Iao Valley

A couple of weeks ago we went over to Iao Valley State Park at the base of the west maui mountains. There was a very historic and bloody battle fought in this valley in 1790 when Kamehameha I attacked Maui warriors in his attempt to unite the Hawaiian Islands.
In the middle of the valley is the Iao Needle, a basalt rock formation, (now covered in plantlife) that juts over 1,000 feet up and has survived many years of geothermal and environmental changes.








Here is a view looking down at central Maui from Iao Valley State Park.



















There was also a little garden area at the park where they had traditional taro gardens (terraced aquatic gardens, sorry no photos) and some other plants. Here is a Monstera plant (on the left) that we were lucky enough to harvest a fruit from! Yumm! Although it is not the most convenient fruit to eat, it has a unique flavor that is similar to banana, apple and pineapple.


And speaking of delicious tropical fruits. . . there were guavas growing wild all over the valley. Sadly, they are incredibly invasive on the island; all those seeds! But it was a very fragrant hike and had our mouths watering for some guavas. We did our part with "invasive species removal" and harvested a dozen or so that we later turned into a delicious guava syrup for drinks and baked sweets!







Here is a photo of our "collection" of tropical fruits in our kitchen at our park housing duplex. From left to right: longans, mangosteen, limes, atemoya, bananas, monstera, guavas. The longans were great, similar to a lychee. The atemoya was also quite good, though very sweet. Not pictured were some delicious small red papayas (one of our new favorite treats when there is lime juice squeezed on the papaya!), 3 different varieties of avocado and a pineapple.





Also in the garden area, there was a really great thatched structure that I caught Russell resting under. It had us both thinking and dreaming about the great adventure story Fatuhiva by Thor Heyerdahl.