off.
Perhaps that is a bit of an over-exaggeration. As much as the scenery and culture held me captive, it is the locals’ mantra of live aloha, or as Kiwis know it, aroha, that makes this island unique.


General manager of Maui’s iconic Sunseeker GLBT resort Michael Waddell has it right when he says it is really the people of the islands that keep drawing tourist back.


“Ohana in Hawai’ian means family. The local population, as a rule, does not judge. They are very appreciative of tourist coming to support the islands and they show it daily in how they interact with tourists. “
One thing I noticed on my travels is that no one on the island is shy of dishing out a friendly aloha. This approach to life coupled with endless adventures definately makes me wants to say aloha to Maui again.

| Hannah Spyksma