I arrived on Maui on 18th April for a 3 day trip. I stayed at the Banana Bungalow (www.mauihostel.com), a hostel in Wailuku.

I hired a car to drive around the island. Note on car hire on Maui – The car hire companies will encourage you to hire a 4 wheel drive vehicle if you want to go around the south side of the island by the Halekala National Park (www.nps.gov/hale). This isn’t necessary as the roads are rough in places but accessible by a car. I didn’t go to the summit of Haleakala but I don’t think this requires a 4 wheel drive either.

The “road to Hana” is the most popular drive on the island. It twists around the coast for 52 miles with speed limits as low as 10 MPH in places.

You crosses over 50 single lane bridges and passes lots of waterfalls.

You can swim under some of them.

And have great views of the coast all the way round.

At Hana I visited the Kahanu Garden (ntbg.org/gardens/kahanu.php) which contains the 12,000 m2 Pi’ilanihale – the largest ancient temple in Hawaii dating back to the 14th century.

The garden was also the location for one of the largest traditional Hawaiian buildings. A replica has been built in its place.

The gardens are located on the volcanic coast.

Hana itself is a small town best known as the retirement home of Charles Lindbergh.

As you come around to the south side of the island, the geography changes dramatically.

This side of the island is sparsely populated with only a couple of local shops.

The following day I drove around the shorter perimeter of the north east part of the island which surrounds Mount Pu’u Kukui – one of the wettest places on earth with over 380 inches of rain per year. The south side of the route is not very memorable as you have to drive inland of the many high end resorts on the beaches.

Honolua Bay is accessible to the public and popular for snorkelling.

The most interesting part is around Kahakuloa on the north side.

The island of Maui is much quieter than Oahu and feels more like being in the country. It is also populated by lots of wild chickens who appear to like hanging out at coffee shops.

Other wildlife highlights on Maui, included visiting the Kanaha Pond State Wildlife Sanctuary which is home to 3 endangered Hawaiian bird species, the Hawaiian coot, the Hawaiian duck and the Hawaiian (or black-winged) stilt. I didn’t see any Stilts or ducks as much of the sanctuary was closed off as it is nesting season.

I visited the Surfing Goat Dairy (surfinggoatdairy.com) – an award winning goat farm. It got its name because the owner offers free goats cheese to anyone bringing in unused surf boards (the goats don’t surf). He had noticed the large number of abandoned ones left all over the island and wanted to do something about it. He uses them for fencing. It is also a great place to visit if you like goats cheese.

I also enjoyed visiting the village of Makawao which has become a thriving arts community.

Unfortunately most of the other towns and villages were very modern and didn’t have much character. On my way out of the village, I passed the local veterans cemetery which is about to be expanded. Maybe they have had advance warning of Mr Trump’s military plans!