Pete's Maui Blog

  Our beautiful listing in Spreckelsville just had a nice price reduction. This home balances green building practices with luxury amenities. The home is built with insulated concrete forms. This newer building style makes for good insulation and sound proofing. Renewable and fast growing Bamboo ...

Compact Flourescent Bulbs have been around for a while and they are a great way to save energy. Plain and simple, they use less power and they have a longer lifespan than conventional bulbs. Despite these attributes, there has been some resistance to CFLs. In fact, some have advocated against usi...

There has been a good run of surf on the South Shores of Maui over the last couple of weeks, so I was inspired to to write a blog on the surf scene in Maui. I am writing this with a little bit of trepidation.  I am like most surfers in that I like to surf uncrowded waves. I am a wary of adding to...

For having a year round growing season and some of the best soil in the world, it is surprising how much of our produce comes from outside of Hawaii. With rising fuel costs, the importance of locally grown food is becoming even more apparent. There are a handful of natural foods and small grocery...

The Cottages at Kulamalu is a new 40 unit development underway in the Upcountry Area of Maui. National homebuilder DR Horton has partnered with Maui Based Rising Sun Solar to give prospective homebuyers a number of green options. Buyers may opt to have net metered photo voltaic systems installed ...

The Maui Film Festival at Wailea took steps to make the event more green this year. All of the outdoor venues for the festival are being powered via solar. The festival worked with event sponsor Rising Sun Solar to reduce the festival's use of fosil fuels. Film Festival organizer Barry Rivers com...

I was reading Stephanie Edawards Musa's blog on walk scores, and it got me thinking. Since the 50s, the American home buyer has shown a preference towards the suburbs. We have seen a proliferation of neighborhoods where big lots and spacious homes were paramount. These neighborhoods were often bu...

Maui is renowned throughout the world for its winter visitors the humpack whales. The area between the islands of Maui, Molokai, Kahoolawe and Lanai shelter the largest winter population of humpbacks in the world. The whales come each winter to reproduce and to give birth. Last night, I had a cha...

While my brother Billy was waiting to meet a client in Lahaina, he wandered down to the harbor to check out the action. It looks like some lucky fishermen made quite a catch while prowling the waters off of Maui. This Marlin weighed in at 916lbs! It was caught on the Start Me Up. For this lucky c...

Every June 11th, King Kamehameha day is celebrated in Hawaii. The holiday pays tribute to Kamehamemeha I also known as Kamehameha the Great. Kamehameha was the first king to rule over all of the Hawaiian islands and the creator of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Kamehameha was born in the late 1750s in th...