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Hawaii’s
highlanders adapt
to season’s cold
Living the high life has its
By Gary T. Kubota
benefits, say folks at
4,000-foot elevation
Star-BulletinThink it's been cold in Honolulu lately?
Think again, lowlander.
While city people have been exclaiming about having to use two or three blankets at night, another type of Hawaii resident has had to take the cold war a step further and is donning fleece, igniting fires and generally doing whatever it takes to keep back evening temperatures that recently have been approaching freezing.
Their homes are on the upper elevations of Haleakala on Maui, and Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on the Big Island. And, however perverse it may seem to wintering retirees and habitual sun-and-funners, they love it."I'm looking forward to it snowing," said artist George Allan, who lives at the 4,000-foot level on Haleakala. "The cold is fine."
Like native forest birds, many of these Hawaii highlanders have taken flight from populated coastal areas and sought sanctuary at the edge of human habitat. Although it may mean cold feet, the move has its benefits. They enjoy the quiet that comes with relative solitude, the crisp dawns, the walks through mist one night and under thousands of stars the next, the colors that come with a pronounced change of seasons.
And they like what their home sites don't have.
"There are no mosquitoes," said Martha Lockwood, who lives with her husband near the 4,000-foot level on Mauna Loa. "I'm very happy because I'm mosquito bait."
At the 4,000-foot level, temperatures often drop to 38 to 40 degrees in winter, and sometimes 32 degrees and lower, leaving frosted dew on the grass. Even near noon on sunny days, the thermometer may climb to just 70 degrees. (The highest point on Oahu is Kaala in the Waianae mountain range, with an elevation of 4,020 feet.)
Having a large pile of sun-dried wood is always a good idea. A fireplace, fire stove or kerosene heater is nearly a necessity. Allan, an Australian native who lived in Lahaina for 23 years before moving upland, has two fireplaces and an electric heating rug. He burns about a cord of wattle wood a year.
Man and woman must adapt in other ways. Cooking, for instance, may not be as stated by Betty Crocker. Lower pressures at higher altitudes are like a pressure cooker with the lid loose -- a 15-minute egg becomes a 30-minute egg. For the same reason, machine-drying a large load of laundry can take twice as long.
For a group of artists who have settled in Volcano Village at the 4,000-foot level on Mauna Loa, these are not problems. Artist Ira Ono -- who moved from New York to Hana to upcountry Makawao on Maui and finally to the Big Island -- said migrating to the coolness of Madame Pele's home has spiritual parallels to lamas settling in higher ground in Tibet.
"It clears and stimulates the mind," Ono said. Added Marilyn Nicholson, executive director of the Volcano Art Center: "It's cold but it's beautiful. I think it's very mystical and stimulating."
Even years of adaptation, though, are no guarantee of absolute resilience. Charles Rosa, a rancher who lives in Volcano, was raised in the cold weather of Mauna Loa's slopes.
"Sometimes it gets so cold you don't want to work," Rosa said. "You don't want to be out in the cold during a rain. If the weather system is bad, I work inside fixing equipment."
Still, he wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's a simple life," he said. "You don't have the hassle of people around you, the restrictions and stuff. The people in Honolulu, they wish they had this."
The all-time record low set at a Hawaii airport was 46 degrees. That was recorded at Lanai on Jan. 22, 1955, and Molokai on March 4, 1987. How low can
thermometer go?Other record airport lows, according to the National Weather Service:
Honolulu: 53 degrees, set on a number of occasions, including Jan. 31, 1998.
