LIVING IN LAVA LAND, HAWAI’I

The Puna District: land of hippies, Hawaiians, and everything inbetween. If you were to ask people on other islands about Puna Hawai’i, they more than likely will tell you it’s a poor place, a ghetto essentially. It’s where cons go to hide and you probably don’t even want to know about anything that goes down in that particular jungle. Essentially three words come into mind: drugs, murder and missing people. I have to say, after scoring an internship with a sustainable eco-retreat center, I did a little homework before flying over. The first article that came up involved 2 missing people, and that led to many other missing people cases who have never been found. Whoa, why am I going here again? For some reason, that wasn’t enough to keep me away.

I landed in Hilo, late January 2013, it was actually sunny and gorgeous despite it was the rainy season. According to NOAA, Hilo gets an average of 126 inches of rain a year. When I landed, you would never have known that fact. The coastline was vibrant and green, full of palm trees and flora all illuminated by bright sunshine. I was blown away by the beauty of a city I had only heard negative comments about. Hilo, another victim of bad reviews and warnings. I actually had friends come through here years prior and advised me to stay away from the area. Hmm… judging by this view they couldn’t possibly be talking about the same place.

Fast forward to over a year later, I left for one last summer on the Outer Banks before moving full-time to Hawai’i Island. By this time I had been on island for over 6 straight months. Unlike before, I never island hopped and I lived the entire time in the oh so troublesome Puna district. So why am I here? The million dollar question everyone wants to know. I’m not a hippy. I’m not native Hawaiian though I am of Pacific Island descent. I’m not an ex-con nor am I running from anything. And I’m certainly not in the business of Marijuana. It’s not that complicated at all. I simply love the authenticity and natural environment that surrounds this small community.

The Puna district is almost the same size of the island of Kaua’i. Puna sits on the Lower East Rift Zone, which means it’s sitting on active volcano Kilauea. When I first came to this island, a steady stream of lava was flowing right into the ocean a 45 minute hike from the end of the road. The sheer power of ocean versus lava is the most magnificent scene I’ve ever been lucky enough to witness. Lava literally flows off the black hardened cliffs into the sea, where the waves pull and push creating the biggest cloud above the freshest earth in the making. Once you see something that, your world is forever changed. Every bad experience is counteracted with something extraordinarily amazing. And this is the case with Puna. All of the bad news articles and stories I had heard had been counteracted with a million good experiences. What the Volcano Goddess Pele teaches is that the act of destruction is also a continuous art of creation. And that is exactly what Puna is all about.