Dec 11 Last day on Maui
After having some early morning rain accompanied by some farewell rainbows
We departed our condo and drove to the Maui Ocean Center, where they do research, coral reclamation, etc. They had excellent displays of tropical fish, rays, sharks, turtles, and more.
We then drove to a wetlands preservation site...only about 60 acres of protected wetlands left on the island.
We then visited the Sugar Museum, which told the story of the sugar industry on Maui. It started in the late 1800s. The central lowlands between the two volcanic peaks were the best location on the island, but there was little water available, so they had a massive irrigation project over decades to channel the water. There were entire company towns built, with workers brought in from mainly China, Japan, and the Philippines to do the backbreaking work of chopping and hauling the raw cane from the fields to be processed. The last major sugar operation on Maui stopped 2 years ago...labor is just too expensive, so it's shifted to other countries like the Philippines. Remember the C&H Pure Cane Sugar commercials? (I do) The sugar cane plants like this
Here is the shut-down mill in the background
A cane crusher used in the milling process
A big trailer used to bring the raw cane from the fields to the mill
Originally they tried boiling the cane in old iron whaler's pots for processing, which didn't work so well
The workers from the various countries maintained a lot of their own cultures, here is a Portuguese cooking oven
It was then on to Costco to gas up, then to the airport for the long flight back home, with a layover at LAX.
We departed our condo and drove to the Maui Ocean Center, where they do research, coral reclamation, etc. They had excellent displays of tropical fish, rays, sharks, turtles, and more.
We then drove to a wetlands preservation site...only about 60 acres of protected wetlands left on the island.
We walked the boardwalk, and saw some endangered Hawaiian ducks, black with white beaks
We then visited the Sugar Museum, which told the story of the sugar industry on Maui. It started in the late 1800s. The central lowlands between the two volcanic peaks were the best location on the island, but there was little water available, so they had a massive irrigation project over decades to channel the water. There were entire company towns built, with workers brought in from mainly China, Japan, and the Philippines to do the backbreaking work of chopping and hauling the raw cane from the fields to be processed. The last major sugar operation on Maui stopped 2 years ago...labor is just too expensive, so it's shifted to other countries like the Philippines. Remember the C&H Pure Cane Sugar commercials? (I do) The sugar cane plants like this
are harvested by burning the plants in the fields, and the moisture inside the plant protects the sugar part. The remainder of the plants are then transported to the mills, where they are basically crushed several times to get all the juice out, then the juice is filtered and refined to create the crystals we know and love.
Here is the museum
Here is the shut-down mill in the background
A cane crusher used in the milling process
A big trailer used to bring the raw cane from the fields to the mill
Originally they tried boiling the cane in old iron whaler's pots for processing, which didn't work so well
The workers from the various countries maintained a lot of their own cultures, here is a Portuguese cooking oven
It was then on to Costco to gas up, then to the airport for the long flight back home, with a layover at LAX.
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