Pete Jalbert R(S)

While my brother Billy was waiting to meet a client in Lahaina, he wandered down to the harbor to check out the action. It looks like some lucky fishermen made quite a catch while prowling the waters off of Maui.

This Marlin weighed in at 916lbs! It was caught on the Start Me Up. For this lucky crew, Start Me UP is going to mean a lot more than a classic Rolling Stones Song.

There are a number of Maui Sport Fishing Charters based out of Lahaina and Ma'alaea. You may not catch a whopper like this one, but chances are you will have a good time in the beautiful waters off of Maui.

Every June 11th, King Kamehameha day is celebrated in Hawaii. The holiday pays tribute to Kamehamemeha I also known as Kamehameha the Great. Kamehameha was the first king to rule over all of the Hawaiian islands and the creator of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Kamehameha was born in the late 1750s in the Kohala area of the Big Island. By 1790, he ruled over the entire Big Island with a vision of expanding his reign to the rest of the island chain. Over a period between 1790 and 1795, he mobilized a large military force bolstered by superior tactics and western weaponry to conquer the islands of Maui, Molokai and Oahu. He found the rest of the island chain more elusive. Numerous attempts to take the islands of Kauai and Niihau were rebuffed before a combination of coercion and the threat of iminent force compelled the King of Kauai to negotiate and become Kamehameha's vasal.

By 1810, he had established the Hawaiian Kingdom. His rule was renowned for its unified law and protection of non-combatants during warfare. He developed a balanced foreign policy that helped maintain the island chain's independence while many island nations of the Pacific were being colonialized. His ability to balance the introduction of modern influences with Hawaiian traditions helped establish a foundation that allowed the Kingdom maintain its sovereignty throughout most of the 19th century. The Hawaiian monarchy persisted well past his death in 1819 until the islands were annexed by the United States in 1898.

Here are some other online resources on Kamehameha:

The Story of Kamehameha

Hawaiian Monarchy

Kamehameha Editorial in Today's Maui News

Maui will get a little taste of Hollywood over the next few days as the Maui Film Festival At Wailea starts tomorrow. The festival runs from Wednesday through Sunday with events scheduled throughout the Wailea Resort and at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. The festival includes feature films, documentaries and short films with a particular attention to independent productions. In addition to movies, there are film panels, taste events, musical performances and celebrity tributes. This year the festival will honor Dennis Quaid, Virginia Madsen, Pierce Brosnan and Felicity Huffman.

This is always a great event. To me the highlights of the festival are the outdoor movies. The Celestial Cinema is held on the Wailea Gold and Emerald Course. It is really nice to be able to take in a movie under the stars in the cool night air. I am also going to try to check out the Sand Dance theater this year. They host documentary movies down on the beach in front of the Four Seasons Resort and in front of the Baccarat Resorts and Residences.

The Maui Film Festival crew does a great job of hosting this event and many more throughout the year on Maui. Every Wednesday they feature critically acclaimed independent, documentary and foreign films at the MACC. In December, they host the First Light Film Festival at the MACC which highlights all of the years most critically acclaimed films. They are a tremendous to the community of Maui.

Tonight starts the beginning of Obon season on Maui. Obon season is celebrated at the various Japanese Buddhist temples throughout the island. Obon is a time where the Buddhist community honors the dead through music, dance and ritual.

Throughout the summer, the various temples of the island will host a public Obon dance. Members of the local temple will erect fund raising booths and a yaguro tower. The yaguro tower is the focal point of the dance with a combination of live Taiko drumming and recorded Japanese folk music emananting from the top of the tower. Members of the community will dance around the tower in a series of coregraphed Japanese folk dances. All may participate regardless of denomenation.

In addition to the dance, ancestors are remembered through tributes of flowers, food, incense and prayer within temples and at family shrines and grave sites. I had the opportunity to attend an Obon dance last year at the local temple in Paia. It was a fun event and a great reminder of the multi-cultural aspects of living in Hawaii. The synthesis of Asian, Polynesian and European cultures are one of the reasons that Hawaii is such a unique and beautiful location in this country and the world for that matter.

I continue to field an increasing number of inquiries from buyers who want to build green. One option that I like to make my buyer's aware of comes through a Maui based company. Bamboo technologies is offering attractive, cost effective green homes.

The eco friendly attibutes of bamboo construction are impressive. A conventional home built with lumber from hardwoods may require up to an acre of trees. It takes hardwoods between 30 and 50 years before they can be harvested for timber. Bamboo on the other hand requires harvesting an area not much larger than the footprint of the home. Typically it takes 5-7 years for bamboo to grow before it can be harvested. The contrast is striking.

Because the homes are green, don't get the impression that these homes have to be spartan. Bamboo technologies provides the shell and the consumer can finish to their liking. I have seen some very well appointed bamboo homes like this listing in Haiku. The bamboo itself offers its own elegance. The trusses and beams of the bamboo homes that I have seen are beautiful in their own right.

Bamboo is also a tremendously strong material. Bamboo technology homes were exposed to a hurricane in the Caroline Islands in 2005. The hurricane devastated many of the nearby wood homes while the bamboo homes weathered the storm. The materials have been subject to rigorous testing by the state of Hawaii and Internation building standards.

Bamboo homes are also a cost effective alternative. Compared to other homes in Hawaiii, a fully finished bamboo home is less expensive than all but the most basic conventional homes. Construction time can also be reduced. The shell for the home can be assembled in as quickly as a week.

Bamboo homes were just starting to come to market as the land market in Maui was reaching its peak. As land prices continue to adjust, I suspect you will see more bamboo homes being constructed on island. Contact me if you are looking for a piece of land to build a bamboo home or if you would like information on existing bamboo home listings.