Posted on: Wednesday, June 23, 2004

OUR HONOLULU
Opposing views on car ferry

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

After paying $271 round trip for airfare to Hilo, plus $26 a day for a rental car, I'm inclined to think the new plan for an interisland ferry big enough to drive your car aboard might work.

The drive-on, drive-off ferries that hustle in and out of Pape'ete at Tahiti are jam-med with tourists as well as locals even though the channels between islands are as rough as ours. That's why I was surprised by the reaction of an old friend on the Big Island.

He should be delighted by the prospect of ferries bringing customers to his bed and breakfast at the volcano. But Gordon Morse, former Advertiser reporter-photographer, took the opposite view as he cut papaya for breakfast at My Island Inn.

You have to understand that he's turned his seven acres of giant tree fern and 'ohi'a forest into a botanical garden. The 100-year-old guest house is on the historic register. Morse has become to the lore of the volcano what Eric Knudsen was to the legends of Kaua'i.

"I'm worried most about birds' nest fern," he said, whacking a defenseless papaya in half. "If you know where to find them, they're worth a lot of money. A garden store in Honolulu will charge you $150 for a small one. You'll have people coming over in pickup trucks to take back birds' nest fern to sell at the Punahou Carnival."

Maybe Gordon has reason to be worried. People stream back from Hilo with armloads of anthurium and orchids. And they aren't driving pickup trucks back to Honolulu.

"I used to plant New Guinea impatiens, rhododendrons and Shasta daisies along the road," Gordon recalled. "They kept disappearing. It was very discouraging. One day I decided to thin out a bed of bird of paradise. It took all day to dig one up without a backhoe. So I planted bird of paradise along the road. Not a single one has been stolen."

Gordon is afraid that letting people bring their cars to the Big Island on ferries will be like letting hungry locusts loose in a corn field.

"We have plants growing along the road that you can't find on the other islands," he said. "The only places comparable might be Hana on Maui or Koke'e on Kaua'i. We have hapu'u (giant tree fern) growing wild. A small hapu'u stump in Honolulu is worth $50. People are going to grab rare yellow 'ohi'a (lehua), white ginger and 'ama'u fern."

Gordon said he mentioned the ferry to the fellow who issued him a new driver's license in Hilo and uncovered another concern: the long driving distances on Hawai'i compared with O'ahu. "What if somebody try drive a rattle trap over the Saddle Road and the car stop?" said the man. "He gonna leave his car to go back work in Honolulu. We be stuck with junk cars. Maybe we better get a deposit on every car that comes over."

I still think a car ferry will work.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.