POIPU — Person after person after person milled about in the South Shore Visitors Center Sunday. Adults and kids perused books, DVDs, CDs, earrings, necklaces, crafts and artwork neatly displayed on shelves, walls and tables. At one point, the line
POIPU — Person after person after person milled about in the South Shore Visitors Center Sunday. Adults and kids perused books, DVDs, CDs, earrings, necklaces, crafts and artwork neatly displayed on shelves, walls and tables.
At one point, the line for food at the new grab-and-go cafe snaked back into the retail area.
It was crowded, for sure, and it was a wonderful sight to National Tropical Botanical Garden staff.
“We could never fit this many people in our other store,” said Janet Mayfield, NTBG chief operating officer and chief financial officer. “Not even close.”
An estimated 1,500 turned out for the grand opening celebration of NTBG’s renovated visitors center with its increased retail offerings and new lanai area. Festivities includes a ribbon cutting, music, prizes, promotions and free self-guided tours of McBryde Garden.
Mayfield was delighted to see the big turnout and how well things were going. Even the new point of sale system was working on its first day in operation.
“It’s fabulous,” she said. “We are so excited. We’ve all been working heart and fingers to the bone here getting the visitors center ready.”
It almost wasn’t.
Mayfield said one visiting couple looked in Friday.
“I said, ‘You know, we’re going to be having a grand opening on Sunday.’ They came back today and said, ‘We didn’t think it was going to be ready.’”
It was.
Mayfield said the entire staff — gardeners, accountants, human resources, development — pitched in to get everything in the right place.
“All of the teams pulled together and pulled this off. Everybody was working together every day this week,” she said.
Guests were in good spirits, too.
Ann and Doug Moore from California are on Kauai for the holidays and heard about the center celebration, so they stopped in. They liked what they found.
“We’ve been here before and this is very nice,” Ann Moore said. “I like the extra space and that there are places to sit down.”
Likewise for Jim Stewart, on island to visit friends.
“I really wanted to go on the free tours of McBryde, but thought I might as well check the rest of things out. Glad I did. Seems really cool,” he said.
Mayfield said offices that used to be in the main structure were moved out back to enlarge the retail area. The cafe offers food and drinks from Living Foods Gourmet Market. A new tour departure area give guests a place to wait in comfort.
“We’ve never had food here before,” Mayfield said. “That’s a huge game changer for us.”
She said an important aspect of the makeover was designing the visitors center so it would be more welcoming, organized and understandable. There are greeters up front to explain the different tours and answer questions, and there are additional interpretative signs.
“We wanted a place where people feel comfortable coming in,” Mayfield said.
With the new open seating, guests have the option to take a morning tour of Allerton, relax, eat and use the wireless access at NTBG, then take an afternoon tour of McBryde.
But NTBG is about more than tours.
“People think it’s just a garden. But first and foremost, we’re a research organization. The research our scientists do, our botanists do, it’s really critical,” she said.
NTBG’s Biodiversity Garden, for instance, is designed to get people to think about the world and how they play a part in the caring for the environment.
“Our whole mission is to be able to educate people about conservation, science, research, discovery of new plants,” Mayfield said.
“It’s really important people understand what that could mean to them in regard to climate change, hunger, just issues that plague our nations, our world, every day.”
