Houlani Hale

Awakening pre-dawn I opened my eyes to something akin to being in a large alien spaceship, very dim blinking lights intermittently revealed a high ceiling that looked organic. The sound of crashing waves confirmed where I was - inside a huge hale (Hawaiian style building) - the palm-leaf-thatched ceiling was organic, eerily lit by the glow of the blinking of a bank of charging cell phones. Permit the dramatic description: this place is really something, almost other-worldly.

This is Houlani Hale, a short distance south of Hana on the island of Maui, home to our host Palani, where most of the hale symposium participants are staying for the event. A few acres tucked in next to the cattle ranching fields right on the coast, with a series of buildings laid out around a big lawn area turned into a small scale golf course for practice. (Once a year our host deploys his riding lawn mower into the cattle pastures to create a cross-country style golf course for a local invitation-only tournament.)

The 100 foot hale dominates the buildings, a barn essentially, serves as the symposium meeting room and dorm. From there working toward the ocean: a bar hale, a pizza oven, wash basins, shower, and head. The photo is the kitchen/dining area where some great grinds have come from, a full spread at every meal.

The lawn ends abruptly at a rocky cliff perhaps 10 meters above the ocean. There's no beach but one of the guys is quite a diver and he gets down there and brings up fresh fish and shellfish.

It's almost 5:30 and biscuits just went into the pizza oven to bake. Here's the recipe: mix one box Bisquik with two cans coconut milk; bake.