The biggest city is Kahului (20,000) and is where you will land.

The other cities are very small but those close the ocean are having hotels making them looking bigger.

Maui is the most expensive Island out of Oahu, Hawaii and Maui. My base calculation is the Restaurant Mc Donald being 10% more expensive than the other Islands. At large, don’t buy groceries except in Kahului. The grocery will cost 40% more than in other States.

Now geography: The shape of the Island is a big “8″, the bottom section is difficult to access in car because the road is close of many cliffs (landslides …), also that region is more semi-tropical while the rest is pretty much arid in comparison. The top section of that “8″ shape is half of the bottom.

From North to South, the distance is 45 miles.
and the 2 middles of that “8″ shape are 12 and 24 miles (East-West).

Apartment renting, I don’t know. I recommend to communicate with some residents over there using Yahoo messenger if you don’t get satisfying answers.

From Honolulu, the distance is 100 miles heading South-East.