HAWAII

PARADISE IS PROTEAN-like heaven, one supposes. All things to all people. And while one man’s pleasure may be another man’s effort, effort is a foreign word in paradise.

Hawaii is paradise. Still. Twenty-five years after it achieved statehood. Fifty-seven years after the completion of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Waikiki’s first luxury resort. More than 1,000 years after the Polynesians first settled there.

It has survived the attention, the clichés -even the Elvis Presley movie. And perhaps because of all that attention, it has changed-for the better in many ways. Coconut trees still sway in gentle trade winds, and muumuu-clad maidens still dance the hula at luaus, but for those who want more -and who want everything-Hawaii has it.

If Waikiki and its blanket of high-rise hotels and condominiums are the popular image of Hawaii, they are just that-an image. Oh, Oahu’s Waikiki is real enough, and its pleasures and pitfalls are as real as they are renowned. But Waikiki is only a tiny fraction of the Hawaiian Islands’ land-mass and just a small part of their wealth and spirit. Forays to Maui gave visitors the first revelation of Hawaii’s breadth, and soon thereafter the cry went forth: “Outer islands!”, as though blown through a conch shell by one of King Kamehameha’s warriors. Instead of limiting the Hawaiian horizons, the movement outward has expanded them. Visitors to paradise have five major islands to choose from and thus at least five different paradises: plush and picturesque Oahu, mysterious Molokai, regal Maui, grand Hawaii and splendid Kauai- each incredibly different from the others.

Best of all, each island is relatively uncon-quered. While tour maps will show you where you want to go, most of the Hawaii experience is still up to the visitor, whose adventure is limited only by his own energy and creativity The surprise, it turns out, is that Hawaii is still a land of back roads, mountain paths and endless sunsets. As for being pampered, no place can do it like Hawaii, where friendliness and service are second nature and luxury accommodations abound. But beyond the cocktail terraces and morning lanais lies an exotic world of mountains, gardens, lagoons, ranches, beaches, canyons, craters-and an equally diverse people who are as spiritual as the land they cherish.

A first-time visitor to the islands who tries to pronounce the complicated Hawaiian words is told to speak each vowel. Listening to the locals, the language takes on a beautiful, rich resonance. It’s the sound of their voices when they slowly say the word “aloha” that convinces anyone who might still need convincing: The aloha spirit is a reality.