You might remember an earlier column where I bemoaned the hoards of visitors going up to Haleakala to watch the sunrise. What should be a spiritual experience has become a circus and with the same concern, I cautioned against tourists ascending Mauna Kea at sunset. There’s no need for crowds, cellphones and cacophony at the most wondrous places on earth.
I got scolded by a reader who said we locals are kids in a family who must all learn to share their toys.
Whoa.
Mahalo unhappy camper, for points to ponder.
Since American statehood in 1959, Hawaii has been inundated by those who think of our islands as their playground. They lack common sense, entering the ocean despite danger signs and hiking on unsafe trails with kapu warnings. They ignore rental car agreements forbidding driving on treacherous roads and take selfies on precarious valley rims.
I call this the Disneyfication of Hawaii Nei.
Who doesn’t know about Disneyland even if they’ve never been? There’s one in California, another in Florida and more in France, Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Many go to Disneyland regularly. Oh, the exhilaration of riding the logs on Splash Mountain and bobsledding on the Matterhorn! After squealing on faux death-defying rides, they get a T-shirt, a hotdog and head back to the car.
This is the Magic Kingdom mentality: enjoy fake danger, buy a souvenir, then go home.
These Disney fans are the ones who show up here to mindlessly jump off cliffs at Ka Lae, not having grown up as I had with warnings of currents at that southern tip that can take you all the way back to Tahiti. They drive down the steep, unpaved road to Waipio Valley, carefree and unaware of night marchers.
Since Hawaii is not the Wonderful World of Disney, it’s time for better management of our treasures. This includes making fun seekers pay for thrills and chills. After all, they’re willing to spend hundreds of dollars a day at Disneyland, so what’s five bucks to body surf at Hapuna Beach?
Consider Pololu Valley, now being overrun by day-trippers whose rental cars clog up the end of the road. Here’s a suggestion: Stop tourists from driving the final one or two miles to the lookout and provide a grassy lot where they pay to park. From there, visitors walk, or for another fee, get on a donkey for a jaunt to the pali. In honor of their coffee land ancestors, we’ll call our four-legged friends the Kohala Nightingales. Hikers in the group purchase another ticket to scamper down to the beach to pick up trash and pull invasive weeds.
Great fun, cheaper than Disneyland and the money collected helps maintain our breathtaking valley.
There’s much teeth-gnashing over proposals to charge visitors to enjoy our natural wonders. “They should be free!” wail the weepers. “Tourists won’t come if they have to pay to snorkel at Kahaluu!” Oh c’mon. Of course they will. Or, they don’t snorkel. Simple.
Hawaii has learned the hard way that when we share our spectacular sites, there are those who take and take without offering much in return. For such entitlement, it’s time that the takers pay to visit these special places so we can hang onto them.
As for those who think we islanders are kids who need to learn to share, how about we poke their eye by not giving everything away and refusing to repeat mistakes made on other islands.
Hawaii is not Disneyland and our natural wonders are not toys.
Rochelle delaCruz was born in Hilo, graduated from Hilo High School, then left to go to college. After teaching for 30 years in Seattle, Wash., she retired and returned home to Hawaii. She welcomes your comments at rainysideview@gmail.com. Her column appears every other Monday.