Once visitors arrive on Maui or any Hawaiian Island, it’s easy to forget the miracle that has just happened: The Hawaiian Islands are located on one of the most remote places on Earth. With the closest continent or major land mass being more than 2,000 miles away, Hawaii is an oasis in reverse–a tiny spit of land in a sprawling expanse of ocean. Of course, with all of its modern amenities, it’s easy to forget how far away from basically everything Maui is, but here we are. Paradise is always the last place you look.
That’s why one of our friends who works at an activity desk in Wailea keeps a globe at her desk. She wrote a little note in Sharpie just over our little place in the middle of all that blue that says, “You are here.” It’s a reminder and an explanation of why things are the way they are on Maui and the other 7 major islands. Everything that’s here, besides the 32 canoe plants or the endemic plants and animals that arrived by way of one or more of the 3 Ws, had to get here somehow, usually at great cost.
So, if something takes a little longer than we’re used to, or if something is more expensive than we would like, it’s helpful to imagine that globe, and remember, “You are here.” And also, if things are more wonderful and exotic than usual, and there are people, places and things that you’ve never seen in all your life; if you meet people from everywhere out here in the middle of nowhere, remember: “You are here.” Or, if you’re rappelling off a 50-foot waterfall looking like a rock star, you’ll have to yell it; those falls are loud sometimes. YOU ARE HERE!
Wherever you are, we want to meet you sometime and extend our aloha. We are here.