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Natural History

Heliconia

In the 1980's Maui's own Ali'i Chang coined the word, "tropicals" to denote the bold and exotic flowers and foliage he was growing to supply to the floral trade. Three major groups of plants made up the "tropicals": heliconias, gingers and tropical foliage. Today, as a result of growing and marketing efforts by Chang and others, every major hotel, many of the churches, and many large public events (as well as smaller family luaus and such) are likely to be decorated with tropical flower arrangements.

Nothing is as ravishingly elegant and boldly symmetrical in these floral arrangements as heliconia. The flowers of the heliconia are tiny, inconspicuous blooms that rot easily. It is the
packaging around the flowers -- the exquisite forms of the seemingly sculptured bracts (highly modified leaves that contain the plant's true flowers) that catch the eye with their glorious colors of bright scarlets, oranges, pinks and yellows, often accented with greens. The clusters of flashy overlapping "floral boats" are the quintessence of "exotic" and just seeing them evoke the tropics.
There are more than 125 recognized species of this tropical American plant and many of them are grown in Hawaii as the basis for a successful floral trade. The humid lowlands of Maui, especially Nahiku and Hana, are world centers, for the commercial production of these blossoms.

In the Caribbean region heliconias are known collectively as "wild plantains" or "wild bananas". Botanists at one time considered the plants to be part of the banana family. Although they do superficially resemble banana plants, heliconias do not produce banana-like fruits and their leaves rise up directly from ground level rather than from an erect trunk. Sometimes they are referred to as "false birds of paradise" because of their resemblance to another relative.

In general, the plants are grown as garden ornamentals and for dramatic flower arrangements. They range in size from three-foot dwarfs to 30-foot tree-sized giants. Some species have dramatic, striped or veined leaves that are also lovely in floral arrangements.
A few species have been used in other ways as well in Mexico and the Caribbean. At least one kind of heliconia has edible young shoots and sometimes the leaves of some of the larger growing species have been used for thatching.

Heliconias are among the plants favored in the lush resort landscaping in Wailea and Napili. The plants are tough and they grow easily. Like bananas, they need lots of water and are heavy feeders.
Suggests master gardener Peggy Hickok Hodge, "To start your heliconia garden patch, ask your friends for a piece of root and do not worry about planting it that same day as the roots will stay alive for several weeks unplanted if kept moist in a shady area." The plants tend to be rambunctious. Once established, they have a tendency to escape from the gardens where they have been planted and a number of the more common varieties have become naturalized in the moist valleys and along roadsides and streams.
Like bananas, once the flower cluster has matured, the entire leaf stalk withers and dies. For this reason, gardeners generally cut the stalk to the ground when they gather the flowers.

Heliconias, were named in honor of Mount Helicon, home of the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts and sciences in Greek mythology.
 

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Arts & Culture

Flying Maui Skies

After World War I, a select few very well-heeled visitors came to vacation or spend the winter in one of the two or three existing hotels in Waikiki. Some of them flew in small amphibians to see the volcanoes on the Big Island, but Maui was seldom on their itinerary.
Under the management of Stanley Kennedy, Inter-Island Airways, Ltd., a subsidiary of Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, landed its first Sikorsky plane on Maui on November 11, 1929. (Inter-Island Airways eventually became Hawaiian Airlines.)
Maui's first official airport opened at Maalaea in 1930, and Inter-Island Airways began a daily passenger service to Maui. Pioneering passengers landed at Ma'alaea airfield aboard Sikorsky planes after a 75-minute flight from Honolulu.

Petitions were soon made to the Federal government for the establishment of air postal service to Maui. On October 8, 1934, an Inter-Island Airways plane piloted by Capt. Charles I. Elliott brought the first sack of airmail to Maui and was greeted with all due ceremony by more than 1,000 Maui residents.

In 1936 Pan Am inaugurated the "China Clippers" for regular weekly flights from San Francisco to Honolulu. These flying boats cruising at the high altitude of 10,000 feet, took 18 hours each way. Commercial air travel became faster and less expensive when larger capacity DC-3s were introduced in the 1940s and jets in the 1960s.

In early 1938 plans were approved and construction begun on a new Maui airport near what was then Camp 6 in Puunene. (The site is now a part of the Maui Raceway Park.) During the early 1940's, as World War II heated up, the military completed work on air bases on Maui. The Puunene Naval Air Station was completed in 1940. At the time of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, 150 Navy men and 7 officers plus a few Army personnel were stationed at the air base.

War called for the rapid expansion of the air station as a site for the training and staging of aircraft carrier air groups. By 1945, 206 officers and 2,465 enlisted men and women were assigned to the station. An additional 700 men in transient squadrons and 271 aircraft were also accommodated there.

It still wasn't enough. By 1943, as Maui became an important training, staging, and rest area for the U. S. military forces in the Pacific, the Naval Air Station at Kahului (nicknamed NASKA) was established in the cane fields and beaches around Kahului to provide a training site for two to three more air groups.

That year two Navy bombers on a training flight collided in the air over Maui on December 7, 1943. It was the second anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both airplane pilots parachuted to safety but the radioman in each of the planes was killed. A bomb carried by one of the planes was loosened by the impact. It fell and exploded in the middle of a group of Marines, killing 20 and injuring another 29 men. A Naval investigation of the incident was initiated..

Aviators received accelerated, intense training for high-risk assignments in the Pacific. The most famous of the United States Navy air groups in the Pacific used Maui as a staging area and the island became well-known in naval aviation circles.
The military presence on the island burgeoned as the Navy, the Marines, the Navy Seabees, the Coast Guard, and the U.S. Army established and used almost 50 military training sites on the island.

After the war, many of the former island-based servicemen with fond memories of the island that welcomed them with open arms returned as tourists. By that time, tourism had become the island's biggest money maker, providing jobs and helping to boost a sagging economy.

In August, 1950, an announcement was made that work on the Maui commercial air terminal would begin immediately. A HAC airport architect and designer had taken a look at the proposed site in NASKA and called it one of the "most potentially ideal commercial airport sites" he had ever seen.

On June 24, 1952, Kahului Airport officially became Maui's landing field for civilian passenger planes when Hawaiian Airlines and Trans-Pacific Airlines flights landed there at 8:05 a.m. and 8:55 a.m., respectively. Two hours later, the official dedication ceremonies took place. The airport became Maui's main commercial air terminal.

In 1951, Maui hosted 14,000 visitors. By August, 1959, the Maui News reported that "Maui's tourism is on the boom and in a big way." That was the year work began on Kaanapali, Hawaii's first planned resort. It was also the year Hawaii became a state and the year Qantas inaugurated commercial jet service between Hawaii and San Francisco, and Pan Am connected Honolulu with Tokyo.

According to the Maui News story, hotels were averaging 85 percent and were 70 to 100 percent filled. The demand for rental cars kept mounting and the supply of cars was depleted.

By 1970 the visitor count had jumped to over 400,000. The millionth visitor set foot on the island in 1976. The numbers kept on growing as more and more accommodations and resorts were planned and built to house the visitors. And the planes kept on coming.

In the early 1980's tourism became the state's largest industry, beating out the government, the military, and agriculture as the top money-maker in the state.

In January, 1983, United Air Lines began providing direct service from Los Angeles to Maui. The first regularly scheduled flight between the mainland and Maui landed at the Kahului Airport carrying 180 passengers who were greeted by 14 singers and dancers from the Aloha Polynesian Review, a bevy of reporters and a contingent of government officials as well as a few plain-clothes police officers; the latter were on hand to monitor a planned protest demonstration by direct-flight opponents who were concerned that the new service would jeopardize inter-island airline jobs. The three protestors who showed up did not cause a lot of problems.

On April 28, 1988, Aloha Airlines Flight 243 made an emergency landing at the airport after its fuselage had ripped open in flight. The passengers and crew spent thirteen terror-filled minutes in an open-air high-altitude "convertible" and flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing was blown out of the plane. Dozens of passengers were injured and 13 were hospitalized.

It made national news headlines. Pilots Captain Robert Schornstheimer and First Office Mimi Tompkins brought the plane down safely even though it had lost a 20-foot section of roof and an engine. Metal fatigue was found to be the culprit in the accident and older aircraft were more closely scrutinized. The incident tested the responsiveness of Maui's emergency teams and disaster experts and they came through with flying colors.

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: I apologize for any inconvenience I've caused.
BRADDAH-NICS: I sorry you catchin' gas for what I went do.

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: My, he certainly has grown!
BRADDAH-NICS: Look how big him now!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Where did you get that (mistaken) idea?
BRADDAH-NICS: Who said?

 

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Local Grinds

Bul Go Gi

IIngredients:

Procedure:

Cut steak with a sharp knife into paper thin strips. Add sugar and mix well by hand. Mix soy sauce and
water and add garlic to this. Cut green onions and add to soy sauce mixture. Pour sauce mixture into
meat, and mix by hand. Add sesame seed oil and sesame seeds and continue mixing.
Let marinate for 24 hours.

Cook over an open flame or frying pan for a few minutes until brown on both sides.
Served best with rice and Kim Chee.

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Spotlight On…

Kawela / Pukuhiwa Battle Field - Molokai

Old Hawaii: A simple, serene place abundant in its natural beauty; A beauty which many appreciated, and a few wished to rule . . .
During the 1700's the islands were divided; ruled by separate factions all vying for control of the chain as a whole. Many battles were fought, throughout the valleys and amongst the shores; these are the stories of two such battles, joined by a common battleground:

1736: The islands are divided. O'ahu chief Kapiiohookai amasses an armada for the invasion of Molokai. Landing at Kawela, he meets immense opposition in the combined forces of both Molokai and Hawai'i. Over the course of five days the battle rages; thousands of warriors lose their lives. The bloodshed finally ends with the death of Kapiiohookai, and the victory of the Molokai/Hawaii warriors.

1794: After nearly 60 years of relative peace, Kamehameha I, in a campaign to unify the islands, lands his forces in a four mile stretch around the Kawela area; staging a successful invasion of Molokai and the capture of (and later marriage to) the high ranking Cheiftess of Maui, Keopuolani.

Present Day: Though now peaceful, the warriors of old left behind artifacts and evidence of their struggles; projectile stones slung in battle litter the coastline, beneath them the bones of those slain in battle. Amongst these grim reminders of a turbulent past lies an ancient temple used in old times as sanctuary to those warriors skilled enough to stay alive.

These days, it is believed that these barren areas are haunted by spirits of the fallen soldiers. Known as Night Marchers, these restless entities have been seen by many marching along the coastline, beating their battlefield drums, trying to find an elusive peace in the afterlife . . .

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E-Mail : patty@angulohawaii.com

Mailing Address
P.O. Box 526
Kihei, Maui, HI 96753