MAUI’S GARDEN OF EDEN

 


Maui’s Garden of Eden Arboretum is worth visiting if only for the ride up through Highway 360, which, once ascended high enough, offers spectacular views of the island. It was a ride I needed to take before I left Maui. The one thing I lamented, after all, during my visit to Maui was the diminished presence of Hawaiian culture and authenticity. After decades as a paradise for the wealthy, Maui, as I suspect of much of Hawaii, has shed its traditional identity for the resorts, mansions and watering holes common to many tropical playgrounds around the equatorial belt. 

I make this judgement with the understanding that what I saw was but a fraction of Hawaii and for only a brief stay. I was told afterward that the authentic Hawaiian spirit is alive and well in the larger islands. Be that as it may, I was grateful to catch a bit of it on my way up Hana Highway, away from the built up and streets of Kihei, where bungalows, huts, local farmers and tall trees marked the way to the Garden of Eden.

Let me say at once that the Garden of Eden is one of the most beautiful botanical gardens I have visited, offering amazing vistas. Walking through its paths under the shade of massive boughs offers a tranquility unparalleled. However, I must note with some regret that it too falls victim to the mentality of conservation as showmanship that has inflicted not only Hawaii but many zoological and botanical gardens throughout the world. 



This was noticed as early as 1970, when Joni Mitchell, in her hit “Big Yellow Taxi”, expressed so somberly, “They took all the trees, and put 'em in a tree museum, and charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em.” That specific reference was to Honolulu’s Foster Botanical Garden but the sentiment can still be seen. As beautiful and environmentally conscious as many of these gardens are (and the Garden of Eden is proud to be largely pesticide and herbicide free), conservation is compromised for commerce. Gaden of Eden offers protected space for Maui’s native flora and bird life, but it is also a flower zoo with many exotic plants marking the pathways. 






If I sound overly critical it is because Hawaii has so much to offer from its own native plants that it is a pity to see space devoted to imports. This is, however, a peripheral consideration. The Garden of Eden is, to be clear, a jewel in Maui and well worth a visit. As infectious as I found the life in Kihei I found solace in the quiet ponds and among the dark underpasses of the trees. Ducks and peacocks (not indigenous to Hawaii) traverse the paths along with visitors. The very moment one passes the iconic entry way welcoming cars, a wall of serenity falls on visitors. 



But the real treasure of the Garden of Eden are the lookout points throughout the garden. From any one of them, guests can see the bluest waters stretching out beyond the horizon as they surround the island. This is the romance of the Hawaiian Islands that has mesmerized its earliest inhabitants, explorers and travelers to this day, not only the beauty within but what it reminds us of our world. It is a land of vibrant natural colors, gentle breezes and nature at its most welcoming, and yet the surrounding waters of the Pacific remind us that it is only one small part of a larger world with no shortage of natural splendor for those who seek to find. 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SALVATORE MARANZANO: THE KILLING AND ERASING OF A MOB BOSS

  The modern Mafia was born with the assassination of Salvatore Maranzano on September 10, 1931, and yet not a single photo of Maranzano alive has surfaced. There is but one verified photo of Maranzano, after he was stabbed to death by Lucky Luciano’s gang at Maranzano’s office in New York Central Building, a bloodied corpse spread on the floor with his face mutilated beyond recognition. From this photo a face impression was recently stitched together by computer wizards but the limits of technology show. One mystery the technicians, with all their skill, could not crack is the identity of the assailants who brought Maranzano down.   This lack of record is baffling considering the pivotal role Maranzano played in the history of the Mafia, his rise to power coming at a pivotal time in its transformation. Maranzano saw opportunity playing upon the growing rift between the new generation of mobsters and the old guard but instead became its second victim and kicked off a purge o...
Read more

MY UNFINISHED NOVEL

 Perhaps what fascinates me most about unfinished works is that they leave so much to the speculation. What is left to us are clues to a mystery that, if they could be solved, would tell the full story that exists only within the artist’s imagination. I make a point of seeking out examples of works left incomplete deliberately (a decision often born out of artistic frustration) or as casualties of finances, destruction or death of the artist. It’s become a hobby to fit these tantalizing pieces into an artistic canon and patching together what the artist envisioned. What if Jane Austen had finished Sanditon and what was the true ending (though letters left behind have officially confirmed the identity of the murderer) of Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood ? Though it takes turns conventional and breathless soon after Henry James’s The Sense of the Past begins so atmospherically one wishes the author had not abandoned it. Even cinema has its ghosts. Existing scraps from Orson Wel...
Read more

THE BLEAK FASCINATION OF SIX FLAGS NEW ORLEANS

Image
 Urban exploration, as the term is used by the seekers of crumbling architecture, has a distinct appeal from the more popular and not specifically named spectacle of ancient ruins. The latter offers clues to a long-vanished world, a life so abstracted from our own that any narrative assembled from the remnant pieces is fueled by speculation. Urban exploration hits closer to our shared cultural home. It offers pieces of a familiar world and a life we know. For some an abandoned urban landscape evokes specific memories but, even for those visiting the shattered remains of a once thriving location, there are enough commonalities to imagine the place at its peak with relative accuracy. Whether or not we knew the now decaying place in person we bond over the shared history, a bond formed by remnants of a shared culture, history or routine. There is a haunting bittersweetness, then, to most such spots not entirely different from visiting a cemetery or a memorial. Most abandoned areas tel...
Read more