Hidden Hawaii. - book reviews

Hidden Hawaii Ray Riegert, 1987; 370 pp. $12.95 ($14.95 postpaid) from: Ulysses Press, R 0. Box 4000-H, Berkeley, CA 94704; 415/841-5271 (or Whole Earth Access).

O.K., it's not the South American Handbook but Ray Riegert writes about Hawaii the way Lonely Planet writes about Nepal. His jaundiced yet admiring guide goes beyand where to find expensive places to live eat and hang out, to communicating in pidgin and counteracting anti-Haole sentiment. Hiking and camping, hidden beaches and remote locales are his strong suit. Excellent. Get the revised 89 edition.

-Stephen King

Strung like jewels along Kauai's shore lies a series of hidden beaches which are known only to local people. Among these are some of the loveliest beaches on the entire island, removed from tourist areas, uninhabited, some locking so much as a footprint....

Most can be reached only by private cane roods. These graded dirt roads are owned by sugar plantations and marked with menacing "No Trespassing" signs. Officially the public is not permitted, and few tourists ever travel along them. But local people use cane roads all the time.

They do so with the greatest courtesy and discretion, realizing that they are on private property. They watch cautiously for approaching cane trucks, and yield to plantation traffic. Most important, they respect the awesome beauty of these areas by leaving the beaches as they found them. As one Hawaiian explained to me, the golden rule for visitors is this: "If you want to go native, act like one!"

COPYRIGHT 1989 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group