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Once a large and busy sugar plantation town, the mill and residential camps that surrounded it are gone. Now Pā’ia, which straddles Hāna Highway, bustles with boutiques, shops, a health food store, an artisans’ cooperative, and casual eateries. Technically, the road to Hāna really begins here, and it’s wise to pick up a picnic and fill the car before embarking on the long and winding road.

Waves come crashing in at heights of up to 15 ft onto Ho’okipa Beach, ensuring its renown as a playground for experienced surfers and windsurfers. But it is also a glorious spot for the less experienced to watch the skills of the dedicated boarders, especially during the international championship competitions held here. The best vantage for a view of the ocean is from high up at the overlook above the beach.

Charming Makawao Union Church was built in stone by Hawai’i’s most famous modern architect, C. W. Dickey, as a chapel for the Baldwins, a missionary, industrialist, and generously philanthropic family. Across the road stands the Holy Rosary Church and, outside it, a statue of the beatified Father Damien (see Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Moloka’i).

Founded in 1936 by Ethel Baldwin, wife of Maui’s political and business leader Harry Baldwin, as a “club of skills” to exercise her creative talents, Hui No’eau showcases the work of local artists. The center resides in Kaluanui, the home designed by C. W. Dickey for the Baldwins in 1917. The spacious mansion is a splendid example of Dickey’s style.

Reminiscent of a western movie set, Makawao’s big day comes on the 4th of July, when cowboys, cowgirls, and their horses, along with a bevy of unusual floats, parade through town as a prelude to the annual rodeo. The rest of the year, the adventure lies in the boutiques, art galleries, and New Age shops that crowd the sidewalks. Not to be missed is Komoda’s, a familyowned bakery that’s been delighting customers with yummy cream puffs for 60 years.

Polli’s restaurant, Makawao

Affectionately referred to as the “wedding cake” church, this octagonal white building glistens in the sun above Lower Kula Highway. It was built in 1895 by Portuguese immigrants, who, having fulfilled their contracts with the sugar plantations, settled Upcountry as farmers and ranchers. Austrian master woodcarver Ferdinand Stuflesser created the ornate altar and stations of the cross, both extremely fine examples of 19th-century ecclesiastical art. Today, Holy Ghost’s “bread ladies” bake equally fine examples of Portuguese sweet bread.

Atop Haleakalā, the 10,023-ft mountain that IS East Maui, lies the massive basin of a dormant volcano. The summit is an awesome landscape of cinder cones, rare plants and animals, amazing vistas, and trails (see Haleakalā National Park).

Haleakalā National Park

A statue of the revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the Republic of China, stands in this small park in Keokea. His brother, Sun Mei, was one of the many Chinese immigrants who settled in this area, and the doctor hid his family here with him during the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The park occupies around 6,000 acres of land that once belonged to his brother.

Free daily tours and tastings are held at Tedeschi, Maui’s only winery. Established in 1974, Tedeschi produces sparkling, red, and blush wines, along with its most famous product, a sweet pineapple wine called Maui Blanc.

Ship captain James Makee established the ranch in 1856 and built a house for his large family, cisterns to capture water, a sugar mill to generate income, and a cottage for his frequent guest, King Kalākaua. Today, the house is gone, the cisterns are filled in, the sugar mill lies in ruins, and the restored King’s Cottage is Tedeschi Winery’s tasting room. ’Ulupalakua continues, however, as a working ranch, and many of Maui’s paniolo (cowboys) ride its 20,000-acre range.