TALKINTRAVEL™

Los Gatos Weekender The Big Island: So Much Space You Can Find Yourself
By: Frankie Israelson
 You’ve seen eye to eye with elephants in the South African bush, hiked 400 steps in Hong Kong to mediate at the feet of the largest sitting Buddha in the world, and wore a bikini and Santa Hat on Bondi Beach last Christmas…what’s left to discover? The Big Island of Hawaii (www.bigisland.org) wants to help you find the most exotic destination of them all-your inner being. You can find the big 5 on all the islands: scuba diving, sailing, surfing, snorkeling and sunbathing, but the Big Island specializes in the sixth S- spirituality. For the first time, native Hawaiians are teaching mainlanders their ancient arts of health and wellness, which were previously kept closely guarded within their families. “We’re at a critical time in history,” says Dan Akaka, a holy man or Kahuna. “People need healing and we’re slowly losing some of our ancient wisdom.” Many mainlanders don’t even know where the Big Island is or they think it is Honolulu. The Visitors Bureau admits the Island is suffering an identity crisis and they’re considering changing the name back to its original moniker Hawaii, but tourism professionals fear that would confuse tourists even more. Movie stars like George Clooney, Goldie Hawn and Mathew McConaughey don’t care what it’s called, they know it’s the place to find peace of mind. Because of all the space, (hence the name Big Island) you don’t have to worry about traffic jams, finding an empty chaise lounge on the sand, or things to do; including hiking to lava caves, volcanoes and waterfalls. There’s a reason it’s nickname is the Island of Adventure. Here are some tips on how to exercise your body as well as your soul: 1.Clean yourself up Catholics have confession, in Hawaiian’s water culture; the sea is the baptismal fountain. Akaka often performs a hiuwai or spiritual purifying ceremony in the surf at sunrise to symbolize renewal. After blowing into a conch shell in the direction of the four winds to remove evil spirits, he leads people into the ocean. It’s worth getting up early to feel the crisp clean water washing away your mistakes and envisioning a future as bright as the fuchsia sky. Afterwards Akaka “talks story” (shares his culture). He likes to tell mainlanders that everyone is born with a bowl full of water and as we make mistakes it fills with rocks. The good news is, at any time you can turn over your bowl, throw out the rocks, fill it with water and start over. 2. Go Take a Hike There’s no better place to begin a new life than the Four Seasons Resort Hualālai and it’s the only hotel with a special arrangement allowing tourists to hike into a lava tube. Olympic Champion Oliver Fix leads guests on a three-hour Hualalai hike up to Puhiapele, a 200-year old crater with a vast view of lava rock. The adventure ends with hikers attaching a lamp to their forehead and walking inside a rocky, pitch-dark lava tube. Ancestors of cave inhabitants claim it gives them superior eyesight to this day. 3.Unleash your Inner Power at the Spa without Walls Hawaiian legend says everyone has mana (power) within and the Lomilomi massage is designed to help release that energy. This Hawaiian tradition of “loving hands,” is passed down through generations. At the Fairmont Orchid a masseuse uses their forearms and hands to glide rhythmically along your body, easing tensions you didn’t know existed. Ask for the outdoor bamboo hut where you can feel the wind softly caress your body, hear the flowing waterfall and watch orange koi fish swim under your massage table. That evening, learn about astronomy from a new free star gazing class that explains how the ancient Polynesians used the skies to navigate from Hawaii to New Zealand in canoes. 4.Get your head examined Hawaiian Healer Keahi Hanakahi has the gift of reading minds called a pono Hawaiian modality. He touches your head and gives you guidance on how to move forward in life. Hawaii’s Island Wellness Travel Association (HIWTA) can arrange you to meet him at a private property in Laupahoehoe. This house without windows, located on acreage filled with tropical plants and flowers next to a waterfall is available for rent for only $150 a night! (For more information email: ronna@warmlava.com). 5. Adopt a Pet Rock Pet rocks have been out of fashion for decades but Jeanne Sunderland is making them popular again. Her new Ahu Pohaku Ho‘omaluhia resort, opening this summer, has only eight guestrooms on 60 acres with a striking rock formation. Legend has it these are ancient Council rocks where King Kamehameha and his Court met to make important decisions. Built like a bow on a ship, this eco-lodge overlooks a beach cove. The newest hotel in Hilo in blank years, the beds have wheels in case you decide to sleep on your deck. The resort has a natural hula stage; a path to a secluded beach and outdoor spa treatments but you won’t find TV’s, Phones or Internet access in your rooms. “The land claimed us, ” Sunderland explains, referring to her husband a local physician. 6. Send smoke signals-blow your top Jimmy Buffet sings “I don’t know where I’m a gonna go when the volcano blows,” but the Big Island recommends you travel straight to the source. The State’s most popular attraction is the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park where the Kilauea Caldera has been belching liquid fire for 25 years. This spring the volcano sent dramatic smoke signals, increasing the leave of sulfur dioxide in the air to dangerous levels and causing a rare Park closure. The best way to experience the Volcano is with a local. Dane Silva, a Kumu, which means he has formal training in Hawaiian spirituality and culture, leads groups to a sacred site within the Park called Uwekahuna Pali. Silva recommends that visitors bring a gift, such as flowers, to appease Pele, the volcano goddess with a fierce temper and luckless love life according to mythology. His colleague Kamaluhia Wooley performs special hula dances on her knees to ask Pele’s permission for guests to walk in the Goddess’ backyard. 7. Walk on the moon Not really, but it feels like it when you hike on a black lava rock beach. Silva, a Kalapana native, says he has seen red flowing lava rock consume the beach. Now, where sand and water once mixed, black rocks stretch as far as the eye can see. Locals have planted green plants to try and encourage the land to return to its former state and amazingly some red tropical flowers are blossoming. 8. Commune with whales Rib Craft boats can take you up close and personal to whales. Thanks to sonar devices, they can spot how close these monstrous mammals are and reach them in record time. If you’re lucky you’ll see pods of whales or families, spinning dolphins and huge green sea turtles in the same day. 9. Say yes to No-ni juice The Japanese are going crazy over noni juice, which reportedly has anti-inflammatory properties. The Tiki Nui Noni Farm’s product is popular in Japan and Indiana of all places. Owner Kimo Blankenfield puts his seven children to work picking noni, a round brown plant, from their farm. “Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?” he laughs. You can buy noni drinks in the Hawaiian grocery stores but Blankenfield warns they are mostly sugar. To order straight from the source contact him at: taraivaa@aol.com, 808-965-5155.10. Indulge in Retail therapy Don’t feel selfish shopping—you can still experiencing Hawaiian culture spending money and you’re helping the local economy. The farmers market is held in historic downtown Hilo every Wednesday through Saturday all year long, “from dawn till it’s gone,” as the website says. Over 200 local farmers sell their tropical fruits and vegetables in a festive outdoor setting similar to the bygone era of sugarcane plantations. A new spa line called Ola only uses organic fruits, flowers, and honey from the Farmer’s Market. Try the volcanic foot scrub, coconut lemongrass sugar cane body scrub or the tropical smoothie mist. (www.hawaiianbodyproducts.com). If you visit Hana Hou in downtown Hilo,(164 Kamechameha Avenue), you’ll be sure and return—-the name means encore. Owner Michele Zane-Faridi blank uses vintage fabrics such as 1020’s postcards to crease silk skirts and tops. Just down the street, her relative Sig Zane has an international following for his stylish Hawaiian print dresses but the flagship store is right in tiny Hilo. The best place to eat is located in a strip mall. The Hilo Bay Café doesn’t have a view, but it does have attitude. The brightly colored interior is only matched by the imaginative menu…Hawaiian chicken pot pie anyone? (www.hilobaycafe.com) Closer to the resorts, the new Mauna Lani mall features boutiques selling unique artwork, clothing and jewelry as well as popular mainland stores like Tommy Bahama. This is one of the few stores in the chain with a restaurant and after you shop till you drop the crab bisque or coconut shrimp are designed to perk you up…or could it be the umbrella drinks? Now is the time to visit Hawaii’s Big Island. This may seem like an oxymoron with the closure of ATA and Aloha, but other airlines are picking up the slack, (Hawaiian just started a new non-stop out of Oakland), and hotels are offering special deals to lure you to paradise. The airline industry’s bad news is good news for visitors who want to experience paradise without the crowds. Finding peace of mind is a lot easier without constant chatter from tourists. What are you waiting for? Aloha! Check the Big Island Visitors Bureau for specials and detailed itineraries: (www.bigisland.org) 250 Keawe Street, Hilo, HI 96720 Phone: (808) 961-5797-END-

Hawaii: the Holiday Antidote

By: Alex Olson

When I’ve crossed the finish line on the holiday shopping marathon, the relatives have
 finally gone home, and I don’t have to fake smiles anymore over gifts of fruitcake and
 ugly ties, I know the holidays are over. The sad news is that my office doesn’t know
 I had time off…the in box is overflowing, my cell phone is maxed with messages, and
 emails are bouncing back. Obviously, It’s time to reboot--not my computer--me.

The warm healing water and tropical air of Hawaii seemed to be the perfect antidote,
 but I’ve visited often and it’s not as easy to strip away stress as it is my clothes.
 Most of the time I book an impersonal hotel or condo and rent a car, and as I try to
 navigate rocky roads, my wife gets angry because I refuse to ask for directions and
 my nephew is whining for shaved ice.

This time, I visited Hawaii like a local. I rented a home on the beach, sailed in a
 traditional Polynesian canoe, and visited cultural sites the average tourist never
 stumbles across. If Santa was good to you as he was to me, it’s easier to adopt
 the Aloha spirit. Few of us can afford a multi-million dollar beachfront home in
 Maui like Clint Eastwood, but if you get your family and friends together you
 can rent one. By pooling your dollars, you can live the way you deserve to,
 at least for a week. Hawaii Hideaways, ()
 will arrange everything from your plane ride on a commercial or private jet, to
 unpacking your bags, provide private yoga lessons on the sand, or helicopter
 you to a private golf course on a neighboring island. “We have concierges on
 call 24/7,” says CEO Anne Pawsat-Dressler. “If you can dream it up, we can do it.
 There is no such thing as a bizarre request. I had a businessman from China who
 sent his king-sized bed ahead of him and we installed it in the house before he arrived.”

I can cook, but why bother when you have some of the best private chefs in the
 world living in Maui. I'd heard through the coconut telegraph about Chef Dan Fiske
  who will cook breakfast, lunch and dinner any
 time of the day or night. “I’ve had stockbrokers from New York who turned the
 living room of a rented villa into a makeshift office with computers, printers and
 fax machines and ten phone lines,” says Fiske. “They wanted breakfast every day
 at two am before the Stock Exchange opened, so I was there with their lattes every
 day for a month.”

Once a man with a terminal illness called Dan and said he wanted to mend rifts
 within his family before he died. He rented an eight-bedroom home in Maui for
 his children and grandchildren and had Chef Dan prepare all their meals. “The
 little kids got to sit at the counter and eat spaghetti and watch me cook while
 the adults ate fillet mignon with a blueberry demi-glaze in the dining room.”

If you’re not renting a villa, Chef Dan will take you to his roots, so to speak,
 and make dinner in the middle of the Aina Lani Farm near the Up Country Maui
 town Pukalani. I helped him pick vegetables and fruits from the garden, sliced
 and diced a bit, then watched him do his culinary magic as I sipped champagne
 and sampled pupus. My meal started with a salad of country mustard greens
 tossed with confetti of rainbow carrots and shaved baby fennel and topped with
 Surfing Goat cheese (no Hawaiian goats doesn't surf, that’s just the name of the
 cheese), candied walnuts, and lilikoi lime basil vinaigrette.  Next course, his famous
 crispy skin Onaga (also called Ruby Snapper) fish. While the sun set over the
 avocado trees, I requested that the ukulele musicians play Tiny Bubbles. Despite
 the fact that they must have sung this tune so often for mainlanders that it gives
 them nightmares, they graciously   sang the Don Ho classic. Maybe it helped that
 I asked them to share dessert... basil leaves dipped in chocolate, an unusual
 sounding combination, but the perfect contrast between tart and sweet sensations.

Sometimes even I get tired of a private chef (just call me Prince Axel) and just want
 to explore the neighborhood restaurants.  I had heard of this new concept called
 "open cooking" at Capische in Wailea, a trendy Italian restaurant. Those in the
 know go downstairs to the Il Teatro room where chefs Brian Etheredge and
 Christopher Kulis have adapted the Benihana style of cooking in your face.
 Instead of Japanese food however, they’re serving up Northern European specialties.
 As you sit at the counter, the chefs prepare a five-course meal including duck confit,
 ahi steak, and a local fish called Opakapaka. A different wine from around the world
 accompanies each course that woke up my taste buds. I couldn’t help but make new
 friends, surrounded by strangers who were all happy to be pampered.

Of course there’s more to Maui than beautiful sunsets, palm trees blowing with the
 trade winds and great food...there's the history that somehow I've managed to miss
 in my previous visits to the islands. This trip I was getting culture! Open Eye Tours
 (http://www.openeyetours.com) gave me a new appreciation of Paradise. “We
 develop custom tours for people, depending on their interests,” says proprietor
 Barry Fried. “I’ll take doctors to sacred waters and healing temples and architects
 to see examples of the first thatched huts built on the island.” His most popular
 request is nature walks in lava fields or tropical rain forests, places the average
 tourist would never find.

The lava fields were just a short drive down the road from my Makena Beach villa,
 so Barry picked me up in his jeep and we were the only ones on the beach
 discovering petroglyphs and spotting wild goats running free. He taught me
 a few Hawaiian chants, showed me a tropical plant that can be used as a lotion
 and shampoo and maybe even grow hair, but as he looked towards my sparse
 scalp, he said he couldn't promise miracles.

To really feel the Aloha spirit, you have to get in the water. Known for their
 advanced water skills (it has now been proven that ancient Hawaiians sailed to
 New Zealand!), the Wa’apea canoe has been the preferred mode of travel for
 centuries. The boat is launched from the sand, with passengers helping to push
 it through the surf and then jumping on board. These boats
 (www.mauisailingcanoe.com) seat six to eight people who sit on large trampolines
 with legs and feet dangling off the front as they search for glimpses of sea turtles,
 manta rays, migrating humpback whales, and dolphins.

If you were naughty and Santa wasn’t as generous as you’d like, there are plenty
 of free activities in Maui. Wake up early to catch the sunrise atop Haleakala
 volcano (or sleep late like me and watch the sunset), stroll through historic
 Lahaina and learn about Maui's whaling past, and drive the long and winding
 road to Hana’s black sand beaches. Along the way, stop at small mom and
 pop fruit stands, (often unattended), with bananas and guava sitting atop
 wooden crates next to an honesty box requesting money. What a sweet
 way to enjoy the island!

For more information, visit www.hawaiihideaways.com, www.privatemauichef.com
 and www.openeyetours.com