Expecting to run into Adam and Eve around the corner, we mosey through a lush setting with many trees, shrubs, flowering ramblers and bushes, and find peafowl instead, wandering around pecking at seeds and worms in the muddy ground. We are in Maui in Hawaii at the Garden of Eden, a name given to this arboretum by wonder-struck early visitors when it was named ‘Pua Nani (‘Flower from Heaven’) Tree Farm’ by Alan Bradbury, its creator, a well-known landscape gardener and arborist, in 1991.
- The closest airport is Maui’s Kahului airport. Garden of Eden is on the Hana Highway, between Kailua and Ke’anae (mile marker 10.5), 26 miles from Kahului.
- $15 per adult. With no government funding, the garden depends on the entrance fee for maintenance. The management is ready to refund if a visitor finds the experience unsatisfactory.
- The garden receives 200 to 400 visitors per day, depending on the time of year. About 25% of the visitors are from India or are of Indian origin. Other Asians make up 20%, visitors from Canada, the US mainland and Europe constitute 40% and the remaining are from South of the equator.
Flora from all over
The 25-acre garden sits on the Hana Highway. Bradbury set it up to restore Hawaii’s native flora to its original ecosystem. Gradually, other plants and trees from the tropics, rainforests as well as the South Pacific were introduced. Bradbury, owner and manager of the garden, says, “We love what we do and try our best to provide an enjoyable botanical experience for all.”
What stretches out before us is a colourful landscape. One side is covered with trees in myriad shades of green and the other side is the twinkling silver-and-blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
At the garden’s gift shop by the entrance there are paintings and artefacts by local artists. One artist dries and presses the flowers in the garden into lovely earrings and other jewellery.
Botanists and artists would have thrived here with the rich green of tall palms and the iridescent magentas and pinks of orchids, and the fuchsias of bromeliads. We make our way down the rain-drenched steps and see the white-plumed Puohokamoa waterfall on the other side of the garden, where some people are putting on rappelling gear. The rappelling area is within the garden, especially to access the Puohokamoa Waterfall, but it’s a separately-owned business.
The trees are spectacular, from majestic banyans festooned with aerial roots and bougainvillea in their multi-hued skirts, to koa trees and coconut palms raising fingers into the sky. Down another path, is a 100-year-old mango tree. There is so much to observe — banana patches, anthurium groves, and the largest collection of multi-coloured ‘ti plants’. The petals of plumerias, and the ashy brown of paperbark trees call for attention. The latter has strips and scrolls of papyrus-like bark hang from its trunk. There is also the spectacular rainbow eucalyptus tree.
Buddha statue at the Garden of Eden
Weather-beaten statues of Buddha and Krishna add to the enchantment of the garden. For movie buffs, the cliffs in the opening scene of Jurassic Park are right here — known as the Keopuka Jurassic Park Rock.
The Garden of Eden has special Hawaiian plants rarely found elsewhere in the world — endangered hardwoods, spice, exotic nut trees, ferns and much more. (Keep some mosquito repellent handy.) “Our goal is to create a natural and safe environment to view and get up close and personal to trees and plants from all over the tropical and semitropical rain forests of the world. Just as Hawaii’s people come from far and wide, so do our plants,” says Bradbury.
Stroll, hike or rappel
The terrain is ideal for hikers and rappelling enthusiasts or just for family picnics and long walks. The hungry tourist can go to either of the garden’s two food sections, including one that’s completely organic.
As we left the Garden of Eden with a promise to come again, the rainbow across the sky seemed to say ‘Mahalo (thanks) nui loa — please come again’.