Maui waterfalls and vegetation

A must-see in central Maui, just West of Wailuku: In the Iao Valley State park. Only a 5 minute walk from the parking lot you get an awesome view on the Iao Needle, a 2,250 foot high peak dominating the valley, surrounded by lush green. Quite often it is raining or at least embedded in clouds but we were lucky.

You need a thousand words for green to describe the vegetation of Maui. It simply reminds me of the bushes of New Zealand.

Bananas growing wild.

And pineapples too... I wonder where that name comes from since it neither grows on pines nor looks, or tastes like an apple. In German we call them Ananas.

I am a collector of waterfalls, and Maui has an abundance of those to offer. Here are some of my favourites hiking to Waimoku Falls in the Kipahulu Forest reserve.

The two miles hike leads over rugged terrain and can be slippery at times, but is well worth it. Just make sure you have better shoes than flip-flops. A mighty Banyan tree in the middle of the path.

The river is cascading down while we are going up.

Over stone steps and a boardwalk we enter a vast bamboo forest. Its stems create eerie hollow sounds in the wind.

Arriving at Waimoku Falls. It is huge and we are in awe!

Maui's vegetation is as versatile as its beaches. We bathe in the lush greens of the rain forest,

and discover rare Rainbow Eucalyptus,

while only a few miles away we are greeted by a field of cacti.

And high up on the Haleakala crater we could find these beautiful Silverswords, a rare plant only found on Maui, and only growing at the height 2,000 to 3,000 meters.

Unfortunately revisiting the island of Maui didn't help but only increased my wanderlust, or for lack of better (English) terms the German expression Fernweh, which is indeed the opposite of Heimweh (=homesickness). Not sure how it would translate best but the word stands for the aching for far away places, the travel bug, the feeling you get when you read travel guides, plan your next trip, or listen to people telling tales from the road.

I have never experienced home-sickness. As pathetic as it sounds, but when I am traveling, home is where my heart is, and where I can lay my head down. But hell, did I suffer from 'far-sickness', and still do.

Plans for a motorcycle trip (and meeting some fellow bloggers) are in the make, and I hope to explore the West coast some more, maybe this time with hubby tagging along.

View on Kihei as seen from our vacation home