Island attractions “beyond the facade of skyscrapers that cast their shadows along the Waikiki strip” are highlighted in a recent issue of West, published by the Los Angeles Times.
The lead article in the magazine is “Hawaii’s Hidden Heart,” by Jerry Hulse, Times travel editor and a frequent Island visitor.
Hulse urges visitors and Island residents to get away from the better-known areas to “the other face of Hawaii.”
The article is illustrated with 15 color photographs by Jack Fieelds, commercial photographer from San Jose, Calif.
Several pages of Island advertisements by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, tour agencies, hotels, airlines and shipping lines also are featured.
Hulse points out that while many persons never get away from Waikiki — which he calls “a spiffy sandlot filled with bikini-clad secretaries, suntanned surfers and Mainland palefaces” — another Hawaii is nearby, almost unknown to them.
Hulse outlines the festivals of Japan, China, Korea and the Philippines, which can be found regularly in Honolulu, and the parts of Old Hawaii that can be found in rural areas.
On Oahu, he lists Makapuu and the Windward side. On Kauai he covers the Coco Palms, Hanalei and the Napali Coast.
Much of Hulse’s article is devoted to Maui, where “rainbows arch above golden waterfalls” and “peaceful pools mirror shower trees, blue skies, plumeria and blankets of orchids.”
He takes the reader on a visit to Lahaina’s Pioneer Inn, and has a short interview with Maui’s Jazz Belknap.
Also featured is Nelson Waikiki, bus driver and ukulele virtuoso. Hulse says of him: “Awhile ago when someone tried to persuade him to leave Maui for a career — and possible fortune — on the Mainland, Nelson replied: ‘But why should I leave Maui when everything I want is here?’”
On the Big Island, Hulse interviewed car rental executive Albert (Slim) Holt and Kona air taxi operator Johnny Peacock, whom he quotes as saying: “It’s so beautiful, living here, that sometimes I even get jealous of myself.”
