The far side of Paradise

Remarkably, despite a series of corporate owners and a brief flirtation with a golf course, Hotel H¯ana-Maui has not grown beyond 69 rooms, half of which are traditional cottages. When it was renovated by Passport Resorts (owners of Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, California, and the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort), designer Hunton Conrad used local art, natural wood, bamboo furnishings, and fabrics inspired by traditional Hawaiian kapa prints. Douglas Chang, the hotel’s first Hawaiian manager, was brought in, and the townspeople—nearly all of whom have either worked at the hotel or are related to someone who works there—breathed more easily.

Only four years out of the New England Culinary Institute, John Cox got the coveted job as head chef, but not because of his résumé. “All the other chefs sent me long lists of the ingredients they wanted for their tryouts,” said Chang, who greets guests with “Aloha!” and a genuine hug. “John just asked what grew on the land.” The dinner menu might include squash blossoms stuffed with lobster caught that morning, grilled lamb chops dusted with coarse-ground H¯ana coffee, or a light, sweet sorbet soup, garnished with chunks of magenta dragon fruit from nearby Ono Organic Farms.

Most of the land surrounding H¯ana is still owned by the H¯ana Ranch, and cattle graze in the grasslands above the hotel. One day Kevin Coates, who runs H¯ana Bay Kayak and Snorkel, took me to the ranch’s highlands on the slopes of Haleakal¯a in his Unimog, a massive overland Mercedes that he uses for his ecotours. As we crossed the high pastures of the ranch, with views out to the Pacific, Coates told me how he was working with The East Maui Watershed Partnership (which includes the ranch, the state and the local chapter of The Nature Conservancy), to protect land that has the highest concentration of

rare and endangered birds in the United States. “The owners of the ranch are serious about the environment and the community here,” he said. “I don’t think this land will ever be developed.”

If you have to leave H¯ana, as I did the next day, the ultimate way to do so is by helicopter. From the small airport, we soared south, flying into deep canyons with six or more waterfalls spilling off the sides of cliffs, heading up to the moonscape crater of Haleakal¯a and then down the coast, pocked with ancient ruins. Then, too soon, we landed on the roof of the Hyatt Regency Maui in Ka¯‘anapali, stepping into the bright sunshine and tinkling mai tai world of beachfront resorts.

I had come here for LifeFest, an annual conference billed as an “empowering event about health, wellness, and you,” which was happening up the road in Kapalua at the Ritz-Carlton. The conference kicked off with the announcement that Kapalua Resort (presenter of Life-Fest) would partner with Miraval Life in Balance—the luxury spa and wellness center in Arizona that focuses on “mindfulness,” to grow the resort into a wellness destination. Speakers at LifeFest included medicinal healing guru Dr. Andrew Weil, best-selling self-help author Dr. Paul Pearsall, Olympic swimmer Matt Biondi, and one Kahu Kapi‘ioho ‘okalani Lyons Na‘One, a kahuna from Ki¯pahulu and cultural consultant on the Miraval Kapalua project.

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