MEET TIM FORSBERG, the FUTURE of MOLOKAI DIVING:
"Molokai is like the Bubble Boy," says islander Tim Forsberg with a winsome grin. "There's a dome over this island & the rest of the world goes by. If you don't want traffic & you just want to chill for a few days, then Molokai is your place." Tim is a fellow Minnesota native, hailing from our hometown in fact, who just moved to the island to pursue his adventure dream. He has re-opened the old-time fishing & dive shop & locals like him a lot. Kaunakakai village was buzzing with new possibilities when we visited this summer. You can feel a keener energy in the stores & cafes. There's something healthy going on here in Tim's scuba & snorkeling shop on Molokai.

Susan & I like the cut of this gentleman's jib. Tim Forsberg recently advised some predatory fish collectors they could hang it on their beaks when they approached him to procure Molokai scuba diving support. Their money-making scheme was to slip in under the grapevine radar, scoop up thousands of tiny tropical fish from the virgin Molokai reefs to stock city aquariums, then sail off before anyone caught on. They offered to pay some long green. "No thank you," Tim declared. "If I turn this dive shop into a monster, the locals will not support me. It's not my intent to become a bazillionaire." Nor a fish pimp, that's clear.

Tim Forsberg is a solid chap, driven by customer service, a sense of community. He will be our new eco-tourism & scuba diving partner on Molokai. His staff at the Kaunakakai dive shop will grow eventually to a dozen Molokai scuba diving & eco-tour guides who will cater to your wildest yens, virtually anything healthful you can dream up with your clothes on. Your Molokai vacation will be beyond a treat, folks. Here is what our new adventure travel team will be offering -- a trove of Molokai eco-tours we feel has potential to match the highland joys of Costa Rica or Belize eco-tours:

• SCUBA DIVING along the wild southern & also northern shores, when winds & waves permit. Tim & his guides are exploring & charting scores of new dive sites around small islets just offshore, where excellent pelagic & shark populations are thriving. This is literally virgin ocean diving, folks, & this program is brand new, just taking shape, & offers the supreme thrill of first-time discoveries!



• SEA KAYAKING along the undeveloped southern coast -- more than 28 miles of maritime marvels.



• PACIFIC HUMPBACK WHALE WATCHING in prime season, from December through May.



• PRIVATE FISHING CHARTERS: topwater, short-casting, deep sea, whatever you desire.



• SURFING LESSONS & BOOGIE BOARDS. The waves can be rugged, so you've gotta watch the local lads first, & be super careful as many of the breaks are over coral beds, not cushy sand.



• GUIDED MULE RIDES down a 3,900-foot cliff face, by a safe but adrenalizing switchback trail, on the North Shore Sea Cliffs, all the way down to the sanctuary-like serenity of Father Damien's old healthcare colony on Kalaupapa Peninsula. Scores of native Hawaiians still live down on this lovely isolated tract. Many are descendents of original 19th century patients, all of whom were cured completely decades ago. Only mules, serious hiking or a small charter plane can get you down that cliff to Kalaupapa. No car or truck could ever make this precipitous journey.



• SEA CLIFF MOUNTAIN BIKE TOURS & "Gravity Rides" down, down, down giddy miles of country roads, with wind in your hair & gnats in your teeth. Ain't it great to be alive in the Hawaiian sun?!



• SHORELINE HIKING along some of the wildest, most remote tropical beaches in the Pacific, one of which still burns in my memory as a near archetypal vision of the perfect strand -- the renowned Papohaku Beach on the west end -- three miles of ethereal white sand that's a soccer field wide & clean as Cascade Mountain snow. (This is where legend has it the sacred Hawaiian hula dance originated.)



• CUSTOM CARDIO-HIKES to heart-starting locales such as the North Shore Pali (towering sea cliffs) or what many islanders feel is the most sacred spot on Molokai, the 250-foot Moa'ula Falls in the mystical Halawa Valley. This is one of the most remote wilderness basins in the Pacific. Halawa Valley is half a mile wide, more than 3 miles deep & leads to two breathtaking waterfalls that effervesce the pool below so powerfully, local folks say it feels like diving into sparkling soda bubbles! Halawa Valley rocks.



• GUIDED HORSEBACK TREKS along countless miles of wilderness trails that rival the Colorado Rockies in sheer wide-open beauty & rugged gains.



• The WORKING MOLOKAI CATTLE RANCH inside of which is perched the luxury Sheraton Molokai Lodge. There are real hard-ridin', rope-swingin', song-singin' Hawaiian cowboys called paniolos, & they give you down-home rodeos several times a year. The Sheraton Molokai Lodge is an exquisitely appointed 4-star luxury hotel, with a Glacier Park alpine cabin'y kind of feel -- rustic, quiet, delightful -- & Molokai Lodge offers world-class cuisine & customer service to match. We were completely happy with our stay at Sheraton Molokai Lodge.
• PLUMERIA BLOSSOM FARM is a hit with the Senior Set, as is....
• MACADAMIA NUT FARM.
• MOLOKAI COFFEE PLANTATION.
• MOLOKAI MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER.
• As you can see, there's a bit o' fun for everyone, from the 20-somethings to the 80-somethings, too. Yep, for the irrepressible Ur-kid who lurks inside virtually every human being who's lucky enough to have a pulse & a pair of shoes.

Horseback trails on Molokai Ranch offer sweeping
vistas more than 1,000 ft above the Pacific Ocean.
© Starwood / Sheraton Molokai Ranch.