Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [378]
Locals have been encouraged to hunt the critters, especially the feral pigs, which often star in family BBQs. Still, amateur efforts are not enough and the Nature Conservancy has ferried hunters by helicopter to remote parts of the mountains.
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KUALAPU’U
Kualapu’u is the name of both a 1017ft hill, and a nearby village. In a fact that only a booster could love, the world’s largest rubber-lined reservoir lies at the base of the hill. Its 1.4 billion gallons of water are piped in from the rain forests of eastern Moloka’i and it is the only source of water for the Ho’olehua Plains and the dry West End. Operations were threatened when its owner, the Moloka’i Ranch, ceased operations in 2008 (see the boxed text, Click here).
In the ’30s Del Monte’s pineapple-plantation headquarters were located here and a company town grew. Pineapples ruled for nearly 50 years, until Del Monte pulled out of Moloka’i in 1982, and the economy crumbled.
While farm equipment rusted in overgrown pineapple fields, small-scale farming developed: watermelons, dryland taro, macadamia nuts, sweet potatoes, seed corn, string beans and onions. The soil is so rich here, some feel Moloka’i has the potential to be Hawaii’s ‘breadbasket.’ In 1991 coffee saplings were planted on formerly fallow pineapple fields, and now cover some 600 acres.
The Moloka’i Coffee Company (567-9490; www.coffeesofhawaii.com; cnr Hwys 470 & 490; 7am-5pm Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm Sat, to 2pm Sun) grows and roasts its own coffee. Stop by for a tour of the plant and savor the air redolent with rich smells. Tours, like the coffee, come in several flavors. There’s a morning walking tour (adult/child $20/10; tours 10am Mon-Fri, 9am Sat) and a mule-drawn wagon tour (adult/child $35/10; tours 8am & 1pm Mon-Fri, 8am Sat). Ask about more-strenuous guided hikes.
Next to the grande-sized gift shop, the Espresso Bar (snacks $2-6) serves a range of drinks made with the house brew. There’s also baked goods like doughnuts and Danishes, sandwiches and soup. The cakes are tasty. Relax on the shaded, breezy deck.
Kualapu’u Cookhouse (567-9655; Hwy 490; meals $5-20; 7am-8pm Tue-Sat, 9am-2pm Sun, 7am-2pm Mon), which is sometimes called the Kamuela Cookhouse, serves the island’s best food. Looks are definitely deceiving at this simple wood house a couple of steps above shack status. Folding chairs feature inside, worn picnic tables and insect traps are outside. Even the menu barely suggests what lies ahead. But when your plate lunch of the best and tenderest teriyaki beef you’ve ever had appears, you’ll be hooked. Breakfasts are huge and feature perfect omelettes. Panko-crusted Monte Cristo sandwiches join the plate lunch brigade, while at dinner inventive fare like ahi in a lime cilantro sauce or perfectly juicy prime rib star. At night locals sometimes serenade with Hawaiian music. Beer and wine can be purchased at the grocery across the street.
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HO’OLEHUA
Ho’olehua is the dry plains area that separates eastern and western Moloka’i. Here, in the 1790s, Kamehameha the Great trained his warriors in a year-long preparation for the invasion of O’ahu.
Ho’olehua was settled as an agricultural community in 1924, as part of the first distribution of land under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, which made public lands available to Native Hawaiians. Water was scarce in this part of Moloka’i and Ho’olehua pineapple farms drew settlers as the spiky fruit required little irrigation. But the locals were soon usurped by the pineapple giants Dole, Del Monte and Libby. Most were forced to lease their lands to the plantations.
Today the plantations are gone but locals continue to plant small crops of fruits, vegetables and herbs. And