Category Archives: Where We Live

Aquaponics, Bananas, Big Island, Blog, Family of Farms, How It All Started, Hydroelectric, Lowering Electric Rates, Mauna Kea, Our Story, Peak Oil, Sustainability, Video, Where We Live

Huffington & Omidyar Visit Hamakua Springs

September 7, 2013 Richard Ha 1 Comment

By Leslie Lang, blog editor

Thursday was such an interesting day. Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, and Pierre Omidyar, founder of Honolulu’s online newspaper Civil Beat (and founder of eBay), spent some time at Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

The background is that Huffington Post and Civil Beat have teamed up to start HuffPost Hawaii (and they asked Richard to blog for the new online news organization. Here’s his first HuffPost Hawaii post, by the way.)

So this week, Arianna and Pierre were making the rounds in Hawai‘i for the big HuffPost Hawaii launch. They spent Thursday on the Big Island, where they were welcomed with a big reception at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.

The only other Big Island stop they made was to Richard’s farm. They had asked if they could come and meet Richard and learn about what he’s doing. So that happened Thursday afternoon, and Richard invited me to join them there.

What a completely fascinating day. There’s something about being around really smart people who are doing big and really interesting things, making things happen and making a difference. Richard is completely like that, too, as you know if you’ve been reading this blog. It’s invigorating to be around that kind of energy.

Both Arianna and Pierre are very friendly and down-to-earth, and both are interested in issues of sustainability and what Richard is doing.

Richard told them about his background — flunking out of college the first time around and ending up in Vietnam, coming back and trading manure from his father’s chicken farm for bananas to start what eventually became Hamakua Springs Country Farms — about seeing prices start rising, rising, rising and wondering why; about attending five Peak Oil conferences and starting to learn what was happening. He talked about how he forces the changes needed to get to where he needs to be five or 10 years in the future.

He talked about the current threat to Big Island farming from anti-GMO bills, and Pierre asked some very salient (and polite) questions about some common GMO fears, such as of:

Commercial control of seeds. Richard replied that in many cases, such as with, for instance, the Rainbow papaya, virus-resistant seeds are developed by the university and not controlled by any big business at all. This, he said, is often the case.

Cross-pollination, or “pollen drift.” Richard responded that due to numerous studies, we know how much drift there is for different crops. Farmers work together, he says, to plan what is planted where, plant so many lines of “guard rows” and it’s completely manageable.

They asked about Richard’s new hydroelectric system, and we took a dusty, bumpy country road drive out to see where the water runs through an old sugar cane flume, and then through a turbine.

Arianna and Pierre were very interested in this, and in how, when the switch is thrown very shortly, the farm will be saving perhaps almost half of its monthly electric bill, which now averages $10-11,000.

Pierre asked about returning excess power to the utility, and was shocked to learn that due to a technicality, Richard will not be paid for the power he feeds to HELCO. Pierre kept returning to that and said, more than once, “That’s just not right.” Richard finally replied, “Well, at least it’s not wasted.”

Richard Ha, Arianna Huffington, Pierre Omidyar, Leslie Lang, June Ha

Richard talked about how they have converted the farm from growing mostly bananas to being a family of farms, which brings in local farmers who then have a close-to-home place to farm. This, in turn, means the farm produces a more diverse crop.

He told Arianna and Pierre about growing their current experiment growing tilapia, to learn how to add a protein component to the food they produce and also use the waste as fertilizer. Workers can fish for tilapia there and take some home for their families.

Arianna and Pierre both seemed sincerely interested. They paid close attention and asked good questions.

Richard told them about talking with Kumu Lehua Veincent, who was principal of Keaukaha Elementary School back in the early days of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) push. He told them that he asked Kumu Lehua, “What if we ask the TMT for five, full-ride scholarships to the best schools in the nation for your best students?” He told them that Kumu Lehua thought about it for a minute and then quietly asked, “And what about the rest?”

This was a turning point, explained Richard, who said that at the time he could feel his ears turning red. He told Arianna and Pierre that that phrase, What about the rest? gives him an “unfailing moral compass.”

It always brings him back to the rubbah slippah folk, he told them. The “rubbah slippah” folk are in contrast to the “shiny shoes” folk. When he explained this, Pierre looked down at his own shoes.

“I wore my shiny shoes today,” he said, “but I meant to change into my sneakers before coming to the farm.” He mentioned his shiny shoes a couple more times during the visit.

“I felt they absolutely got what I meant when I advocated for the ‘rubbah slippah’ folks,” Richard told me, “and completely support that idea.”

Richard’s daughter Tracy had laid out a beautiful spread of Hamakua Springs produce back by the office, where there was a tent set up, and Arianna zeroed in on the longan.

“What’s this?” she said, and Tracy explained that it’s a delicious fruit. She handed one to Arianna, along with some wipes (they are juicy and messy), and Arianna loved it.

Arianna gives the impression of being very family-oriented. “At what point did you and June get married in this long process?” she asked, when Richard was explaining how he got started farming 35 years ago. (The answer: 32 years ago, and when June joined the family she took all the farm receipts out of a big banana box and straightened out the accounting.) Arianna asked Tracy if she had siblings. When she was introduced to Richard’s grandson Kapono, she looked at him, and at his parents, and asked, “Now, are you Tracy and Kimo’s son?” (Yes.)

She gave June a copy of her book, On Becoming Fearless.

Both Arianna and Pierre are such interesting people. One of the things Richard talks about is forcing change, and that is something that both his guests are all about, too: Looking down the road and fixing things, forcing the change instead of letting things bumble along.

It is refreshing to be in the presence of such interesting thinkers and doers. Great day.

This is a video Civil Beat did with Richard recently, before Arianna and Pierre’s visit. It’s really nicely done and you get to hear a bit about some of the topics they discussed yesterday (while seeing gorgeous views of the farm).

Articles, Big Island, Hamakua Coast, Hydroelectric, Renewable Energy Sources, Video, Water, Where We Live

Civil Beat & Huffington Post Coverage

August 16, 2013 Richard Ha

Honolulu's Civil Beat came to the Big Island and interviewed Richard for this really good article on energy and Hawai‘i – and then today it was picked up by the Huffington Post. Wow.

From Civil Beat:

Energy Prices Shock Hawaii Farmers Into Alternatives

by Sophie Cocke 8/15/13

HAMAKUA, BIG ISLAND — Lush green fields rise and dip through the rolling hills that stretch down to the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. The verdant surroundings and tropical air suggest this farm could be one of countless others. So does the water that flows past leafy, green taro fields, stalks of corn that sway in the breeze and the sweet potato patch.

But the subtle, steady swooshing of the water signals how this farm is different. The water has been diverted from a mountain stream, down a 150-foot slope and into a small, blue shed where it sends blades spinning to generate electricity.

Yes, Hamakua Springs Country Farms has its own hydroelectric plant.

Farmer Richard Ha borrowed money to install the plant as part of a 19th-century solution to a very 21st century problem: sky-high energy rates….

Read the rest here

There's a short video interview with Richard at the end, too.

- posted by Leslie Lang

Where We Live

A Farmer’s Perspective on Tropical Storm Flossie

July 29, 2013 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

We came away from Tropical Storm Flossie unscathed. We hope other farmers around the state were lucky, too.

I was up early this morning, and on my way to the farm I stopped by Hilo Bay to check out the storm. Last night they said it should arrive here around 6 a.m., and it sounded like it was going to be head on, coming straight at us.

We already know that 60 mph winds would take down our bananas, the ones in exposed places, and also our tomato houses. That’s why we planted our primary windbreaks to protect from north and south winds. They are serving that purpose well.

Because the sun moves across the sky somewhat to the south of directly overhead, we planted the windbreaks on the south sides of the roadways, so the shadows would fall on the road rather than on the plants. Farmers know that sun energy drives photosynthesis. Each leaf is a solar collector. But we must not restrict air movement too much, or fungus will thrive. There are lots of variables to consider.

So this morning around 6:00, I took these pictures at Hilo Bay.

I looked around and said, Holy smokes! The sun was coming up right behind me and I could see both mountains. I could see the top of Mauna Kea, and I could see the outline of Pepe‘ekeo point, clearly. That’s the point where the topography changes.

There was a north wind. The leading edge of the storm was blowing from the north. It wasn’t very strong, so I knew it was far away. Above the angry-looking clouds I could see blue sky, so it wasn’t very high and not very deep. That was significant.

Because we knew the storm was turning counter-clockwise, I predicted that as the storm went by it would increasingly be blocked by the slopes of Mauna Kea. As it kept moving and you could still see blue sky, sooner or later you would catch the back end of the storm where the wind starts blowing from the opposite direction. When it turned south, I thought, there did not appear to be much moisture-laden air to support heavy rainfall.

You could actually see it. I said early on that if this holds true to form, we should avoid the heavy rainfall we had expected. And that's how it turned out.

Farmers have to be able to do this sort of stuff. They’ve got to know how to watch the weather, and know how these things work, like planting windbreaks in the right places. We’ve seen what happens to plants that grow up against windbreaks. They don't grow as well without enough sun energy to support growth.

This morning we were at the farm, prepared for the worst-case scenario. We would have cut the ropes and let the plastic on our tomato houses fly,if necessary, instead of letting the wind twist the metal houses. Though if there was thunder and lightning, we wouldn’t have let our workers go out to do that. Worker safety comes first.

It’s very interesting to have seen it all happen and understood exactly what is going on.

Hamakua Coast, Where We Live

Preparing for Tropical Storm Flossie

July 28, 2013 Richard Ha 2 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

We have gone into “hurricane mode” here. Tropical Storm Flossie is due to hit the Big Island around 6 a.m. tomorrow morning.

From Hawaii News Now at 8 p.m. Sunday:

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) –

Tropical Storm Flossie continues to maintain strength as it inches closer to the islands. As of 8 p.m. Sunday, maximum sustained winds were 60 miles per hour, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) in Honolulu.

Forecasters said at 8 p.m., the storm was located about 260 miles east of Hilo, or 465 miles east of Honolulu. It was moving toward the west at 18 miles per hour.

Winds in excess of 60 mph can knock down banana plants and damage our tomato houses. Our worker safety is top priority.

We’ll see what the 11 p.m. weather report says. I’ll try to post again with an update tomorrow morning, early.

Big Island, Community, Food Security, Sustainability, Where We Live

Guest Post: Our Adventures at Kawanui Farm

July 3, 2013 Richard Ha

Richard Ha writes:

Nancy Redfeather is an organic farmer and good friend of mine. She heads the School Garden Network and is a perfect example of someone who walks the talk.

We know ancient Hawaiians grew their food primarily around the valley/plains where nutrients were funneled down from the uplands. Some examples are Waipi‘o Valley, lots of places on Kaua‘i and Waikiki. Then they did field systems like upslope ones in Kona and Kohala.

As a farmer myself, I know this took a lot of planning and effort. Upslope farming is not easy at all.

I think the ancient Hawaiians would understand and greatly admire what Nancy folks have done!

By Nancy Redfeather

I have been a home gardener for 40 years, and my husband Gerry, too. We love growing food, herbs, flowers and medicines, and working with the soil. It has always been an interest and passion of mine, and my husband feels the same way. I think that is one of the reason we fell in love.

It’s hard to explain why we feel that way we do. We love the land and enjoy forming a partnership with it. When I started growing gardens, as a young teacher in 1973, I really didn’t know what I was doing, so I read books, took classes and learned from the excellent gardeners around me. I continue to do all those things 40 years later!

We live at Kawanui Farm in the ahupua‘a of Kawanui, nestled between Honalo and Kainaliu in mauka Kona. My neighbors’ families have all lived here for as long as anyone can remember

Kawanui, according to the Hawaiian Dictionary, means “the great jumping off place.” And so it has been that for Gerry and me. The 1.2 acres of land have afforded us the experience of a lifetime – to work with a raw piece of land, create a relationship with it and build soil fertility by recycling nutrients into the soil

When we arrived, most of the piece was in Guinea Grass. We carefully removed the clumps with a small tractor and built an enormous compost pile, returning the finished compost back to the land. So began the great horticultural adventure at Kawanui Farm.

Now it is 15 years later. The quarter-acre kitchen garden, half-acre production garden and half acre of orchard and coffee continues to grow and change with the seasons and the year.

All organic matter is recycled back into the land, the wood becomes firewood for our morning fires and the ash is cycled back into the garden beds. Everything else is composted or used as mulch. We always try to keep the ground covered, as uncovered soil will want to germinate something to cover it, moisture is lost and organic matter is burned up. Besides applying compost, bones are burned and crushed, basalt rock dust is spread, seaweed is composted, but above everything is the compost. Gerry calls it, “The heart and soul of the garden.”

I’m fortunate that now I can work with schools, children, youth and teachers all around Hawai‘i Island and reintroduce children to the garden, as over the past 30 years fewer and fewer people have been growing food for their families. In the 1970s and earlier in Hawai‘i, it was common to have a backyard garden to help feed the family, along with hunting, fishing and trading the foods and fruits of the land with your friends and neighbors. Most schools had large gardens and the food grown was incorporated into the lunch meal for the children. Today that is illegal.

Renewing our connection with the garden, our food and the land will help to also reconnect us to the values of Aloha ‘Aina, Malama ‘Aina and ‘Aina Momona: Love for the land, caring for the land, and the abundance that comes from the land.

On May 4, 2011, after an entire year of rain in the mauka area, there was a “weather event” of biblical proportions. A cold system from the north collided with a warm system from the south right over the area between Honalo to Kealakekua.

Lightning bolts were hitting the ground and setting electrical poles on fire. The thunder was deafening. The rain was torrential, and as I sat, working at my desk and looking out the window, I began to see streams of water shooting through the stone wall pukas behind our house. And then the water broke down the wall and came toward the house in a river. For four hours it continued to flow, about a foot deep or so, over the entire land.

It never entered my home, but carried 12 years of compost from the gardens down the hill. The water broke down the wall at the bottom of the land and went straight for the ocean, carrying a great deal of fertility with it. There was nothing to do but watch and pray.

We had eight inches of rain that day, and later NRCS told me they estimate that 340 million gallons of water came down the hill that
afternoon. I have no doubt this was a global warming event. More rain and more drought. As you can imagine the place was a mess. Floods bring more than water. Glass, plastic, weed seeds and diseases we had never seen in our plants before.

For one year following, we rebuilt walls, hauled soil back up to the gardens and continued composting and giving special teas to heal the land. One year later, everything was back to where it was. The land had recovered and we had also. I think the underlying humus, organic matter, and years of composting and mulching helped the land to heal itself. Now, two years later, there is not a trace of disease. Flood? What flood?

We feel very blessed to live at Kawanui and be able to grow our food and form a deep partnership with nature. We are fortunate to live in a place where food can be grown year round – and such biodiversity! Whether it is a small pot of herbs on your windowsill or a 10×10 garden in your backyard, growing something you eat reconnects you with the cycles of life and puts a smile on your face.

Try it. Experiment-experiment-experiment. Garden with a friend, a loved one, or a garden pal; you will enjoy it so much more.

Aquaponics, Bananas, Big Island, Eating Locally, Family of Farms, Food Security, Geothermal, Hamakua Coast, How It All Started, Hydroelectric, Hydroponics, Lowering Electric Rates, Our Employees, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability, Taro/Poi, Tomatoes, Water, Where We Live

The Wheres & Whyfors of Hamakua Springs

June 9, 2013 Leslie Lang

By Leslie Lang

The other day Richard gave some of us a tour of Hamakua Springs Country Farms in Pepe‘ekeo, and its new hydroelectric plant, and wow. I hadn’t been out to the farm for awhile, and it was so interesting to ride around the 600 acres with Richard and see all that’s going on there these days.

Most of what I realized (again) that afternoon fell into two
broad categories: That Richard really is a master of seeing the big picture, and that everything he does is related to that big picture.

Hamakua Springs, which started out growing bananas and then expanded into growing the deliciously sweet hydroponic tomatoes we all know the farm for, has other crops as well.

These days there are farmers leasing small plots where they are growing taro, corn, ginger and sweet potato. These farmers’ products go to the Hamakua Springs packing house and Hamakua Springs distributes them, which speaks to Richard’s goal of providing a place for local farmers to farm, wherethere is water and packing and distribution already in place.

As we drove, we saw a lot of the water that passes through his farm. There are three streams and three springs. It’s an enormous amount of water, and it’s because of all this water that he was able to develop his brand new hydroelectric system, where they are getting ready to throw the switch.

The water wasn’t running through there the day we were there because they’d had to temporarily “turn it off” – divert the water – in order to fix something, but we could see how the water from an old plantation flume now runs through the headworks and through a pipe and into the turbine, which is housed in a blue shipping container.

This is where the electricity is generated, and I was interested to see a lone electric pole standing there next to the system. End of the line! Or start of the line, really, as that’s where the electricity from the turbine is carried to. And from there, it works its way across the electric lines stretched between new poles reaching across the land.

He asked the children who were along with us for their ideas
about how to landscape around the hydroelectric area, and also where the water leaves the turbine to run out and rejoin the stream.

“We could do anything here,” he said, asking for thoughts, and
we all came up with numerous ideas, some fanciful. Trees and grass? A taro lo‘i? Maybe a picnic area, or a water flume ride or a demonstration garden or fishponds?

There are interesting plans for once the hydro system is operating, including a certified kitchen where local area producers can bring their products and create value-added goods.

Other plans include having some sort of demo of sustainable
farming, and perhaps ag-tourism ativities like walking trails going through the farm, and maybe even a B&B. “The basis of all tourism,” he said, “is sustainability.”

Hamakua Springs is also experimenting with growing mushrooms
now, and looking into several other possibilities for using its free
electricity.

As we stopped and looked at the streams we kept coming
across, which ran under the old plantation roads we drove upon, Richard made an observation that I found interesting. In the Hawaiian way, the land is thought of as following the streams down from mountain to sea. In traditional ways, paths generally ran up-and-down the hill, following the shape of the ahupua‘a.

“But look at the plantation roads,” he said, and he pointed
out how they run across the land, from stream to stream. The plantation way was the opposite. Not “wrong” – just different.

Richard has plans to plant bamboo on the south sides of the
streams, which will keep the water cool and keep out invasive species.

At the farm, they continue to experiment with raising
tilapia, which are in four blue pools next to the reservoir.

June with a full net

The pools are at different heights because they are using gravity to flow the water from one pool to the next, rather than a pump. Besides it being free, this oxygenates the water as it falls into the next pool. They are not raising the fish commercially at present, but give them to their workers.

Everything that Richard does is geared toward achieving the same goal, and that is to keep his farm economically viable and sustainable.

If farmers make money, farmers will farm.

Continuing to farm means continuing to provide food for the local community, employing people locally and making it possible for local people to stay in Hawai‘i: This as opposed to people having to leave the islands, or their children having to leave the islands, in order to make a decent life for themselves.

The hydroelectric system means saving thousands per month in
electric bills, and being able to expand into other products and activities. It means the farm stays in business and provides for the surrounding community. It means people have jobs.

This is the same reason why, on a bigger scale, Richard is working to bring more geothermal into the mix on the Big Island: to decrease the stranglehold that high electricity costs have over us, so the rubbah slippah folk have breathing room, so that we all have more disposable income – which will, in turn, drive our local economy and make our islands more competitive with the rest of the world, and our standard of living higher, comparably.

When he says “rubbah slippah folk,” Richard told me, he’s always thinking first about the farm’s workers.

This, by the way, is really a great overview of how Richard describes the “big picture.” It’s a TEDx talk he did awhile back (17 minutes). Really worth a look.

It was so interesting to see firsthand what is going on at the farm right now, and hear about the plans and the wheres and whyfors. Thank you, Richard, for a really interesting and insightful afternoon.

Articles, Geothermal, Where We Live

Hawaiian Airlines Article about Puna, Geothermal & Richard

August 21, 2012 Richard Ha 1 Comment

By Leslie Lang

The August/September 2012 issue of Hana Hou! (the Hawaiian
Airlines in-flight magazine) has a good article about Puna and its geothermal energy.

Steam Dreams, by Paul Wood

It’s really an interesting article. Informative and easy to understand. I learned some things about how geothermal works:

To generate electricity, all you need to do is spin a coil of metallic threads inside a magnetic field (or, conversely, spin magnets inside a nest of metallic threads). The real question is: What force is going to do that spinning? The movement of water (cascades and tides) can turn a hydroelectric device. Wind will spin propellers. But most electricity is generated by steam, and to make steam you have to boil water. Oil, gas, coal and nuclear fuel are today’s favored methods for boiling water in power plants, and each comes with risks. But if you find natural steam in the ground, you don’t have to burn a thing because the earth has done it for you….

The article includes this quote by Wally Ishibashi (co-chair of the Geothermal Working Group with Richard), which I find thought-provoking:

What PGV doesn’t have is a huge smokestack—and that absence
is historic because Hawai‘i, though it contains zero natural deposits of fossil fuel, currently depends on oil for a whopping 90 percent of its energy. Last year the Big Island alone spent a billion dollars on oil. Wallace Ishibashi, head of the ILWU Hawai‘i chapter and a longtime proponent of geothermal, asks: “What do you think is our biggest export from Hawai‘i? Bananas? No way. Our biggest export is our own money. That billion dollars we spend on oil, we can keep that here.” Can we?…

And as a reward for reading to the end of the article, you will get to read about Richard:

In a democracy, every thorny problem needs at least one levelheaded farmer to think things through. Richard Ha served on the same Geothermal Working Group as Pat, and he too is a believer in geothermal. His thinking on it is Island-based and practical, and in fact Pat and many others regard Ha as the voice and conscience of geothermal, a citizen who has punched through the boundary between today’s energy crisis and tomorrow’s potential….

Click here to read the whole article

Aquaponics, Bananas, Hamakua Coast, Hydroponics, Lettuce, Peak Oil, Sustainability, Taro/Poi, Water, Where We Live

Conversations With My Mom

June 11, 2012 Richard Ha 4 Comments

Richard Ha writes:

I took Mom to Hamakua Springs to get a few tilapia for her dinner.

While we were there, we looked at some of the things we have going on.

Corn

Hamakua Springs bananas

Hydroponic lettuce, with special procedures to control slugs

Sweet potatoes

Zucchini

One thing that strikes me is how much water we have running through our 600-acre farm. We must maximize its usage.

Water Supply will build a new reservoir adjacent to this one and bring electricity right through the farm to the new well, which is right behind this reservoir

I really want to raise tilapia when the price of oil goes so high that bringing it in from Asia is prohibitive.

Tilapia for Mom. These are the small ones, to fry crispy.

And, while doing that, we want to demonstrate how Hawaiians were self-sufficient in ancient days.

Then while we are at it, we want to reforest the streams with ‘ohi‘a, koa, bamboo, kukui, hapu‘u, etc.

Also, how about aquaponics with tilapia and taro?
How about a certified kitchen to make lomi salmon, poi and other things where we and other farmers can add value?
What about classes for at-risk students?
Maybe a permanent imu.
Events set around food?
How about showing how food was produced then and now – ancient and modern?

Mom and I always have these kinds of conversations. I like it.

Where We Live

Merrie Monarch 2012

April 13, 2012 Leslie Lang

So finally, on Wednesday night, I got to see what it was like to watch my daughter and her halau perform, for a huge audience, chants and hulas I’d been watching in rehearsals for months, my daughter in a costume we made ourselves.

It was exhilarating. Thrilling.

Afterward I asked my daughter, who’s 8, to tell me a little more about her performance. She said, “I thought it would be scary but it wasn’t really. You were right, the people were all so happy about our dancing that I wasn’t scared.”

Beforehand I’d told her that the crowd loves her halau, Halau O Kekuhi, and would be roaring for them and loving the performance, and indeed that’s what happened. It was definitely not a hostile crowd. But, then again, there was nothing to be hostile about!

You can see and hear that on this Big Island Video News video of the Ho‘ike, which gives a good taste of Halau O Kekuhi’s performance, as well as the ones that followed it on Wednesday’s Ho‘ike (Exhibition) night.

And if you want to see some of Hilo’s Merrie Monarch competition, it streams live here at 6 p.m. Hawai‘i time on Friday, 4/13/12 and Saturday, 4/14. Tonight is the hula kahiko (ancient style) competition, and Saturday is the ‘auana (modern style) one.

Where We Live

Merrie Monarch: The Buzz Has Started

April 9, 2012 Leslie Lang

Last night, all of the sudden, Merrie Monarch practice at the Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium was different. Last week, it was just my daughter’s hālau there in a quiet stadium in the evenings, rehearsing. Now, just three days before the first performances, we arrived to find great activity.

Ti-leaf diplays are wrapped around the railings now, and anthuriums, heliconia and greens sit in arrangements around the stage. Sponsors’ banners were affixed to framework – Mauna Loa Macadamias, Hawaiian Airlines, Big Island Candies. Two women were crouched down behind the bleachers, soaking ti leaves, and braiding ti leaves; they were surrounded by buckets and buckets and buckets of flowers. Clearly they were decorating the place.

The sound people have set up behind the stage and were there, doing what they do. Oficial people walked around, studied the area where the royal court people sit, and talked about last minute repairs.

It wasn’t the quiet place they’d been practicing for days. There were suddenly lots of people, each with the jobs they’re doing, and there was a buzz.

Itʻs nothing, though, like the buzz that will fill that stadium on Wednesday night.