Wailea Spring/Summer 2014

M A G A Z INE

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S PRING •

MAGAZINE

S UMMER 2 0 1 4 / I S S UE 6 Spring

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S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 / I S S UE 6

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La‘i lua ke kai The sea is very calm; all is peaceful.

—Mary Kawena Pukui, ‘Olelo No‘eau

©mark 52/age fotostock

WELCOME TO

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CONTENTS

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s u m m e r 2 0 1 4 / ISSUE 6

42 F E AT UR E S

22 Films, Foodies and Fans THE EPICURE’S GUIDE TO THE MAUI FILM FESTIVAL

By Vanessa Wolf

28 The Fine Art of Lei-Giving

58 The Gurus of Grass

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL OLSSON

By Grady Timmons

48 Earth and Water

68 Mangoes

THE SHIMMERING SURFACES OF WAILEA

IT’S MUCH MORE THAN ADORNMENT

TWO MAUI ARTISTS AND THEIR INSPIRATION

BY JOCELYN FUJII

By Paul Wood

36 String Theory

MUSIC, FOOD AND THE MAKANA WAY

By Jocelyn Fujii

42 Reflections

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THE INNER WORLD OF GOLF GREENS

BACKYARD GUIDE TO THIS QUEENLY FRUIT

BY TERI FREITAS GORMAN

96 Aloha Moment

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN ELK III

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CONTENTS

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82 D E PA RT M E N T S 6 Welcome Letter From Bud Pikrone 8 Contributors 10 Lei of the Land GETTING AROUND WAILEA

16 Wailea Hall of Fame THE STAR-STUDDED WAILEA WORLD

18 Faces of Wailea EXPRESSING THE SPIRIT OF ALOHA

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76 Wailea Dining Guide

86 Wailea Gateway Center

FARE TO REMEMBER

RETAIL BOUTIQUES AND SERVICES

80 Resorts, Amenities and More

88 Shops, Galleries and More

WHERE TO STAY AND WHAT TO DO

THE SHOPPER’S GUIDE TO WAILEA

82 Living, Wailea Style A RECIPE FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS

84 The Pleasures of Shopping and Dining GREAT FINDS AT THE SHOPS AT WAILEA

ON THE COVER

Photographer Rachel Olsson captures the luminescent quality of Diana Lehr’s work in this detail from “The Gold Below.”

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ALOHA

MAGAZINE

It was a beautiful winter in Wailea, with

sunny days, pleasant tradewinds and cool, starry nights.

But now, with spring and summer at our door, the sunsets are occurring later, adding some visual fireworks. We now look forward to having more daylight hours to enjoy Wailea’s magnificent shoreline playground.

As always, things come alive in Wailea after the sun goes down. From June 4-8, the evenings in Wailea will be filled with “star” light as the 15th Maui Film Festival at Wailea provides myriad exciting films and foodie events.

To help you relax after a day of sun and ocean activities, there’s always local entertainment at many of the resort restaurants. Or you may want to keep the party going and dance at a lū‘au. At any time of the day or year, there’s always something happening in Wailea.

At Wailea, you can fulfill all the wonderful dreams you have about Hawai‘i. Capture the stunning sunrise over Haleakalā while sipping coffee on a lānai; or take in a breathtaking sunset while strolling on the beach walk. Every day at Wailea is a dream come true.

Here, you can enjoy the warm and gracious hospitality of Hawai‘i while experiencing the rich traditions of the past, such as ‘ukulele, hula, surfing and paddleboarding, all of which still thrive today. Our resort has something for everyone’s style.

This magazine has been created to take you on a journey through Wailea’s cultural past and into today’s special resort lifestyle. We hope you make it a part of your memories at home, and that it brings you back soon.

Mahalo nui loa for sharing your time with us here in Wailea.

Kipa hou mai!

(Come visit again!)

where

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BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR

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| HAWAII EDITORIAL SENIOR REGIONAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR EDITOR

Margaret Martin

Jocelyn Fujii

DESIGN DIRECTOR ART DIRECTOR

Jane Frey

Teri Samuels

PHOTO EDITOR

Rachel Olsson

Teri Freitas Gorman, Grady Timmons, Vanessa Wolf, Paul Wood

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Rachel Olsson

Dana Edmunds,

PRODUCTION PRODUCTION MANAGER

Brittany L. Kevan

MORRIS VISITOR PUBLICATIONS MVP | Executive PRESIDENT

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MVP | National Sales VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL SALES

Rick Mollineaux 202.463.4550

MVP | Production DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION Kris PRODUCT MANAGER

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Miller

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PHOTO SCANNING/RETOUCH Jerry

MVP | Manufacturing & Technology DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING

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MVP | Cartography & Circulation GENERAL MANAGER, WHERE MAPS

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E-mails for all of the above : Firstname.lastname@morris.com

where | HAWAII OFFICES 1833 Kalakaua Ave., Suite 810, Honolulu, HI 96815 ph 808.955.2378 fax 808.955.2379

MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS CHAIRMAN & CEO PRESIDENT

William S. Morris III

William S. Morris IV

Frank “Bud” Pikrone General Manager Wailea Resort Association Copyright © 2014 by Morris Visitor Publications. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, without the express prior written permission of the publisher. The publisher assumes no responsibility to any party for the content of any advertisement in this publication, including any errors and omissions therein. By placing an order for an

For more information about Wailea Resort, please visit www.wailearesortassociation.com.

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advertisement, the advertiser agrees to indemnify the publisher against any claims relating to the advertisement. Printed in U.S.A. Wailea magazine is produced in cooperation with the Wailea Resort Association.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Paul Wood

Teri Freitas Gorman

Earth and Water, p. 48 A self-employed word-artist and writing teacher, Paul Wood recently published the book “Lurigancho” (available on Amazon), a true account of one American’s ordeal in an escape from the world’s worst prison. Paul’s magazine pieces have won numerous best-instate awards, and the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts endorses him as a teaching artist.

Mangoes, p. 68 Teri Freitas Gorman is a Maui girl whose hobby is cooking international cuisine. She lived in Fort Lauderdale from 2000 to 2005 in a bungalow shadowed by three huge mango trees, the fruits of which became Thai salads, fruity Caribbean salsas, Cuban mango mousses and frozen daiquiris. Back home now, she enjoys defeating mynah birds in the annual race for the ripening Hadens in her family’s yard.

Vanessa Wolf

Grady Timmons

Wailea Hall of Fame, p.16; Films, Foodies and Fans, p. 22 After a failed stint in clown college, Vanessa Wolf put herself through school as a professional cook. An MBA and corporate career later, she decided to give it all up to chase the dream of being a food and travel writer on Maui. Vanessa writes a popular blog about dining on Maui, helping readers discover places they might never find on their own.

The Gurus of Grass, p. 58 Grady Timmons’s articles on golf and other subjects have appeared in numerous local, national and international publications. The author of the award-winning book “Waikiki Beachboy,” as well as “A Century of Golf: O‘ahu Country Club,” published in 2007, he is as well-known for his impressive game as he is for his writing. For the past 18 years, he has worked as the communications director for The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i.

Dana Edmunds

Rachel Olsson

String Theory, p. 36; The Gurus of Grass, p. 58 Dana began his career on Maui as a surf photographer. As a Hawai‘i-based commercial photographer, Dana shoots for various editorial, advertising and action-sports clients here in Hawai‘i and throughout the world. He describes himself as “happily married, with two kids, a dog and a chicken.” He is a regular contributor to this magazine and a prominent member of Hawai‘i’s photographic and journalistic community.

The Fine Art of Lei-Giving, p. 28; String Theory, p. 36; Reflections, p. 42; Mangoes, p. 68 Rachel found her love of aloha working on Big Island coffee farms while on hiatus from Art Center in Pasadena, and recently moved to Maui’s north shore from Seattle. Rachel specializes in shooting advertising and editorial fashion and food imagery for clients such as Nordstrom and Food & Wine, and also shoots weddings and portraiture.

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NAVIGATE

Lei of the Land Getting Around Wailea MOLOKINI ISLAND

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To Kihei, Kahului Airport and Lahaina

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W A I L E A WAILEA is nestled on the leeward side of South Maui. Only 30 minutes from the Kahului Airport, just south of the town of Kīhei, Wailea is easily accessible by automobile. The main entrances to Wailea’s luxurious beachfront resorts are located along Wailea Alanui. All of Wailea’s resorts, along with golf, tennis, dining and shopping, are within a few minutes’ drive of your resort or condominium. The 1.5-mile Coastal Walk affords easy access to the beachfront resorts. During the winter months, the Wailea Coastal Walk provides the ideal location to watch the sun set into the Pacific Ocean. The sun melts into the tranquil waters ... and if you watch closely, you may just catch a glimpse of the humpback whales playing in our inviting waters.

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WAILEA RESORT MAP KEY

Resort Hotels

DESTINATION

Condominiums

1 The Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui 2 Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea 3 Grand Wailea 4 Ho`olei at Grand Wailea 5 Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa 6 Hotel Wailea 7 Wailea Beach Villas 8 Wailea Elua Village 9 Palms at Wailea

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Wailea Ekolu Village Wailea Grand Champions Villas Wailea Ekahi Village The Shops at Wailea Wailea Town Center Wailea Gateway Center Wailea Tennis Club Wailea Old Blue Clubhouse Wailea Gold & Emerald Clubhouse 19 Andaz Maui at Wailea

Shopping Tennis Golf Courses Beaches Snorkeling Points of Interest Coastal Walk Beach Parking

(MAP) ©EUREKA CARTOGRAPHY, BERKELEY, CA; (WATERCOLOR) ©MIKE REAGAN

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KEAWAKAPU

MOKAPU

WAILEA

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Wailea Hall of Fame Celebrities, athletes and A-listers can’t seem to get

enough of Wailea’s oasis-like setting and bright, sunny days, but nothing seems to bring them to South Maui quite like the holiday season.

On the Court In late November, the 7th annual Wailea Fantasy Tennis Camp attracted some legendary tennis pros and coaches to the Wailea Tennis Club.

Among the stars: former number-one ranked player Tracy Austin, along with Michael Chang, the youngest-ever male player to win a Grand Slam singles title. Racquets were also spotted in the hands of Taylor Dent, Jamea Jackson and Edgar Giffenig.

On the Links The Wailea Golf Club hosted Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer James Worthy, formerly with the LA Lakers. And that’s not all: Also spotted at the tees were LPGA pro Juli Inkster and Paris’s father, Rick Hilton.

While on the island to open his new restaurant in the Andaz Maui at Wailea, Masaharu Morimoto played the Wailea Old Blue course.

While he’s a known champion in the Iron Chef stadium, there was no word on the culinary powerhouse’s final score.

At the Table Buzz about Morimoto’s newest venture brought in Paris Hilton’s brother, Barron, who reported that his dinner at the new Morimoto Maui was “the best omakase I will ever have.” Also making news in the kitchen, Bravo TV’s “Top Chef: Seattle” finalist and fan favorite is now Maui’s newest celebrity chef, Sheldon Simeon. He has partnered with Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine founding chef Mark Ellman in a new venture, Migrant Maui, at the Wailea Beach Marriott.

Stargazing was in full force at celebrity hot spot Kō restaurant in The Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui, where rock icons Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Sammy Hagar of Van Halen were spotted. And Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS attended the Fairmont Kea Lani’s VIP unveiling of its newly revamped 9,000-square-foot Willow Stream Spa. The rockers posed for pictures and signed autographs, later treating fellow Kō diners to an impromptu performance of “Hard Luck Woman.”

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By Vanessa Wolf

Under the Sun But Wailea is more than delectable cuisine. Dancer and model Cheryl Burke was seen posing in front of the spectacular Christmas tree at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea. The next morning, the two-time “Dancing With the Stars” winner tanned her toned physique on the resort’s sunny beach.

Comedian Tom Arnold was also observed soaking up rays on Wailea’s sandy shores with new baby, Jax. Another new addition, toddler Priscilla Khoshbin, was spotted with her “Secrets of a Trophy Wife” and “Shahs of Beverly Hills” parents, Leyla Milani and Manny Khoshbin.

Max Greenfield, also known as Schmidt on the popular Fox show “New Girl,” was spied doing a little postholiday browsing on New Year’s Day at The Shops at Wailea, while professional golfer Michelle Wie, a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu, was seen enjoying one of South Maui’s spectacular sunsets.

Taking a break from his “Criss Angel Believe” show at the Luxor in Las Vegas, the magician reportedly enjoyed a stay at the Grand Wailea— although no one is sure whether it was the actual man or just one of his mind-bending illusions.

On the Stage In late November, internationally acclaimed slack-key guitarist, singer and composer Makana held a concert at Gannon’s to celebrate the release of his 6th album, “Ripe.” The applause was deafening, and adding his support from the enthusiastic audience was Maui’s own world-famous drummer, Mick Fleetwood.

Finally, in what’s being billed as the best concert of 2014 (so far), Alice Cooper, Steven Tyler, Sammy Hagar, Richie Sambora, the Doobie Brothers and Weird Al Yankovic rang in the New Year on stage at the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. The all-star rockers reportedly appeared together as part of a $500-per-ticket show staged to support the Maui Food Bank, a favorite charity of Cooper. On deck to lend a hand was the Australian musician Orianthi, who first found fame as the lead guitarist for Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” tour.

Guitar magazine’s 28-year old “Queen of Shred” backed up the old-school rockers’ song list of covers, proving that behind every great man—or men—is a great woman.

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Faces O F WA I L E A

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Everywhere you turn at Wailea Resort, you are greeted with a smile of welcome. It’s the defining feature of the Islands, an expression of Ho‘okipa—the art of hospitality.

Photographs by Rachel Olsson

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Films, Foodies &Fans A nod to the toque at the Maui Film Festival

By Vanessa Wolf

Photography by Randy Jay Braun

Taste of Wailea, held on the lawn with ocean views, is a festival highlight, proving that food and film are perfect partners.

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ertain things are identified with Maui, and the Maui Film Festival is one of them. It’s a festival that brings stars of all stripes together: movie stars, culinary stars and bright nights under starry skies.

From June 4-8, five days of first-run, feature-length films, documentaries and shorts light up Wailea in several venues.

Movies are screened in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s theaters in Kahului, and under starry skies across a 50-foot screen stretched across a swath of green, where the festival’s Celestial Cinema is held nightly. Film stars, producers, directors and movie lovers flock to Wailea for the films and stay for the culinary events, where the spotlight turns to the chefs.

Taste of Chocolate, June 6 at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, has always been a culinary mainstay of the film festival. Savory appetizers, mini donuts prepared on the spot, chocolate avocado pudding and chocolate tarts with banana jam are just the tip of the chocolate iceberg.

The Four Seasons Executive Pastry Chef, Rhonda Ashton-Chavez, digs deep into her well of inspiration to create the menu for this event.

“Ideas pop into my head along the way,” she says. “I try out new trends or flavor combinations that I think people will find fun and interesting and may never try otherwise. Personally, I enjoy the more creative mixtures, such as the chocolate and kalamata olive panini I did one year. And I love getting to play with fun stuff such as liquid nitrogen!”

It doesn’t stop at food. Guests can also look forward to beer on draft and chocolate-infused cocktails and “Maui-tinis.”

There’s no time to catch your breath before Taste of Wailea, June 7, the culinary crown jewel of the Maui Film Festival. Held on the rolling green of the David Ledbetter Private Academy at Wailea Gold and Emerald Golf Courses, Taste of Wailea is to epicures what the Oscars are to film buffs.

In one spectacular afternoon, presenting the best of the resorts’ collective culinary efforts, Wailea’s top-rated chefs highlight the fresh harvests of Maui’s farms, ranches and

Among the many highlights of Taste of Wailea 2013 were tendril-laden prawns.

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It’s Stargazing Time Again

The films are great— don’t miss them—but you wouldn’t want to miss out on the festival’s edible offerings.

(From top) Taste of Chocolate delights; film festival attendees.

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fishermen. True to the Islands’ renowned Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine (HRC) movement are the examples of fresh, locally sourced and island-influenced flavors and ingredients.

Past highlights have included creative coups such as Caesar crudo with crisp Mãlama Farms pork belly; watermelon gazpacho; Korean-style beef tacos with pickled carrots; and homemade kimchi.

As Executive Chef Tylun Pang of The Fairmont Kea Lani explains, “All of the fish and produce that we use for the event is locally sourced, just like at Kō restaurant. It doesn’t influence the preparation, but it definitely impacts the flavor.”

Chef Corey Waite of Monkeypod by Merriman’s is equally committed to sourcing his ingredients from Maui. “Local products are of the utmost important to us,” he says. “A lot of our farmers attend Taste of Wailea, and we like to showcase their meat and produce.”

Each chef has his or her own approach to the dish. Chef Pang fondly remembers that “the year we served our signature lobster tempura and oishi sushi (our version of a spicy tuna roll) was fun. The food was so popular that it caused a scene around our booth: a happy disaster!”

Wailea’s own celebrity chef, Bev Gannon, is no stranger to the event and keeps it simple and delicious. “When you are serving 600 guests a small plate of food, you have to make something that can be served quickly yet withstand the circumstances of the event: no kitchen; no running water; sun, heat, wind! It’s what we call guerilla catering. Our crab cannelloni with lemongrass ginger sauce meets all these requirements, yet tastes fabulous, so it’s always a huge hit.”

These chefs bring their best to the table, resulting in exceptional cuisine. The films are great—don’t miss them—but you wouldn’t want to miss out on the other mouthwatering moments of the 15th Annual Maui Film Festival.

The Maui Film Festival is literally about stars.

Film stars. Celestial stars. And starry skies above an oceanview setting on the flanks of a dormant volcano. It’s all pretty hard to resist, which is why celebrities love the Maui Film Festival as much as film lovers do. Award nominees for the 2014 Maui Film Festival are named in May, but the excitement and speculation start early.

Whoever wins this year will join prestigious company. Among the highlights is the celebrated Nova Award, granted for original and seamless performances by actors who consistently embody insight, humanity and wisdom. The 2013 award went to “Zero Dark Thirty’s” Jessica Chastain. The Acad-

emy Award-nominated star of “The Help” and “Mama” came out to the island to be honored as part of the Festival’s Celestial Cinema events. Past Nova Award recipients include Claire Danes, Felicity Huffman, Zooey Deschanel and James Marsden. Moviegoers also have a hand in determining the award winners. On a scale of one to five, those who attend the screenings are asked to vote on the films they watch.

The scores determine the Audience Award winners. Whether you come to have a part in determining the best of the best, or simply to stargaze, the Maui Film Festival is a perennial island highlight. For details and a list of films and events, visit www. mauifilmfestival.com.

Celestial Cinema, outdoors, is always a festival highlight.

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The Fine Art of

Lei-Giving While every lei is cherished, it doesn’t hurt to know the protocol

By Jocelyn Fujii

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LUSCIOUS LEI (This page, from top) Keolani Kaapuni, former Miss Keiki Hula, wears a lei po‘o, a head lei; colorful Honolulu lei vendors.

(Opposite) Kapono‘ai Molitau gathers materials and makes lei.

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How else to explain the special allure of the hala or maile lei in Hawai‘i, or the esteem and reverence with which a lei lehua is presented and received? Or the power wielded by the mokihana, the anise-scented garland available only on Kaua‘i, with a fragrance that lasts for years and a potency that burns bare skin? Fragrance, beauty and rarity and the lei’s historical role all play a part.

“Hala (screwpine, or Pandanus tectorius) is one of the very traditional lei used in many ceremonies, mostly because it was available to the Hawaiians and had a nice scent and color,” McDonald says of the fragrant fruit, which is strung in shades of white, yellow, orange and its rarest and most coveted color, red. Adding to its cultural heft, hala was the lei favored by Hi‘iaka, the goddess Pele’s favorite sister.

The author of two definitive books on the lei, “Ka Lei” and “Nā Lei Makamae,” which she co-authored with Paul Weissich, McDonald has high regard for the hala. But as she writes in “Nā Lei Makamae,” “The Hawaiian culture reflects a strange dichotomy of perception toward the wearing of a lei hala.” Hi‘iaka may have loved the hala, writes McDonald, but the word is translated as “sin, vice, offense, fault, error, or failure,” and there were times it was avoided for fear it would bring bad luck. According to the “Hawaiian Dictionary”

by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, hala also means “to pass away, to die,” making it the ultimate lei for a funeral.

To many, such as revered lei-maker Barbara Meheula, hala may be “the most misunderstood of all the lei, probably because it’s the most cherished.”

Hala represented good luck during the months-long Makahiki season of feasting and thanksgiving observed by pre-contact Hawaiians. “In the old days, the only time you could get married was during Makahiki, and the lei that was often given was hala,” says Meheula. Acknowledging that every end is a new beginning, Meheula and her family wear hala lei every New Year’s.

“Every dancer in our hālau understands that lei hala is a significant part of hula, not only signifying endings, but also something new,” explains Maui kumu hula Kapono‘ai Molitau, who, with his wife, Jenny, owns Native Intelligence in Wailuku. “In hula, lei hala is very appropriate. Lei hala ‘ula‘ula (red hala) is very difficult to come by nowadays. I know of a few spots on the island that have this beautiful fruit, but access is not always easy.”

Native Intelligence brims with fine work in the Hawaiian arts.

The Molitaus ask for at least a week’s advance notice for custom lei orders, which may include liko lehua, ‘a‘ali‘i, ‘ōhelo and the velvety gray hua weleweka (the Hawaiian velvet seed lei also known as the Hawaiian mink). Their lei could be kui (strung), haku (woven) or wili (wound), in standard lengths and shorter. When time and materials permit, the Molitaus also make head lei, called lei po‘o, and the

(previous spread) ©rachel olsson. (this page, from top) ©franco salmoiraghi; ©Hawaiian Legacy Archive/pacific stock. (opposite) ©rachel olsson

While in Italy

last year for a friend’s birthday, I sneaked out to the nearest village to buy as many peonies as I could afford. It was the height of the season, and rather than denuding the gardens surrounding our hotel, I set out, with a co-conspirator, on a covert mission: to find enough flowers for a surprise birthday lei. I could have raided the garden, but it would have exposed my plan—so we drove, seemingly endlessly, two villages away through the rolling hills of Tuscany.

I hid in my room that afternoon and used sewing thread, a thimble, a puny needle and borrowed pliers (to pull the needle through the dense buds) to string those peonies into a lei. The blooms were graduated, with the tight buds toward the neck and the fuller blossoms dangling in the middle.

That a lei in Italy is an anomaly, and that it was a birthday surprise for a former Maui resident, added to the excitement. The presentation was a triumph.

But, really, even if it had been inappropriate or poorly crafted, or made with frayed or unworthy materials, how could it not be accepted and valued? Because, in the end, there is no such thing as a bad or unwelcome lei.

“They’re all good, says master lei-maker and kapa-maker Marie McDonald, “because the whole idea is to show honor, high regard and love. Still, she adds, over the years, “some have become more special than others.”

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ENGAGING THE SENSES (This page) Orchid petals can be strung into complex architectural forms using every part of the flower, with some styles requiring hundreds of petals. Visually compelling and fragrance-free, it’s a popular choice for those with allergies. (Opposite) The pakalana (light green) and pčkake (white) are fragrant, seasonal and cherished, while the firecracker lei (red) is more common.

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(This page) Hawaiian dancers in the early 1900s wore lei of varying styles around their heads and necks. (Opposite) The easily strung plumeria is one of the first a child learns to make.

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©Hawaiian Legacy Archive/pacific stock; ©Hawaiian Legacy Archive/Pacific Stock-Design Pic/SuperStock. (opposite) ©elyse butler

R E G A L R O YA L DANCERS

(previous spread, left page) ©Dana Edmunds/Pacific Stock-Design Pics/SuperStock; (previous spread, right page) ©elyse butler; (this page, from top)

Unless a severe allergy occurs, it’s considered rude to remove a lei or swing it around.

collar-encircling neck lei, the lei ‘ā‘ī, important adornments in hula.

“I love giving my wife lei pīkake (Arabian jasmine) entwined with pakalana (Chinese violet),” Molitau notes, citing two of the most fragrant lei of Hawai‘i. “Our most popular lei would have to be our lei pīkake, lei ‘ilima and lei maile from Hilo.”

He adds that the lei is also important to the giver “because of the amount of mana (spiritual power), aloha and ahonui (patience) that have gone into creating this beautiful lei to adorn another.”

In demand among dancers are the native plants that were offered to Laka, the Hawaiian goddess of dance still honored by hula schools today. Maile, with its leafy, anise-scented vines wound into open-ended strands, is one of the most accessible and visible of these lei, given and received with honor. Marie McDonald says it’s a common misperception that maile and ‘ilima were only reserved for ali‘i (royalty). “They were not,” she affirms. Their fragrance and sensuous beauty made them popular among all, including royalty, but “they were not kapu (taboo). They were worn and enjoyed by all classes for many celebrations and occasions.”

Those that were kapu before western contact included feather lei (lei hulu manu) and lei of human hair and sperm whale’s teeth, now displayed under glass in museums. Commoners presenting such lei to the ali‘i were required to give it to an intermediary with a bow, never raising one’s head above the monarch’s.

Tourism and other western influences have tempered tradition and added flourishes such as Lei Day, May 1.

“Traditionally, Hawaiians embrace each other or touch noses

when they give a lei,” says Marie McDonald. The common practice of giving a kiss while presenting a lei, a popular modern practice, is “touristy,” adds Meheula. The Hawaiians consider their most precious gift to be the hā—the breath, “because everything you have in your heart is in the hā. That’s why Hawaiians often greet each other with a gentle embrace or touching noses or cheeks in the honi.”

When their lei are worn and dried, Hawaiians rarely throw them away, preferring instead to drape them on a photograph, take them to the cemetery or return them to the earth as compost. As for the do’s and don’ts at the receiving end, unless a severe allergy occurs, it’s considered rude to remove a lei or swing it around, as children sometimes do.

Although wedding traditions run the gamut, contemporary brides usually prefer multiple strands of fragrant pīkake and ginger, or even the ultra-luxe Ni‘ihau shell lei in 10 long strands, says Meheula. “Fresh flowers tend to be worn at chest length, where the heart is.

And they should always be closed, representing the eternal circle of love.” Bridegrooms most often wear their maile lei open to “welcome the good wishes of the guests and send out the same on behalf of the family,” she adds.

To lei connoisseurs, presentation is as important as the lei itself, and special occasions warrant the pu‘olo, a special ti leaf bundle.

Meheula makes her pu‘olo not just with ti leaves, but with palm and coconut fronds and, occasionally, bamboo. When someone once ordered a lei for a blind recipient, Meheula chose fragrant pīkake and carved a bamboo container for an olfactory and tactile extravaganza.

Those lei come once in a lifetime. My once-in-a-lifetime lei came many years ago. My dear friend and teacher, the beloved kupuna Nana Veary, gave me the name Hi‘ilei. “It means ‘beloved child,’’ she said. She asked me to be patient, adding that I would “grow into learning its other meanings.” Years later on Kaua‘i, while making the first maile lei of my life, I learned that Nana was suddenly and seriously ill. I flew to Honolulu with the lei in my arms and placed it around her, and it was with her when she died in hospice. Little did I know that a garland of flowers is just the beginning of a lei’s definitions. A lei is a circle of love. Hi‘ilei, “beloved child,’” also denotes a mother’s love for the baby that she’s feeding, her arms wrapped around it in a circle. That circle is a lei, a powerful bond, an expression of love and kinship.

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MAKANA’S

PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

String Theory One of Makana’s goals for his art and his music is to heal, changing the world one string at a time.

By Jocelyn Fujii

Makana on the Wailea shoreline.

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When the slack-key artist Makana says, “I’m here to create

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To produce a new album last year, the 35-year-old Makana raised nearly $70,000 through crowdsourcing from Kickstarter, the funding platform for creative projects. The financial and artistic coup solidified his reputation as a fearless, fiercely independent artist who backs his talent with an equal measure of moxie. With powerful vocals and his signature riffs, the album that resulted, “Ripe,” explores new territory, sometimes autobiographical, with passion and transparency. These qualities make us care about him.

Even before “Ripe,” The New York Times called him “a dynamic force within the style.”

Noting that slack-key guitar music, kiho‘alu, “has been around longer than the blues,” Esquire magazine wrote that Makana Cameron “is considered the greatest living player” of Hawai‘i’s indigenous music. Onstage he’s electric—a complex fusion of rock star, troubadour, slack-key god, political activist and philosopher. Sold-out performances throughout Wailea and Kīhei, in venues such as Gannon’s, Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea and Stella Blues Café, have made Maui audiences (including Mick Fleetwood and other luminaries) thirst for more, just as his O‘ahu fans can’t get enough of his limited-run performances at The Kahala Hotel & Resort.

You can count on a few things at every show: a tribute to his kūpuna and mentors (Sonny Chillingworth, Bobby Moderow, Raymond Kane and others), a deft demonstration of slackkey key tunings, a soupçon of irreverence and breathtaking licks on his six-string guitar. Having shed the distracting tremulousness of his early years, his voice, after intense discipline and training, has become a powerful and well-honed instrument for the mature Makana.

“The guitar isn’t an instrument. The body is the instrument,” he declared at Gannon’s last fall. To deafening applause, he had just played the Hawaiian classic “Hi‘ilawe” and was about to launch into Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Something about his vulnerability and honesty on stage, especially when he sang “When You Wish Upon a Star” alone with his ‘ukulele, seasoned his performance with a deep poignancy. And when he rocked his guitar, whether it was in the famous Led Zeppelin song “Going to California,” his own dazzling “Manic” or kiho‘alu classics, the energy was transformative.

On the sidelines throughout each performance, a ponytailed man called Budgie is seen tuning and handing him his guitars before numbers. Theirs is a fluid, intuitive oneness, a kind of “Vulcan mind-meld” in tuning and musicality. Alex “Budgie” Martin, Makana’s guitar technician and right-hand man for 18 years, has known him since he was in high school.

Having taken up the ‘ukulele at 9 years old and the slack key at 11, Makana was so young, says Martin, that his father would drive him to his Waikīkī gigs.

(previous spread) ©rachel olsson; (this spread) ©dana edmunds

(This page) Makana’s guitar stands in a place of honor in his Diamond Head home.

(Opposite) The slack-key artist treasures his collection of vintage instruments, including his Johnson resonator guitar.

a revolution,” I believe him. Those who have watched him command the stage since he was a teenager believe him, too, and those who have heard him at environmental rallies and fundraisers also nod knowingly. And what about his Facebook and online fans, who devour his “Mind Mints” of profound philosophical nuggets? They not only believe him, they’re signed up and ready. Ranging from the Woodstock generation to kūpuna, kids and his contemporaries, his music fans have applauded him through six albums and multiple awards, and they’re not just believers, they’re partners.

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MIND MINTS

“The guitar isn’t an instrument.

The body is the instrument.”

“The simplest and most available way to revolutionize is through food.”

PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

“Caring is what makes us who we are.”

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These days it takes two guitars for a show, with each song requiring its own tuning. So intense are the performances that Makana uses a new set of strings for each show or risks breaking them mid-song. Miraculously, says Martin, “He’s broken strings in the middle of a song and doesn’t even miss a beat. He’ll make up the notes, finish the song, and most people won’t even notice.”

“Every performance is approached à la carte,” Makana said years ago. “I create a special performance for each room, every venue. It’s my dharma to uplift people and make emotions rise out of their bones.” Years later at his Diamond Head home, he was even more explicit: “One of the goals of my art and my music is to heal.”

If his body is his instrument of healing, he feeds it well. His home sits on the slopes of Diamond Head, with ocean views, flourishing organic gardens and an aquaponic tilapia tank in the yard. There are vanilla beans, cucumbers, grapes, limes, chard, curry plants, collard greens, taro, multicolored carrots, lima beans—an edible garden exploding with color. The sprinklers are solar-powered. The golden tilapia are fed automatically, their tank water recycled to irrigate the taro. As he’s written on his Facebook timeline, “Living right is not for the lazy.”

Indoors, in a spotless environment, valued artifacts honor the past: a piano from the 1800s, a steamer trunk from 1919, a 1920s Hawaiian steel guitar, traditional hula implements and prized rattan furniture. A writing desk holds a quill, a bottle of ink and a kerosene lamp, and not just for show, but in use. A guitar played by Sonny Chillingworth, Makana’s teacher, is given a place of honor in the living room, not far from a traditional Chinese harp and a bamboo gamelan. A yoga studio with an ocean view reveals the secret to his well-defined biceps, essential to the strength of his playing. He points out the gramophone and a reel-to-reel recorder. “My records in the future will be completely reel-to-reel analog,” he says.

Many wonder what it takes to sustain such a life. Writing music, performing, touring—it all takes time, and the demands of social media do not allow a grace period. Clarity of mind and the physicality of his showmanship demand high-octane, quality fuel, and one part of the equation is healthy cooking. Enter Makana, the food activist.

As the public is rapidly discovering, there’s no separation between his art and his food. Smoothies are his drinkable music, and he is nothing if not committed. Fruit and herbs from the garden, homegrown turmeric, cinnamon and dashes of protein powder, blue-green algae and organic nuts all do a dance in the blender. In the evenings, fresh opakapaka or golden tilapia is prepared with the same artistry he devotes to his music. He cooks often and with passion.

“The simplest and most available way to revolutionize is through food,” he says confidently. He feels that food is the one common denominator of the world’s problems—its supply, purity, sharing, distribution—and that healthy food can change the world.

“This is an instrument here,” he says, pointing to his body, “and I’m caring for an instrument every time I put something in my mouth.” He is generous in his support of food sustainability and environmental awareness and uses his music as a path toward change, appearing often at rallies and fundraisers as a vocal advocate of a pesticide-free world, as well as educational and other causes.

Having seen him play at many fundraisers, I asked him about his philanthropy. “I wouldn’t call myself a philanthropist,” he responded. “I can’t take credit for anything. I guess I’ve helped … ” As a 13-year-old he performed at a benefit for the Angel Network. In later years, there were shows to raise money for lifeguards, the American Heart Association, cultural education, global disasters, dozens of nonprofits and hundreds of school visits. Last year he helped raise $20,000 to restore a historic pier on California’s Central Coast. “Caring is what makes us who we are,” he says simply.

“He’s got a heart of gold,” adds Budgie Martin. “He’s always there for medical fundraisers and personal health issues—we rarely turn them down. We go through some tough times, but all in all, he gives everything he can.”

Ranging from the Woodstock generation to kupuna, kids and his contemporaries, his fans have applauded him through six albums and multiple awards.

(Above) Makana plays his Johnson resonator guitar, a part of his collection.

(Opposite) From beets to radishes to herbs, star fruit and dozens of other organic vegetables, Makana’s garden is a source of joy and healing for him.

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R E F L EC T ION S Everywhere in Wailea, the eye rests on beauty.

Glistening surfaces tell the story of nature, light and the human hand expressing life’s wonders.

Photographs by Rachel Olsson

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I N S P I R AT I O N

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Earth & Water PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

Two Maui artists give voice to Maui’s elemental beauty

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Mountain & Motion

By PAUL WOOD

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Photography by RACHEL OLSSON

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Jim Meekhof is a man in love with wood—downed logs, windfall timber, trunks cast aside by roadworkers. Patiently, with skills acquired over a lifetime of singular focus, he exposes beauty hidden within the dense flesh of trees. Diana Lehr, on the other hand, grabs ephemeral moments. She’s renowned for painting slant-lit cloudscapes, moments of bold brilliance that shift away in an instant.

Now she herself has shifted to watery subjects, especially tidepools, their transparent layers ceaselessly scrambled by incoming surf.

Both are Maui artists of the highest regard, both are represented in Wailea and neither has met the other.

These two have contrasting responses to the same island—he solid and centering; she fluid and volatile. He mountain; she motion.

Like all good opposites, they equally attract. Considered together, they exemplify the great diversity you find in the field of artistic expression on this island. Certainly this diversity reflects the multiple moods of the island itself. Diana Lehr says, “The landscape is dynamic here. There’s so much going on here in nature, almost like a candy store.”

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Jim Meekhof turns wood on a thousand-

(This page) Norfolk Island pine makes a luminous bowl, and Meekhof and the lathe cause tissue-thin wood curls to fly. (Opposite page) The artist and his tools create a dynamic energy in his studio as the bowl comes to life.

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He exposes the wood’s history and its hidden brilliance.

PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

pound lathe bolted to the concrete slab of his under-house studio in Kula. Out on the side lawn catching some Upcountry rain is a pile of thick logs, Norfolk Island pine, cut to four-foot lengths. The logs are “spalting”—taking on a natural coloration from controlled decay, a process that’s probably similar to letting cheese turn bleu.

In the open-air studio, beautiful old hand tools are within reach, carefully organized. A rack of big gouges and chisels affixed to long wooden handles stands like a display of antique harpoons. Each is razor-sharp.

(Jim bench-grinds them maybe 20 times for every bowl he makes.) There are tool rests, widespread calipers, narrow rasps, awls, and a fine old brace-and-bit (manual drill) that once belonged to his grandfather.

A cabinet of drawers contains sanding pads neatly graded from 80 grit to 2,000 grit. Nearby are stacks of buffing pads. Two chain saws. And there’s Jim’s kiln— an old refrigerator gutted of its motor and lit inside by a 40-watt bulb. It is stacked with rough-turned projects, the walls of each about an inch and a half thick and waxed to keep them from splitting. Jim keeps about 80 projects going at any one time, and each one

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Imagine the swiftness of an artist who can capture the soul of a cloud.

spends about two months in the kiln, until it’s dried to 5 percent humidity. That way, if a piece ends up in the zero humidity of Las Vegas, as many of Jim’s pieces do, he knows they won’t crack.

After, he turns them again to a glass-like thinness—a 16th of an inch, a width he senses with his fingertips. Then there’s the finish, a Jim-invented combination of oil and hardener that took him eight years to develop.

“Feel this,” he says, holding a bowl with a waterycurved rim as soft and shapely as a fresh rose petal.

“It’s like a car finish. I sand to 2,000 grit, then take it beyond there with buffing. I don’t know if there’s a 3,000 grit, but that’s about where I get.”

His home gallery is loaded with such pieces. Some are sconces and lamps, luminous as amber, all turned from single chunks of Maui hardwood. He raises an umber-colored bowl that feels as light as a bubble.

“Black walnut,” he says. “Look at the eyes. It’s just on fire. It changes mood as you turn it.”

Often after he’s done with a piece, he won’t let it go for some time. “I can sit for hours just looking at it.”

Wood like this would otherwise rot on the ground and be lost. But as Jim moves inside the salvaged chunk, he exposes its history and its hidden brilliance. This is not unlike the Hubble Telescope peeking into the strange central beauties of the universe.

Jim Meekhof and his work can be met at the Grand Wailea on Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., also at the Four Seasons on Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Studio visits are welcome. Jimmeekhof.com.

If the soul

of a tree can be caught slowly by a wood-turner, imagine the swiftness of an artist who can catch the soul of a cloud that surges wave-like in the setting sunlight. Or the transparent inches and surfaces of a tidepool, seen in a glance. Diana Lehr is a master of this—the caught instant.

(This page) Diana Lehr, who has captured Maui’s elemental beauty in her esteemed career as one of the island’s revered artists, enjoys a quiet moment in her studio.

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Hers is a dangerous occupation, by the way. We’re not talking about Great-Aunt Sally with a roadside easel. This woman puts herself on the line. Example: Not so long ago Diana was filming downward closeups of tidepools on a remote coastline. The stony shore was backed by stony cliffs. Suddenly a rogue wave crashed into her, lifted her and smashed her onto a rocky ledge, then sucked away all her stuff, cellphone and all. Sometimes being “in the moment” takes all you’ve got. That’s how Diana Lehr paints.

The paintings you’ll likely see—we don’t want to pin her down, now—for example at NaPua Gallery in the Grand Wailea Resort, arise from layers of watercolor on the heaviest of Arches paper. Then she works thicknesses of pastels over the watercolor base. Sometimes she reconsiders the piece in mid-process, then hoses the whole thing down, trusting the paper’s grit to help her capture, for example—and here’s a phrase she used—a diaphanous squall. “I don’t consider myself a traditional landscape painter. My subjects are moving.”

Later: “It’s not the land or the sky—it’s the merge.

And it has an enormous amount to do with light, glowing shadows, almost a hallucination. Anyone who’s been Upcountry under perfect conditions knows this. I hope.”

She says, “I’m interested in activity, action.” Clouds hit the land. The surge-struck tidepool turns pale aqua with all the subsequent bubbles. “This is great inspiration.” Most recently she has turned to video, capturing astounding footage of water in motion. These videos linger on long sequences of the sort of evanescent moments she loves to paint. Maybe video will free her to paint entirely new subjects now, she says. She can’t tell. She’s an artist in constant motion.

Diana’s sharp observation: “An artist is someone who transcends what they do.” Surfers can do that; so can gardeners, she says. Diana Lehr transcends the snapshot. Jim Meekhof transcends whittling. Without such artists, much lively loveliness would all be lost.

(Clockwise from top) Diana Lehr at work on her current series on water; and the pigments and tools that enable her to capture Maui's ephemeral and elemental beauty.

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PHOTO CREDIT GOTHAAM BOOK 5.5/9PT

(This page) In morning light, Wailea’s Gold Course lives up to its name.

(Opposite) Mike Atwood, Gold Course superintendent.

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Grass THE GURUS OF

A well-groomed golf course requires more than a green thumb

By Grady Timmons Photography by Dana Edmunds

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Mike Atwood and Steve Olsen enjoy playing golf. Whenever they can,

A golf course is its own ecosystem requiring turf, water, soil and environmental stewardship.

(From top) Superintendent Steve Olsen; the Old Blue Course banner.

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Wailea Resort’s two golf course superintendents strap their clubs onto a cart and take to the fairways. But the time they spend golfing is not time spent away from their jobs.

Between shots, they do what course superintendents compulsively do: pull weeds, repair ball marks and rake the traps.

They also take a lot of notes.

“The primary reason we play is that it’s absolutely the best way to see the maintenance issues on the course,” says Atwood, the head superintendent at Wailea’s Gold and Emerald courses.

Adds Olsen, head superintendent at the Old Blue, Wailea’s third course: “To be a good superintendent, you have to know what the experience of the guest is.

There are a lot of things you can see playing golf that you can’t see driving by in a cart. Most superintendents play golf for that reason.”

The superb condition of all three Wailea layouts is a major reason the resort has hosted LPGA and PGA Tour events and won more awards than Tiger Woods has golf tournaments. Atwood and Olsen share in the credit. The two superintendents are Wailea’s gurus of grass, a pair of longtime friends who groom and maintain the state’s only 54-hole resort.

Their job is never done. A golf course is its own ecosystem, and to ensure its health a superintendent must be soil scientist, turf manager, water use commissioner and pest control specialist rolled into one. He has to supervise a staff, oversee a budget and be a good environmental steward. And if Mother Nature acts up, well, he’s the one who’s expected to handle the repairs and cleanup.

A course can be set in stunning natural surroundings and carry the signature of a marquee designer. But if its conditioning is subpar, its reputation will suffer. A well-groomed course, on the other hand, keeps the members happy and the guests coming back.

“It’s very rare that a guest complains about one of our courses,” Atwood says.

“Most visitors go gaga over the beauty and conditioning here.”

Atwood and Olsen have been at Wailea for more than 20 years. Together they supervise a combined staff of 60 people. Olsen was originally hired as head superintendent at Wailea’s Orange and Blue courses; subsequently, he spent 12 years also overseeing the new Gold and Emerald layouts before turning that responsibility over to Atwood in 2006.

Both he and Atwood have degrees from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa— Atwood in tropical agriculture, Olsen in horticulture technology. Atwood came to Hawai‘i from Puerto Rico and was planning to return until he was offered a job as a manager trainee at Maui Land & Pineapple Co. At ML&P, he had an epiphany and realized his future might lie in another environment of green: golf. So when a position as assistant golf course superintendent opened up at the Makena Beach & Golf Resort in south Maui, he applied and got the job.

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Year-round sunshine, light winds and minimal rain enhance growing conditions.

ŠJohn Byrne

Old Blue and its pond.

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The courses have distinct personalities, from ruggedly handsome to softer and more seductive.

(From top) Salt-tolerant paspalum makes for a superior putting surface on the Wailea courses. A lawnmower grooms the Old Blue as cattle egret look on.

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Olsen had a more traditional start in the business. During summers off from college, he worked on a golf course grounds crew. After graduation, he parlayed that experience into superintendent positions at two O‘ahu golf clubs before being hired at Wailea in 1989.

When he arrived at Wailea, the resort had just signed a contract to host the LPGA Tour’s Women’s Kemper Open at the Old Blue. With its classically designed layout, it opened in 1972 with wide, forgiving fairways, large greens and superlative ocean views.

For the next three years, Olsen prepared it for national television exposure.

In 1991, the resort decided to retire its Orange course and brought in noted architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. to design two new ones—the Gold and the Emerald. Needing assistance, Olsen hired Atwood away from Makena to help oversee their construction.

“When you build a golf course, you are laying the foundation for its future maintenance,” Atwood says. “That’s why I took the job. I wanted to know what was underneath the grass.”

To construct the twin layouts, the natural terrain was graded down to basalt rock and the irrigation system installed. It was then covered with a 12-inch layer of crushed volcanic cinder and seeded with Bermuda grasses. Today, both courses feature state-of-the-art sprinkling systems, silica sand imported from Australia and Asia, and fine-grade Bermuda grasses—Tifton 328 tees and fairways and Tifdwarf greens.

They also have distinct personalities. At 7,070 yards, the Gold is ruggedly handsome, framed by ancient lava rock walls, white-sand bunkers and towering foliage, including coconut palms and kiawe and monkeypod trees. From 2001 to 2007, it hosted the PGA Tour’s Champions Skin Game.

In contrast, the 6,825-yard Emerald Course has a softer, seductive allure. Reflective lakes, flower gardens, lava outcroppings and colorful plantings of bougainvillea and plumeria make it highly popular with all golfers, but especially women.

Wailea’s trio of courses, while in many ways different, all share similar maintenance challenges. For example, Wailea has its own wells. That would seem to be a good thing, except their brackish water is less than ideal for Bermuda grasses.

Atwood and Olsen have to apply just the right amount to keep it alive.

In recent years, both superintendents have experimented with seashore paspalum, an aggressive, salt-tolerant grass that thrives in brackish conditions. Paspalum is being introduced at courses across the state. Now that there are varieties that produce superior putting surfaces, Atwood says it’s the grass of the future for Wailea.

Controlling insect pests is another challenge. Atwood and Olsen practice Integrated Pest Management, which is environmentally sensitive and minimizes chemical use.

“Golf courses are perfect environments for birds,” Olsen says, noting that Wailea is home to more than a dozen species. “I use the least amount of pesticide I can. I don’t like to do anything that might impact the wildlife on the course.”

Cardinals, egrets, francolins, mynahs, plovers and nēnē all find habitat at Wailea. And then there are honeybees that nest high in the trees and mongooses that pirate food from unattended golf carts. All peacefully coexist.

The one unwanted guest is axis deer, a nocturnal visitor. Axis deer are beautiful creatures, but for Maui ranchers, farmers, resort owners and conservation interests,

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Both superintendents have a simple maintenance philosophy: strive for excellence.

(Left) Gold Course superintendent Mike Atwood surveys the Gold Course. He also maintains the velvety Emerald Course (below).

they are a menace. “When it gets real dry, they come down from the ranch lands above,” Atwood says. “I think they like it down here—the cool grass, a drink of water. They come in herds as big as 500. The next morning you’ll find a thousand footprints on the greens. And they’re deep footprints. Their hooves are so sharp they sink into the grass.”

Damaged greens are a superintendent’s worst nightmare. A golf club’s reputation, and that of its superintendent, is largely based on the quality of its putting surfaces.

It’s the reason course superintendents were originally called “greenskeepers.”

Atwood’s advice: “Wailea is built on the side of a 10,000-foot volcano that slopes toward the sea. Balls break toward the ocean.”

Adds Olsen, “The grain runs toward the setting sun. Hit it hard when you’re putting into the grain. It’s uphill even if it doesn’t look it.”

Both superintendents say their maintenance philosophy is simple: strive for excellence. “I try to maintain the courses in tournament condition every day, with the best possible putting surfaces,” Atwood says. “Putting is half the game.”

Both men agree that the same factors that make Wailea ideal for golf—yearround sunshine, light winds, minimal rain—also enhance growing conditions.

These factors, and the superintendents’ green thumbs, keep members happy and guests coming back for more.

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MANGOES 68

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Alimomi

Golden Glow

T H E M A N Y M O O D S O F T H I S Q U E E N LY I S L A N D F R U I T Text by Teri Freitas Gorman

Haden

Photography by Rachel Olsson

Waianae

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M

y brother, sister and I spent the summer of 1975 at our grandparents’ house in Wailuku. Standing guard over their backyard were two old mango trees whose branches drooped with fat, red-orange Haden mangoes. Eager to share their backyard bounty, Grandpa harvested the finest mangoes, hidden high in the tree, with his telescopic picker basket.

My siblings and I helped him carefully pack these special fruits in brown paper bags that were recycled from Ooka’s Market, a popular local grocery store. These bags were hand-selected for aunties, uncles, neighbors and friends, and only the best, unblemished fruit went into them. My brother, then a budding preteen artist, sketched a small cartoon dog inside one of the bags.

If you have excellent karma, your mangoes will come back to you baked into a moist, nutty quick bread, or preserved as a jar of salty-sweet pickles, spicy chutney or a fruity jam. There are hundreds of family recipes for these local-style delicacies, but some folks are purists. My grandfather always said that mangoes were best enjoyed juicy and ripe, sliced simply over a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. ‘Ono ka pu‘u, tasty to the core, he would say as he indulged.

Throughout the Islands, mango blossoms are carefully observed during spring in hopes they will yield a summer of abundant fruit.

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A few days later, a woman we didn’t know came to visit. Observing island custom, she did not come empty-handed. She brought a brown paper bag full of mangoes. While unloading the fruit in the kitchen, we spied my brother’s hidden cartoon dog. We had received our own mangoes back! After a good laugh, we nicknamed this annual ritual the “Mango Trades of Summer.” It was our literal proof that what goes around, comes around.

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Maui mangoes begin to mature around late May or early June.

A few ripen early, followed by an avalanche of ready-topick fruit.

With its fresh mangoes and homegrown roadside displays, Yee’s Orchard in Kīhei is a South Maui landmark.

While growing up, I thought mangoes were native to Hawai‘i, but they, like most of our favorite island foods, came from elsewhere. According to Thomas G. Thrum’s “Hawaiian Annual and Almanac for 1909,” Captain John Meek of the brig Kamehameha brought the first mango trees from Manila to Honolulu in 1824. The Reverend Joseph Goodrich and Don Francisco de Paula Marín, a Spanish immigrant and talented horticulturalist, received these trees, which were the source of a mango strain known today as the Hawaiian race.

In 1885, O‘ahu businessman Joseph Marsden imported some seedling mango trees and grafts from Jamaica. By 1929, G.P. Wilder and S.M. Damon had brought in a number of new mango varieties from other countries. Later the Hawai‘i Agricultural Experiment Station of the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced several new varieties, including Hawai‘i’s most popular backyard tree, the Haden.

The Haden mango takes its name from Captain John J. Haden, a retired U.S. Army officer who lived in Coral Gables, Florida. In 1902 he planted four dozen seedlings of Mulgoba mangoes, purchased from a USDA employee in West Palm Beach who had received his Mulgoba tree from India. Eventually the Haden tree went into large-scale propagation and made its way to Hawai‘i. Today it’s the most popular mango but is rarely grown commercially, due to its large seed and vulnerability to fungus.

Hawai‘i is home to countless mango varieties, including Ah Ping, Fairchild, Mapulehu, Pope, Gouveia, Harders, White Pirie, Exel and Rapoza. The so-called common mango, often found growing wild, is most often of the Sugai variety. It’s

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usually sweet but can be small and stringy, causing locals to describe it as “waste time”—a pidgin term meaning not worth the effort.

Wailea’s Mango Delights For more than 60 years, Yee’s Orchard has grown mangoes on a 20-acre farm off South Kīhei Road. With its vintage 1962 thatched cart/fruit stand and handpainted signs, it’s a rare reminder of South Maui before tourism.

“My grandmother purchased this land after World War II to grow food crops,” explained Pat Iwamoto (née Yee). “My uncle, Warren Yee, was a horticulturalist. He had a real interest in mangoes, so he planted some experimental varieties here. My dad, Wilbert Yee, oversaw the plantings. We are pretty sure they created the Golden Glow variety. It’s our most popular mango.”

For fruit connoisseurs, the Golden Glow may be the mango nirvana. It is famous for its complex flavor profile, small seed, thin skin and even rate of ripening. But don’t bother trying to reproduce this wonder mango by planting the seed at home.

According to Iwamoto, mangoes are always unpredictable. “When you plant a mango seed, you won’t get the same plant because they cross-pollinate. You will get a surprise, and 80 to 90 percent of mango grown from seed is junk. The flesh can be stringy, or there is a huge seed, or it has no flavor. That’s why we grow from grafts.”

Grafted trees grow more slowly than seedlings and are often smaller. Grafted trees usually produce fruit in three to five years in dryer areas, while seedling

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(Clockwise from top) Maui Mangotini at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea; Grilled Mango With Greek Yogurt Coconut Granola at Andaz Maui at Wailea; dessert plate at Capische?, Hotel Wailea.

trees can take up to six years to fruit. But even with grafting, growing conditions make a big difference in fruit quality.

“We tried growing Golden Glow in Wai‘anae (on O‘ahu) but they didn’t do well there,” continued Iwamoto. “Kīhei is a wetland area, and brackish water has many more nutrients than sweet water. That contributes to the flavor, but so does the microclimate. Dry conditions make for the sweetest mangoes. We get our best yields during dry years with less wind.”

Maui mangoes begin to mature around late May or early June. The fruit comes in three distinct phases—a few ripen early, followed by an avalanche of ready-to-pick fruit. The season ends with a few stragglers. During peak season, says Iwamoto, it takes the entire family to keep up with picking and packing mangoes as they ripen.

“We always make sure to keep enough to sell from the stand,” adds Iwamoto.

“We have a lot of loyal fans who stop by the stand every year on their trip to Maui.”

Fresh Golden Glows are the fruit stand’s main draw, but fans may also buy Yee’s fresh mango bread, famous chutney and sweet mango jam. Yee’s also sells dehydrated Golden Glow, guaranteed to pass U.S. agricultural inspection. Still, basics apply. “I like a sliced juicy mango over a scoop of vanilla ice cream,” she confesses. Ono ka pu‘u!

WAILEA'S MANGO MECCAS FRESH FROM THE ORCHARD At Hotel Wailea, “grow your own” means a three-acre organic orchard featuring eight mature mango trees.

For Brian Etheredge, chef/owner of Capische?, summer brings outdoor grilling and lighter cuisine, accented with a signature barbecue sauce of orchard-picked mango, dark balsamic vinegar and organic honey. Featured side dishes include a slaw of shredded green mango and other vegetables, and for dessert, triumphant mango sorbettos and gelatos. A tart of macadamia nut shortbread and mango curd is topped with coconut meringue. Chef Brian calls it “a simple taste of Hawai‘i.”

MANGO MIXOLOGY Happy hour is a little happier during mango season. The Grand Wailea’s Botero Bar combines fresh mango with fruit juices, grenadine and Malibu coconut rum in its unforgettable Molokini Sunset. At Ferraro’s at Four Seasons Maui at Wailea, Maui mangoes meet Brazilian cachaça (distilled sugar cane juice) in a drink called Mango Lemongrass Caipirinha. There’s also the Maui Mangotini, of premium PAU Maui vodka, mango liqueur, fresh lemon, lime and mango. And rum lovers reach for Ferraro’s Mango Eruption, a piña colada

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with mango and banana. For bourbon drinkers, the Mango Smash Cocktail at Fairmont Kea Lani’s Kö Restaurant combines Woodford Reserve bourbon with lemon juice, mango purée and simple syrup, topped with fresh mint.

FOR EARLY RISERS The Ka‘ana Kitchen at Andaz Maui at Wailea offers Grilled Mango With Greek Yogurt Coconut Granola, available only in season. At Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui, cinnamon-scented Mango Bread and Vegan Mango Cobbler are crowd pleasers. Lighter fare can be found at Grand Wailea’s Bistro Molokini, where Organic Strawberry Papaya and Mango from Kumu Farms is served with thinly sliced Maui Gold pineapple, Kula strawberries and other tropical fruit.

MIDDAY MAGIC Tommy Bahama at The Shops at Wailea serves a cool summertime Grilled Chicken and Mango Salad, a mix of baby greens, toasted nuts, dried blueberries, feta cheese and vine-ripe tomatoes, topped with grilled chicken breast and sliced ripe mangoes. A local plate-lunch favorite, Chicken Katsu, is reimagined as a salad at the Bumbye Beach Bar at Andaz Maui at Wailea. Sliced mango and panko-encrusted chicken breast are served atop local greens.

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WINE & DINE

Alan Wong’s Amasia

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Andaz Maui at Wailea

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Capische?

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Matteo’s Osteria Wailea Town Center

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Twice a year, in November and May, participating restaurants throughout Wailea Resort offer their finest cuisine in remarkable three-course, prix-fixe menus for just $29, $39 or $49 per person. Restaurant Week takes place May 25-31, 2014. For details and menus, and for more information, visit www. wailearesortassociation.com.

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IN WAILEA

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Wailea Guide

Migrant Maui

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RESORTS, AMENITIES AND MORE

Perfect in Peace and Play The place for an exalted getaway

Every resort strives for beauty, comfort and a sense of place.

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©Ron Dahlquist/Pacific Stock/Alamy

At Wailea Resort, these key elements are of a standard rarely seen within a single community. On 1,500 acres of Maui’s sunniest shore, basking in weather averaging 82 degrees, a community of vacation rentals, town homes, villas and condos thrives along a coastline of five white-sand beaches. Wherever you are staying, shops, spas and restaurants are within minutes of your front door.

Sports enthusiasts select from three 18-hole championship golf courses, the Emerald, Gold and Old Blue. Tennis players find the Wailea Tennis Club to be the perfect complement to a vacation at Wailea Resort. Watersports—swimming, snorkeling, shore-diving, kayaking, stand-up paddling and others—are plentiful year-round at the edge of the bathtub-warm Pacific Ocean.

Wedding groups, honeymooners, multigenerational families and single travelers find they’re equally at home on their Wailea getaway.

And it’s not just the luxury and amenities. Wailea’s layout, spirited and thoughtful, gives equal weight to peace and play.

The resorts and their amenities are the perfect complement to the stunning landscape, views and sunsets. The result? The perfect conditions for an exalted getaway.

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living, wailea style

The Other Side of Beauty Health, fitness and wellness are essential elements of the Wailea lifestyle.

Residents living in the 1,500-acre Wailea Resort inevitably discover that they’re surrounded by opportunities for health and wellness, both seen and unseen.

Wailea’s amenities—spas, watersports, restaurants and shops—are only part of the lifestyle equation. Other factors contribute: peaceful surroundings, a quiet and healthy lifestyle, clean air and an ocean breeze. Indoors and outdoors, with the ocean, golf, tennis and a peerless pathway for runners and walkers, the Wailea residential community is a health club without walls.

It starts with sunny weather year-round, five white-sand beaches and the renowned north-south Coastal Walk, a mile-and-a-half (three miles round trip) of aerobic, life-enhancing pleasure. Residents wake up to this every day. Kayakers, paddlers, swimmers and snorkelers take to the ocean in their backyard, while familiar faces greet each other from sunrise to sunset on the coastal path, the ocean at their fingertips.

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Healthy dining is just around the corner in Wailea’s many superb restaurants, with the ocean always in view. With private pools and workout rooms in their homes, some residents design their own paths to wellness, privately or outdoors.

Racquet lovers get aerobic workouts at Maui’s largest resort tennis facility, while golfers challenge the fairways on three legendary courses.

After a day in the water or on the greens, nothing beats a spa. And Wailea’s spas are renowned the world over. Ranging from grand to intimate, Wailea’s spas offer programs and facilities for yoga, tai chi, aerobics, nutrition and the full range of options for a healthy lifestyle. Bringing out the inner radiance are the spas’ beauty treatments and massage therapies, gleaned from around the world—and unsurpassed.

Whether it’s a 5,000-square-foot residence with a million-dollar view or a 900square-foot condo with the same extraordinary vista, there are 360-degree views of ocean, mountains and gardens. They whisper a gentle message: There is no better place on Earth to live well and be well.

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Health and wellness from the inside out

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SHOPPING

The Pleasures of Shopping and Dining Parking wars, mall madness and long lines at the counter are simply passé in South Maui. The new paradigm is relaxed shopping, with abundant, no-stress parking, a leafy atrium, superb service, and restaurants and boutiques that redefine style.

These elements capture the resort experience like no other retail center on Maui. At The Shops at Wailea, an open-air, twostory complex, shopping is equal parts pleasure, purpose and entertainment. Located within minutes of the surrounding hotels and resorts, between Grand Wailea and Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, more than 70 shops, restaurants and galleries make up the shopping gem of Wailea Resort. Parking, on the north and south sides, is generous, convenient and close.

Global high-fashion giants mingle with casual, family-owned shops, taking you from the beach to an elegant evening in one seamless sweep. Island-oriented retailers provide the practical sundries needed for the beach, picnic and villa, and the tropical-coastal ambience adds to the dynamic mix. You can have a manicure on the spot, shop for celebrity art, pamper yourself with a new wardrobe or tuck into a freshly baked waffle cone.

The dining options are limitless: sushi, pasta, steak, ice cream, snacks, designer coffee and long tropical happy hours.

It’s a cordial, spirited mood, and there are benches for lingering in the sun-kissed atrium area.

When dining, shopping, art, crafts and the spirit of leisure unite in a single premium destination, it’s called the art of gracious living. 3750 Wailea Alanui, 808.891.6770, TheShopsAtWailea.com, @ShopsAtWailea on Twitter. Open daily 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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When the shopping bug hits, head for The Shops at Wailea

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SHOPPING

The Gateway to Unique Finds As Wailea Resort grows, new features and pleasures continue to emerge. One of them is Wailea Gateway Center, one of the newer developments in South Maui. Slightly mauka (toward the mountain) from the shoreline on the flanks of Haleakalā, the Gateway is distinguished by its tile roofs and Mediterranean architecture, and by its superb location and view. Peek seaward from one of the boutiques and you’ll glimpse the ocean and the West Maui Mountains; look mauka (toward the mountain) and you’ll witness the massiveness of Haleakalā, the defining geological feature of the island. The Gateway is a Wailea pivot point, conveniently serving the retail and dining needs of the Wailea community while serving as a gateway to points beyond.

The center’s proximity to Wailea’s hotels and residences is both a convenience and a luxury. Carefully selected boutiques and specialty shops fill a multitude of retail and dining needs: Rare wines and gourmet items are a boon for homeowners and guests with a penchant for entertaining, as well as those in search of epicurean gifts and treasures. Specialty boutiques and services are tailor-made for the resort lifestyle, adding an extra layer of convenience.

The two-story Gateway offers everything from wines to clothing, coffee and pastries, a day spa, artisanal chocolates and beach wear. Adding to these lifestyle enhancements are diverse dining choices: pizza and sandwiches, Greek and Mediterranean fare and Hawai‘i Regional Cuisine. Take-out foods for those on the move and farm-to-table dining at a Wailea hotspot are available from morning into the after-dinner hours. For those seeking a new home or adventures on the high seas, real estate professionals and sailing adventures are also located in the center.

Wailea Gateway Place, at the intersection of Pi‘ilani Highway and Wailea Iki Drive.

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©RACHEL OLSSON

Where artisanal boutiques abound

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Shops, Galleries and More Andaz Maui at Wailea

WILLOW STREAM SPA

3550 Wailea Alanui 808.573.1234

This recently opened 9,000-squarefoot spa includes a boutique with Jane Iredale mineral-based cosmetics, OPI nail polish and Kerstin Florian skincare, including its signature caviar-based product line. A fine selection of beauty cases, beach bags, sarongs and beauty products complements the services.

‘ÄWILI SPA AND SALON

Along with custom-blended scrubs, lotions, oils and body butters, the spa boutique includes fashions by local designers.

MOKAPU MARKET

Prepared takeaway foods include pastries, paninis, pizza, gelato and locally crafted beverages, all in a 24-hour convenience store with style.

Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea 3900 Wailea Alanui 808.874.8000 22 KNOTS

The Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui 4100 Wailea Alanui 808.875.4100 THE FAIRMONT STORE

From Havaiana flip-flops to swimwear, Maui Jim sunglasses, books, gifts and accessories, this store covers all resort needs.

CAFFE CIAO BAKERY & DELI

This is a one-stop-shop for tasty treats and foodie gifts, from gourmet made-on-Maui food products to a wide variety of unique souvenirs, including specialty kitchen items and signature Kea Lani jams, teas and condiments. From prepared foods to go, to deluxe pastries, chocolates and wines, it’s an epicurean oasis.

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Fine jewelry, high-end fashion and beach-to-evening style make a strong sartorial statement here, with iconic labels—Missoni, Lanvin, Pucci included.

CABANA

Chic, comfortable and exclusive printed tees, rash guards by James Perse and designer beachwear with flair are among the boutique’s finds. Shoes, accessories and apparel are included in this well-thoughtout selection for men, women and kids.

HILDGUND JEWELRY

808.874.5800 Luxury gems, diamonds and unique designs are the signature of Hildgund’s, long considered one of Hawai‘i’s premier jewelers.

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PORTS

The travel essentials—sundries, logowear, snacks and gift ideas—are covered in this thoughtful, colorful selection.

TOWN AND COUNTRY MAUI, INC.

808.875.8822 Here’s where you’ll find fragrant, fresh and exotic blooms and arrangements, suitable for any occasion.

sundries and resort accessories, such as beach bags, polo shirts and bathrobes.

WAILEA MEN’S SHOP

Tommy Bahama, Toes on the Nose and shirts, shorts, shoes and jackets put the spotlight on men. Whether it’s surf gear, swimwear, belts, hats or socks, this is designed for the active man with style.

KI‘I GALLERY

The Grand Wailea Shops and Galleries 3850 Wailea Alanui 808.875.1234

You’ll find handmade jewelry, hand-blown art glass and luxurious jewelry of luminous, multicolored South Seas pearls in this long-standing, respected Maui gallery.

BEACH & POOL STORE

NA HOKU

Water toys, hats, footwear, sun shirts, waterproof cameras and tanning lotions are included in the large selection of sun-friendly supplies.

Exotic and elegant Na Hoku jewelry is inspired by the beauty and traditions of the Islands. Many of the intricately crafted pieces are enriched with Tahitian, Akoya or freshwater pearls.

CRUISE

The eye-catching, colorful resortwear and accessories include DIVA, one of swimwear’s most exclusive lines.

GRAND IMAGE BOUTIQUE

Spa Grande’s skincare products, therapeutic massage oils, elixirs and activewear fill yoga, fitness and beauty needs. Maui’s own ‘Ala Lani and Island Essence lines and Kaua‘i’s Malie are among the spa products.

NAPUA GALLERY

A Dale Chihuly chandelier joins the original paintings, sculpture, jewelry and fine art items of this gallery, including works by the premier artists of Maui.

PINEAPPLE PATCH

Imaginative toys, books, puzzles and beachwear are among the finds for children. You’ll find hats, sun shirts and more.

QUIKSILVER

GRAND JEWELS OF WAILEA

The estate, vintage, rare and high-fashion finds include diamond, platinum and 18k-gold jewelry, as well as oneof-a-kind pieces by Norman Silverman Diamonds, Inc. WAILEA GIFT SHOP

Gift items from Hawai‘i can be found among the logowear, souvenirs,

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The Roxy and Quiksilver signatures are the latest in swimwear, board shorts, logowear, sunglasses and backpacks for catching the waves or exploring Maui.

TRADEWINDS BOUTIQUE

The big names in resortwear—Lilly Pulitzer, Karen Kane, XCVI—are offered with fine handbags, sandals and essentials.

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WAILEA BREEZES

Wailea Old Blue Clubhouse

It’s a breeze to put your best foot forward with this resort-savvy selection of men’s and women’s footwear, handbags, accessories and color casuals.

PRO SHOP CLUBHOUSE

Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa 3700 Wailea Alanui 808.879.1922

120 Kaukahi Street 808.879.2530 The Old Blue’s fully stocked pro shop features top-of-the-line golf apparel, equipment and accessories. Respected labels in fashion and sports, such as Adidas and Nike, add to the selection of fine resort and golf attire.

ACCENTS

A one-stop shop for fun lovers, the shop offers snacks and sundries, beach and sports apparel, accessories, souvenirs and distinctive gifts.

Wailea Tennis Club

GRANDE'S GEMS

Tennis enthusiasts will find fine sports apparel, equipment, shoes and supplies at this full-service pro shop. It’s the best place in Wailea to stock up on athletic gear and sportswear by respected names, such as Adidas, Nike and more.

Precious and semiprecious stones, Hawaiian charms, souvenirs and exquisite jewelry add a dash of sparkle to your vacation.

PRO SHOP

131 Wailea Ike Place 808.879.1958

MANDARA SPA

Maui’s Island Essence mango-coconut body wash and Elemis lime-ginger scrub are among the finds at this fragrant spa shop. Treatment lines and beauty products uphold the East-West theme.

Wailea Gateway Center Wailea Gateway Place, at the intersection of Pi‘ilani Highway and Wailea Iki Drive See page 86 for information.

Wailea Town Center Wailea Golf Club PRO SHOP, GOLD AND EMERALD CLUBHOUSE

100 Wailea Golf Club Drive 808.875.7450 Wailea’s award-winning pro shop carries such renowned brands as TaylorMade, Adidas, Nike, TravisMathew, Puma, Ferrari Golf (exclusive on Maui), Polo/Ralph Lauren, Tommy Bahama, Sport Haley, Hobo, Brighton, Eric Javits and more.

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161 Wailea Ike Place The center includes banking and ATM services, real estate advisers, a wine shop, health and wellness center and other professional services. For other everyday needs, the center also includes a medical and urgent-care facility, flower shop, car rental and dry cleaners.

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FUN IN THE SUN

The Pleasures and Rituals of the Beach Life

For seasoned beachgoers, being prepared is as important as getting there

With 120 miles of coastline and 30 miles of beaches, Maui shines brightly in the universe of fun. Wailea’s five crescent beaches are a dream come true for sun lovers and fun lovers, and the coastal trail and sunset spectaculars add to the daily pleasure.

For many, a day at the beach entails more than just getting there. Some beachgoers observe preparatory rituals in filling their beach kits: Will it be Vanity Fair or The New Yorker, The New York Times or the Maui Times, the newest bestseller or your dog-eared favorite? Sunglasses, a cap or wide-brimmed hat, snacks, cooler, towels and the all-important sunscreen help fill the morning with promise.

Snorkelers and divers tote their own specialized equipment. Fins are a must for bodysurfers and snorkelers, and masks and snorkels occupy their own special place in the hierarchy of beach needs. Anti-fog drops for the snorkeling mask are indispensable unless you can find a fresh, tender naupaka kahakai leaf. (That naupaka growing abundantly on Hawai‘i’s shorelines is a marvel of natural order.) Crush a young leaf, rub it on the inside of your mask, and the leaf’s natural moisture prevents fogging.

The five white naupaka petals are mysteriously arranged as if half the flower is missing, but its counterpart, naupaka kuahiwi, grows in the mountains with identical blooms. When held together, they merge as one. According to Hawaiian lore, the flowers represent the forbidden love of a Hawaiian princess, named Naupaka, and the commoner who claimed her heart. Forced to part by Hawaiian protocol, one of the star-crossed lovers went to the mountains, the other to the ocean. To this day, the naupaka bushes flourishing at the shorelines call to mind this poignant Hawaiian legend.

Looking for seashells, scanning the horizon for whales and dolphins, and basking in the views of Kaho‘olawe and the West Maui Mountains add their own luster to the beach life. As the slogan for a pivotal environmental movement in Hawai‘i said years ago, “If we lose the beauty of our shoreline, we lose what it means to live in Hawai‘i.”

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ALOHA MOMENT

Aia i ka ‘opua ke ola: he ola nui, he ola laula, he ola hohonu, he ola ki‘eki‘e ©JOHN ELK III/ALAMY

Life is in the clouds, great life, broad life, deep life, elevated life.

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