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Hawaii is the most remote island chain in
the world, over 2,000 miles from the nearest landfall. Distance makes
for splendid isolation - these Polynesian islands are removed from
all else but one another. Hawaii consists of eight major islands plus 124 minor islands, reefs
and shoals, strung like a necklace across the Pacific for over 1,500
miles. The eight major islands (which make up over 99% of the total
land area) are Oahu, Maui, Hawaii (known as Big Island), Kauai, Molokai,
Lanai, Kahoolawe (uninhabited) and Niihau (privately owned). Each of the major islands has an identity all its own. Oahu is as
different from Molokai and Maui as Kauai is from Lanai and the Big
Island - each as varied and colorful as the official state flower,
the hibiscus. With their collective mass of 4.1 million acres or
6,450 square miles, these islands form the fourth smallest state
in the United States. Beyond
mere geography, to Hawaiians the land is "mother".
The Hawaiian word for land, 'aina, literally means "that which
feeds". It doesn't belong to us; we belong to it, and are part
of it.
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