Price for vacationers, free for locals. One other Maui hotspot eyes tourism controls

HAIKU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Another hotspot for visitors to Maui’s North Shore is once again overwhelmed.

Twin cases Property owners in Haiku are now looking for solutions to cope with the growing crowds.

Property owners have recently started limiting the number of cars parked in their parking lot due to the influx of visitors.

“Before we do what we’re doing with the 43 cars, we’d be driving over 1,000 to maybe 1,600 a day on average in Twin Falls,” said Ainahau Harold.

Harold’s family is one of three landowners in the lush valley with a series of waterfalls.

They had to put up cones and no parking signs, and leave workers on the Hana Highway to direct traffic.

“I wish this was a bigger parking lot,” said Californian visitor Greg Buhagiar. “We’re here for a family vacation, we’re 30 … it took about half an hour to get in here.”

Not everyone welcomed the changes.

“We’re going to get a lot of different names here,” said Harold. “We have been verbally abused, we have had people who, even though we try to control them and tell them the parking lot is closed, will still point their vehicle at you.”

Harold said her goal is to expand the parking lot to 55 visitor vehicles in August. There is additional parking space for locals in a separate area. Also starting in August, visitors will have to pay a fee of US $ 15. Locals stay free.

“I’m for it, it’s worth it,” said Buhagiar.

Harold said they are trying to bring the crowd back to a “more manageable number”.

“Where we don’t interfere with the community, we can still share the property and the falls with everyone,” she said.

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