Too Much Revealed?

There is no question that Maui Revealed is the best guidebook on Maui. But can a guidebook be too good? Many feel that the answer is "yes."

Haleakala Times
January 17 - 30, 2007

Ever since Maui Revealed first hit the shelves in 1999, it has grown quickly in reputation and popularity. Amongst residents of Maui however, the reputation of the book and its authors is that of an invading outsider that has raped and pillaged a precious treasure.

Blue Pool was once a pristine, little-known spot in Hana. Now, over 150 tourists a day make their way down the bumpy, rock-strewn side road in search of the waterfall pool. Numerous signs grace the towering mango trees along the once-quiet road in an effort to keep tourists from parking in resident's yards and traipsing across private lands. But as one travels down the sun-dappled dirt road, cars are seen parked in any nook and cranny they can be fit intoÑeven right in front of the no parking signs. At the waterfall pool itself, dozens of tourists bask in the sun on the large gray boulders that ring the once-pristine pool. The water is now covered with a perpetual slick of suntan oil.

Other areas of Maui have been hard-hit as well. Puohokamoa Falls at the Garden of Eden Botanical Gardens in Kailua was once accessible from the Hana Highway. The path to the falls, which are located on the property of arborist Alan Bradbury, has been closed to the public after many years of enjoyment by Maui locals. At the trailhead near mile marker 11, a concrete and metal barrier stands in mute testimony to the havoc that has been wreaked on the landÑthe result of too many people flooding the area on a daily basis.

Another waterfall pool known as the Bamboo Forest Pool and to kama'ainas as Dog Pond is inundated with tourist traffic. The same is true for the Ahihi-Kina'u preserve on Maui's south shore. Residents have had about enough.

"I hate that book. The locals don't even go to those spots anymore," says Julie, a Huelo resident who requested that her last name not be published. "I used to go to Dog Pond all the time. When I first went there, a friend gave me a map and said, 'After you get in, burn the map. Don't show anybody, don't tell anybody about this spot.' That was about twelve years ago. I never saw a soul there. Now every time I go there, there's a hundred people. It stinks."

This sentiment isn't reserved just to older kama'ainas. "I don't like the book at all," said Ayla Baldwin, 14. "I think it's horrible. I went to Venus Pool and it was so crowded."

The book has also drawn the attention of Hana resident Senator J. Kalani English. When asked his opinion of Maui Revealed, a quiet fury began to boil behind his eyes. According to English, his family's land is one of the properties impacted by the glut of sightseeing visitors.

"It's a travesty and an insult to all Hawaiians living here," English stated firmly. "It's not right. My family is going through it right now. How do you deal with it when the books say it's okay to go there? We have to find a balance."

English has spoken to his attorneys about the legalities of guidebooks encouraging trespassing on private lands. It is not a crime if someone tells another person to trespass. It is only a crime when an individual is caught in the act of trespassing. This fact has rendered a feeling of helplessness to those affected by the relentless invasion. "They're encouraging violation of people's spaceÐit hurts," said English sadly.

But can blame for the large amount of tourist traffic into places that were once arcane be placed solely upon the authors of Maui Revealed? Andrew Doughty, co-author of the book, feels that the residents of Maui are overlooking the fact that most of the spots that are in Maui Revealed have already been exposed in other guidebooks prior to the first printing of his book.

"I'm aware that Maui Revealed has been more successful than all the other guide books to Maui combined," said Doughty, a Kihei resident. "As a result, when you see a visitor at a given location, it's easy to think that Maui Revealed is the only source of information for that location. The success has caused a distorted vision of where the visitors are getting their information. Most of the places that Maui Revealed lists are in other books."

One guidebook that gives directions to the pool is published by the Sierra Club. The Lonely Planet guidebook also exposes the waterfall's whereabouts. If you add to that Frommer's guidebook, Maui Trails (1991) and Maui Handbook (1986) - which mistakenly identifies Blue Pool as Venus Pool but gives directions nonetheless - the "secret Blue Pool" was really no secret at all by the time Maui Revealed came out.

Maui Revealed has also been blamed for the closing of Puohokamoa Falls. Tour operators had been stopping at the falls for years prior to the book's release. At Twin Falls Fruit Stand, located at mile marker two, hundreds of visitors per day were given directions to the waterfall at mile marker 11. The state even put a park bench there. And the fact that the falls are visible from the road, well, let's face itÑthis place is easy enough to find without the aid of a guidebook. Doughty says that he doesn't understand the responsibility people attribute to him for the closing of the waterfall.

Venus Pool, or Waioka as it is called locally, is a little harder to find in other books, but it too was exposed long before Maui Revealed came out. In Driving and Discovering Maui and Molokai by Richard Sullivan (1998), directions prompt people at the 48 mile marker to "cross over and through the fence, walk through the pasture and follow the stream for five minutes." In Maui Trailblazer, the directions urge tourists to park on the shoulder of the road, although that shoulder is in the front yard of people's homes. It further directs visitors to "hop through the gate-like opening in the fence. The path leads down the sloping pasture."

"The bottom line is these books have been talking about these places for years," said Doughty. "When Maui Revealed came out and had the success that it's had, all the knowledge of these places is attributed erroneously to us. Anybody with those guidebooks would have access to those places we describe."

Original article URL: http://www.haleakalatimes.com/news/story2376.aspx

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