Category: Living in Kamuela (Waimea) Hawaii

General information about living in Waimea and the Big Island generall, especially in the South Kohala and Hamakua Districts

Cherry Blossom Festival

Posted on by Judy

A friend who recently moved here asked me earlier this week about the Cherry Blossom Festival taking place in Waimea today.

My reaction was that of someone who uses Saturday morning to run errands in town: it’s a nuisance because it snarls traffic and makes finding a convenient parking place nearly impossible.

I realized later that that was a bit too narrow a view and emailed her a link to an article in the West Hawaii News: https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2018/02/04/hawaii-news/cherry-blossom-festival-puts-nature-heritage-on-display/

The cherry blossoms are beautiful, and there are many cultural activities on offer as well as opportunties to purchase items from street vendors. You can easily make a full day of it, by visiting the Parker School farmers market, where Elite Pacific Properties hosts a tent, as well as the Pukalani Stables market and the one at the charter school.

The Waimea Cherry Blossom Festival is well organized, with plenty of parking and crossing guards where needed. I can just about guarantee everyone will find something delicious to eat and learn something new about the history of Waimea.

So, by all means, take a day and come to Waimea! Discover a little of what this wonderful place has to offer.

A hui hou!


Where can I park when going to the Cherry Festival?

It can get very crowded, and some parking areas are converted to retail stalls for the festival, so parking is at a premium. There is a soccer field just East of the North Hawaii Community Hospital that is dedicated to parking for the event. There are traffic guards in attendance. That’s probably your best bet.

What sort of weather should I dress for?

Bring layers, including something rain proof! It can vary from hot and sunny to cold and rainy from one hour to the next. Bring comfortable shoes, too, since the festival is spread out over a large area.

What else is nearby?

The Festival dominates the town of Waimea, but coming or going, you can stop at one of the many beautiful beaches along the Kohala Coast.

Why I love living in Waimea

Posted on by Judy

It’s the people! There have been many changes in the 50 years during which I’ve lived here or had close family living here, and some of the old community spirit has definitely been diluted. There are many small groups, centered on schools, sports clubs, churches and the like. But there is also still a more community-wide spirit, and it is one of the reasons why I love living in Waimea.

Banding together to find a lost dog’s owners.

For instance, my house guests found this dog late in the day on Christmas Eve. By the time I got up to the gate where he had been lying, reportedly unable to move, my neighbors had leashed him and he was standing quietly by them. He had no collar, and they had already checked around to see if a notice of missing dog or something similar had been left in the area.

They were on their way out, so I took him and put him in a kennel in my barn. The Humane Society and all vet clinics were closed, so I searched Craigslist lost and found to see if anyone was looking for him.

Fellow animal lovers pitch in to help, on Christmas Day!

I also called my friend and a fellow Realtor, Paula Beamer, who I knew had a chip scanner. She agreed to come down on Christmas Day and scan the pup for a chip. No chip.

My neighbors posted notices on facebook and craigslist. That was all we could do until the day after Christmas, except that I emailed a report of having found him, with a photo, to our local Humane Society shelter.http://hihs.org/

Day three, still no sign of the owner.

On the day after Christmas, I checked in with the shelter by phone, to make sure they’d received my email. They had not received any reports of a lost dog that matched the photo and description I provided.

My neighbor let me know that she had received one response to her facebook post, and sent along the picture of the missing dog. We agreed that it was a long shot, but she encouraged the owner of the missing dog to contact me. Meanwhile, Paula posted her own photo and description on a different facebook page, and we kept hoping the owner would call.

The humane society went above and beyond, and found the owner!

I finally got a chance to take the dog to the Humane Society shelter on Friday, just in case their scanner detected a chip that Paula’s scanner had missed. No luck, but the staff took more pictures and let me know what the procedure was for claiming the dog if the owner could not be found. I could not have kept him, but I would have done everything possible to find him an excellent home.

I stopped at the feed store on my way home, and the folks there took more pictures to post to their instagram accounts and send to friends who might recognize the dog.

Late in the afternoon on I got a call from the shelter’s animal control officer. She had gone back through old reports and found one for a dog reported missing 2 weeks ago and 20 miles away! She had contacted the owner, who gave her permission to give me the owner’s contact information. I called, and, finally, bingo!

Ronson is home with his family.

Ronson has been reunited with his loving family, thanks to the efforts of my neighbors, Paula, the folks at the feed store and the staff at the Humane Society. It was all very informal-I was never required to surrender the dog or fill out any forms-and very cooperative. My neighbors even offered to help me pay for the food for the dog!

So that’s why I love living in Waimea. People here see a problem and pitch in to help solve it. Your religion, your politics, the color of your skin, your wealth or your income-none of that matters. All that matters is that you are humble, diligent and honorable. If you are those things, you are treated as a member of this very special community!

Humpback Research in Hawaii

Posted on by Judy

No, this is not a humpback and has nothing to do with humpback research in Hawaii.  I was just looking for a picture to post, and remembered I took this for my daughter a few months back.  This elderly ewe was named Panda, and she lived to be about 13 because my daughter absolutely insisted that I take her to the vet when we spotted her as a newborn, wriggling on the grass in the pasture, abandoned by her mother.  She was one of a pair, and definitely got the short end of the stick.  She was less than half her brother’s size, and hideously misshapen because he had taken so much room in the womb!  The vet didn’t think much of her chances, but we brought her in and my daughter bottle fed her, and she lived to a ripe old age!  I love bottle fed lambs, and the sheep they become, because they are as friendly as dogs.  As with all sheep that I’ve ever been around, they have a very calming influence on me.  For that reason alone, they are worth the effort it takes to keep them healthy!


The humpbacks have left for the 2018/2019 season.

There were far fewer of them this year, and no one yet knows why. I hope that the humpback research in Hawaii will help to solve this mystery. I did not get a chance to get out on the water to listen to their songs, but I’ve done so in the past and know that it is a peak experience. For whatever reason, listening to recordings does not compare. Perhaps it is the fact that I’m not sitting quietly in a canoe of kindred souls, in what has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, but I think it is more than that. I don’t think the recordings capture the sound as faithfully as I would like. Here’s a link to the Jupiter Research Foundation archive of humpback songs recorded off of Pauko: http://jupiterfoundation.org/whale-song-archive-hawaii

The Jupiter Research Foundation is a non-profit organization that is devoted to helping the humpbacks, and is seeking to build a center in Kawaihae harbor.

The organization has been in existence for quite a while, and actually live-streams whale songs from the Pauko Bay Area from mid-January till mid-March. They also have a webcam that provides views of the waters of Pauko Bay and parts of the Alenuihaha Channel. It is only operational during whale season, but it’s a great resource during that time period: http://jupiterfoundation.org/webcam. They have looked at many alternatives to increase their research facilities, and have identified Kawaihae Harbor as the most promising. Here’s a newspaper article about them: https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/03/26/hawaii-news/marine-research-center-proposed-for-kawaihae-harbor/

The article does not say whether the proposed center will be open to the public, but the environmental assessment does. There will be no visitors’ center, but escorted school field trips may be permitted.

If you are really interested, the Environment Assessment produced as part of their attempt to build a facility at Kawaihae is an excellent read!

It is really well-written, gives an excellent overview of the history of the area and another marine research facility that will some day be built in Pauko, and describes some of the truly amazing inventions The Jupiter Foundation has already designed and implemented that have helped in the study of Humpbacks. Here’s a link: http://oeqc2.doh.hawaii.gov/EA_EIS_Library/2019-03-23-HA-DEA-Marine-Science-Center-at-Kawaihae-Harbor.pdf

Snow in Hawaii?

Posted on by Judy

Snow in Hawaii? Yes! First snow of the season on Mauna Kea

Do we get snow in Hawaii?  You bet!  https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/hawaii-snow.html I can’t be absolutely certain, because there may have been times when the mountain has been completely socked in and might have had snow on it, but I’m going to call this the first snow of the season.  Usually when we have snow on the mountain the temperatures down at the 2500 ft elevation, where I live, are a little cooler.  For whatever reason, I haven’t noticed a drop in temperature this morning.

You can barely see the observatories surrounded by snow in the picture, because the mountain is quite far away and I’m using my iPhone to take pictures.  Today is Friday, and I don’t believe there are any winter storm warnings for the mountain, so this weekend some people may go up to the observatories with their pickups and load up with snow for the neighborhood kids to play in.  If so, there will be pickups in town leaking melting snow.  It melts quickly, but it is a fun way to celebrate the season.

snow in Hawaii
Snow around observatories, tangerine in foreground

Tangerines, lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, and other citrus grow well in Waimea-don’t plant too many.

As Christmas approaches it will be difficult to give tangerines away, because so many people have at least one tree, and most trees will be full of fruit, but they are delicious!  One of the mistakes newcomers make is to go a little wild on planting citrus fruit trees.  The yields tend to be very high after the first few years, and it is easy to end up with far more fruit that you can figure out what to do with.  North Hawaii Community Hospital cafeteria may still accept donations of fruit, and the Thursday Community Dinner at St. James would probably also be happy to receive some.  Another option can be to befriend someone with a booth at one of the farmers markets and ask them to sell or give fruit away.  Finally, when all else fails, freeze the juice for the long stretch when the trees will not be bearing!

If the tangerines are getting close to ripe, so are the oranges.  Our local oranges look awful, if you’re used to sprayed, uniform looking fruit, but they are far superior to the oranges we import.  They are sweet and juicy, with thin skins.  A great way to eat them is to slice them, then pack them in ice and take them to the beach with you.  They will be a cold, thirst-quenching treat!

Lemons and limes tend to bear year round.  Meyer lemons do very well here, and are, again, far superior to the awful little imported ones usually offered at the grocery stores.  There are many types of limes that do well, although I have not had great luck with lime trees. There are numerous other citrus varieties that grow very well here, but I have not tried to grow them.  There are so many microclimates here, and sometimes it takes a little trial and error to figure out what works!

Citrus fruit marks our winter season, as does snow on Mauna Kea

Our seasons may not be very pronounced, but once you’ve lived here a while, you notice and enjoy the changes!

Hawaii County land use restrictions for agriculturally zoned land.

Posted on by Judy

It is beautiful, but it is not for everyone!

Hawaii County is a place of great beauty and vast open spaces.  But it is also a place where the goals of food self-sufficiency and diversified and sustainable economic growth are taken seriously. At the moment, the County is heavily dependent on tourism, which leaves us in a precarious position when visitor numbers drop for any reason.  We also import an appalling percentage of our food, which leaves us vulnerable to vagaries of labor strikes and natural disasters.

Land zoned for agricultural use, Hawaii County.
Hawaii County and the State restrict use of agriculturally zoned lands

Agricultural lands receive favorable tax treatment.

First and foremost, the property taxes on land in agriculture are much lower than those on land used for residential purposes.  The actual rate is higher for some agricultural land than it is for some residential land, but the assessed values to which those rates are applied results in significantly lower taxes.  Grazing land, in particular, is assessed at about $10,000/acre for non-dedicated land, and is currently taxed at $9.35/$1000.  Homeowner rates are currently $6.15/$1000 of assessed value, but the land and improvements are assessed at market value. Also, those low homeowner rates apply only to primary residences, not to second homes or homes held for income or investment.  Rates are available here: http://www.hawaiipropertytax.com/tax_rates.html

So what constitutes an agricultural use, and where is County land use policy headed?

You can access a handy chart showing the permissible uses of land zoned in various ways here: http://www.hiplanningdept.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Permitted-Uses-Table-091917.pdf

Some of the uses listed in the chart don’t do much to increase food production.  There is obvious value in keeping land in agricultural use, in the sense that it is much easier to later convert open land to food production than it is to restore land that has been used for residential, commercial or industrial purposes so that it can be safely used for such production.  But given the growing emphasis the State is placing on a diversified economy and food self-sufficiency, it is reasonable to expect increasing restrictions on use of agriculturally productive land for purposes other than food production and commercial agriculture.  The days during which a developer could easily purchase a pasture, get it rezoned and subdivided, and build and sell houses, are gone.

Current restrictions on use of agriculturally zoned land.

Even now, the number of dwellings, and the type of occupants of dwellings, are restricted on some agricultural lands.  Some lands are governed by the State Land Use Commission, and lands classified as less productive are subject to County regulation.  This is a huge topic, and while I could post links to every source that would need to be consulted in order to make a determination as to the governing body and restrictions on a given parcel, I instead advise anyone considering a purchase of agriculturally zoned land in Hawaii County to consult with the Hawaii County Planning Department.  Have the TMK of the parcel you are considering, and a planner should be able to outline for you all of the permitted and prohibited uses for that land.  See also https://livinginwaimea.com/2019/03/29/kohala-ranch-property-taxes/

Don’t plan on paying for your agricultural land purchase by selling agricultural goods!

If you want to make a profit on agriculture in Hawaii, your options are even more limited.  Some crops do reasonably well in some years, but given the cost of land, it is very difficult to thrive as a farmer or rancher in Hawaii, year in and year out.  Nonetheless, there are quite a few ranchers and farmers here.  Why?  Because even though it is very hard work, it is also endlessly interesting and occasionally very rewarding!