Was that the Eagles? Recently back from our 9th trip to Maui although we hadn't been in 7 years. Yes, I realize we're all part of the problem, just couldn't help thinking of those song lines every time I looked at the traffic and crowds.

Let's see. It rained some the first 3 days.

The coral is dying. The ocean had eroded a lot of land off some of the properties near where we were staying.

We watched whales spouting, flipping and cavorting with their babies from our lawn chairs. They were being followed by large boats full of people. We were getting a better view from shore--until the boats made them sound.

Some of the restaurants where we used to be able to get a good hamburger for dinner have switched their menus to $32 market price fish. (i.e., more money per table than selling $9 burgers)

I could go on and on, but ...

Yes, we did have some sun, the beach (where we were) was beautiful. It was relaxing (since we no longer drive all over the island).

Something I'd never noticed before was the metal rings around the palm trees. This is for night time rats?

Also, what's with all the maps that now show exactly where Lindbergh's grave is? I thought this was supposed to be some secret the Hawaiians enjoyed not giving it.

Aloha hopingtotravel, also just back from paradise and can't recall much changing since the start of the new millenium. Let's see other than the roadbridge closed beyond Hana and rocks blocking a lane beyond Kapalua, happy to say we did not notice much change in light of the recent earthquake.

I hear you. I went to Hawaii for the first time in 1972. Returned with my family in '74 and visited the 4 main islands. We had a wonderful time!

16 years later I had to go to Maui for a business meeting of all things. I was horrified at how much just the little (formerly quaint) town of Lahain had changed. How built up and commercialized Kaanapali was. I've never been back and will never go again.

Constant rain can put a damper on a beach vacation. Sorry it happened to you.

Guess it's all relative, how change has destroyed Hawaii. My parents married and lived on Oahu in the late 40's. They didn't return till 1980 or so, mainly because my mom didn't want to spoil her memories of paradise.

It was a shock, but she ended up falling in love with the Aloha State all over again.

Dayle, above, hated what had happened to Hawaii between 1974 and 1990, and hopingtotravel thinks the changes from 2000 to 2007 killed paradise.

I've lived here for 30 years. There have been many changes, not all for the better, but I can still host mainland friends who will go home having found "paradise".

BTW, those were rat guards. Not new though. My Grandparents-in-Law had them on their trees here in the 1930s. We had them on trees in San Diego when I was a kid.

I guess it depends on your perspective. I just got back from Maui after having been away for 10 years. I was actually pleasantly surprised that things weren't as crowded and awful as people had told me they would be. We stayed down in Makena and loved the peace and quiet of our oceanfront cottage

I was actually thrilled to see so much live coral in fairly high traffic areas. We are used to snorkeling in Kaua'i and the snorkeling at the places we went on Maui far outshined those on Kaua'i.

I actually came away from this trip feeling optimistic and upbeat about Maui. Oh well...

When I first moved to Oahu in 1965 I had a friend who hadn't been there since 1948.

He was "astonished" at how much more traffic there was and how "things have really changed" and I suspect these same things will be said over and over and over.

Reply to iamq, welcome back! Not every day was good for snorkeling due to some surf in Wailea during my stay the week before yours on Maui. Fortunately Ka`anapali had the calmest and clearest snorkeling conditions at Black Rock we've ever seen. How would you rate the snorkeling off Niihau (Holoholo) compared to what you experienced in Makena

Hotel California. Eagles. In my native Maryland, we are destroying the Chesapeake Bay in the same way with sprawl. The Chesapeake was once a paradise with an abundance of crabs and oysters. Now it is half-part of the Balt-Wash megapolis and half-part becoming a retirement community for those who can't stand the Florida heat 365 days a year.

I agree, and it's a shame. But there's nothing that can be done about it - other than limiting where people can relocate to, or limiting population growth, both of which would be unconstitutional.

I can only imagine what desirable places would be like if the cost of living wasn't so high. I have friends who live in Hawaii and complain about the cost of living (it is very high, I'm not disputing that). But if the cost of living were much lower, would the population (and traffic, pollution,e tc.) be 3 times as much?

I guess that's just the way it is. People will continue to gravitate to "paradise" until it becomes so crowded it isn't paradise anymore, then look for someplace else.

John D! Welcome back yourself! The snorkeling off of Nihau is a different kettle of fish as it was in deeper water (at least 40 feet?) against a backdrop of sheer rock cliff. There were some small portions of coral reef that came up from the bottom and there was coral growing along side of the underwater cliff. Fish numbers there were remarkable. Huge schools.

Of all the places that we snorkeled on Maui this time, the rocks to the left at the Prince Beach had the geatest number of fish and turtles. We did not get a chance to do Black Rock this time as we were only in Kaanapali once to meet my cousins for dinner and we didn't have time. Next time! We heard about the wind and the swells the week before from our neighbor who had been there for two weeks before us. I guess we timed that one right.
Aloha JohnD!

Just to clarify: no, not the changes in the last 7 years--our first trip was in 1989 with trips at intervals over the years.

I also live in a paradise of a different kind. We moved to a bedroom community in a left coast state in 1983. The town has gone from 2,000 to 37,000 people.

Mucho Mahalos Pila!
Your snorkeling info. is most intriguing. The deepest water we have been in Hawaii was off the back wall of Molokini and I really did not see much difference there than inside the crater, other than MrsJohnD's sighting of a reef shark .

Reply to hoping to travel, that special paradise we keep returning to indeed lies in the center of a ring of >fire:
pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/fire.html

The Last Resort by the Eagles, Great song.

They call it paradise
I don't know why
Call someplace paradise
Kiss it goodbye

This article from today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin goes along with the theme of this thread....

http://starbulletin.com/2007/03/02/news/story03.html

I think things are relative....
My parents were in Telluride, CO in the early 70s, before it was a destination for the rich and famous. It was as they call it "a little cowboy town"....with a dirt main street, a real hillbilly sheriff, and a saloon with a naked lady picture over the bar. Their stories of the place fueled my imagination and lured me there on a cross-country adventure almost 30 years after they had been there.

I loved Telluride, even though it was much, much different than when my parents knew it. And it was a magical place for me, just as it had been for them. When I described the changes in Telluride, they were inconsolably sad, and proclaimed it "no longer a paradise".
But it was to me.

And I'll bet that all those original cowboys were saying the same exact thing in the 70s when hordes of hippies moved into their piece of paradise....

Reply to HIfanatic,
Fascinating how just a few months ago the opposite trend was noted:
www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/main/news_releases/2006/news-release-0628

I think the mistake is in thinking that things should stay the same thru the years... Especially in popular vacation destinations (they are popular because they are fabulous), things change, develop, get crowded and become expensive.

I think it is simply naive to assume things would be the same.

Well, stop grousing. Don't go back to Maui. Find some other place to complain about.

Note to JohnD: VERY interesting link you posted. Shows a certain schizophrenia in all of this. Hawaii is SO dependent on tourism, that they fret constantly about any sign of change.

Although there has been a consistent downward trend per Japan: "Figures show 1.37 million Japanese visitors came to Hawaii in 2006, down 9.4% from the year before. That's 36% lower than the peak of 2.15 million hit in 1997."(AP)

Now I know I should post this on my Nazareth thread, but it seemed so very appropriate here.

Artist: Joni Mitchell
Album: Ladies Of The Canyon
Title: Big Yellow Taxi


They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away that d.d.t. now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot