ハワイ島のホームステッド-ハワイ

Both raised on the Big Island, my husband and I returned to Hawaii in 2003 to help manage my family’s homestead. We had completed our education at the San Francisco Art Institute, and we were about to have our daughter, Kia’i. Our vision was to create a sustainable lifestyle that balanced both work and play, and to raise our daughter surrounded by the vibrancy of nature. Today, in addition to being educators in local schools, we own and operate Manukai Designs, a workshop & art studio located here on our homestead. We produce fine art for exhibition and by commission, as well as bodysurfing handboards made from foraged wood and old surfboards, and jewelry crafted from upcycled surfboard resin. We are lifelong surfers and if we're not working on the homestead or in our studio...you'll find us in the ocean.

When my parents found this homestead in Paauilo in the early '80s, they felt it was full of possibilities. Restoring 80-year-old buildings and reclaiming land that was overgrown from years of neglect was daunting, but was a project for a growing family. Today Keolamauloa is a family treasure that continues to evolve.

I love living here. Our normal weather pattern mixes sunshine and rain most days. The evenings are cool and sometimes the fog rolls in, or heavy rains pound on our plantation era tin roofs. A great day is to heading to the West side for scorching sun, white sand and coconut trees, and then retreating home to the cool of Paauilo Mauka with its forest overstory, snuggling under blankets and listening to the sound of the tree frogs singing in the evening. The Hamakua Coast is truly magical.