Oracle's Ellison to buy Lanai

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie says Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison has agreed to buy 98 percent of the island of Lanai.

Abercrombie said Wednesday that the land's current owners, Castle & Cook, have filed a transfer application with the state's public utilities commission.

Abercrombie says Ellison has had a longstanding interest in the island.

Lanai is Hawaii's smallest publicly accessible inhabited island, with some 3,200 residents. It attracted more than 26,000 visitors from January through April this year.

Oracle is a software company based in Redwood City, Calif.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

There are mixed emotions among those who live on Lanai, the small Hawaiian island that could be sold soon.

Billionaire owner David Murdock has a potential buyer for Lanai, and the island could be sold in the coming days, said Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa. Murdock owns about 98 percent of the island.

Murdock has clashed with some residents who oppose his company's windmill project that would deliver power via undersea cable to Oahu. Some community group leaders told the Maui News (http://bit.ly/MsP87j) they hope the new owners will nix the project, proposed for about as many as 12,800 acres on the northwestern part of the island.

The site of the project is a "garden of gods," with views of Maui and Molokai across the channels that shouldn't be ruined, said Robin Kaye of Friends of Lanai, which formed to oppose the wind farm.

"As a result of the wind project, the community has been real tense," said Butch Gima, president of Lanaians for Sensible Growth. "Within families they are having to choose sides."

International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 supports the project. William Kennison, union Maui division director, said the union has been kept in the loop about the sale and that he knows who the undisclosed buyer is.

"They are assuring us that whoever purchases the island will maintain the union contracts," he said.

Rumors and concern are swirling among the island's estimated 3,200 residents, said Lanai Councilmember Riki Hokama. He said he hopes the new union is a good steward: "There are still great opportunities for the island."

Murdock's Castle & Cooke owns the island's luxury resorts, golf courses, the water utility and other businesses.

The Art of Lei Making

May Day may be lei day in Hawaii.

But really, any day in the Islands is a good day to celebrate the art and culture of Hawaiian lei making. And if you’re on Oahu this weekend and love lei, you’re in luck.

The Honolulu Academy of Arts is once again dedicating an entire spring weekend to the craft with A Celebration of Hawaiian Lei Making. The two-day lei festival, happening March 26 and 27 at the Academy Art Center at Linekona, will gather experts in traditional and contemporary lei making for talk-story sessions, demonstrations and lessons in creating and giving lei. 

Experts on hand will demonstrate basic methods of lei construction from kui(stringing) and haku (mounted or braided), to wili  (winding) and kipuu(knotting). Both days will also feature liva hula performances, and video presentations on Hawaiian lei masters. 

All events are free, and open to the public.


Here’s the Celebration of Hawaiian Lei Making weekend schedule:

Sat., March 26

• 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., lei demonstrations
• 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m., lei making videos, in art center community room
• 1 p.m., hula performance from May Day lei court
• 2:15 p.m., “Planting and Maintaining a Lei Garden,” panel discussion, in art center community room

Sun. March 27

• 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., lei demonstrations
• 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m., lei making videos, in art center community room
• 1 p.m., hula performance from May Day lei court
• 2:15 p.m., Talk Story session on the craft of lei making, in art center community room

Whale Day on Maui

by: Catherine E. Toth (Hawaii Magazine)

Hawaii visitors and residents look forward to the first sighting of humpback whales in our Island waters each November.

Humpback whales — called koholā in Hawaiian — settle in Hawaii’s warm and shallow waters each November through early May to breed, birth and raise their calves. They travel more than 3,000 miles of ocean—from southeastern coastal waters in Alaska—to get here, a journey that takes about two months.

The Maui Whale Festival, in its 31st year, celebrates Hawaii’s annual winter visitors each December through May. Its signature event, however, is Whale Day, happening this Saturday, Feb. 19, at Oceanside Kalama Park in Kihei, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The all-day event includes a Parade of Whales (pictured, middle) through the south shore resort area of Kihei, live entertainment, multiple food booths, a Made-on-Maui market, children’s activities, a silent auction and educational displays. Proceeds from Whale Day will support marine education programs for Maui schoolchildren.

It’s a terrific family event that attracts thousands annually. If you're on Maui this weekend, you should go.

One of Whale Day’s featured attractions is the Wild & Wonderful Whale Regatta (pictured, bottom), Maui’s own version of a rubber duck race. Little rubber whales race on a watercourse, with the sponsor of the winning whale receiving free roundtrip airfare for two between the U.S. Mainland and Maui.

Hawaii musicians performing all day at Whale Day's live music stage include Anuhea (who’s from Maui), Cecilio & Kapono, John Cruz, Marty Dread, The Throwdowns and Maui slack-key guitar master George Kahumoku Jr.

The humpback whale is still on the endangered species list, but efforts to protect them have increased their overall population in recent years. Hawaii’s humpback whale population is estimated to have doubled over the last decade to about 10,000 to 12,000 annually.

For more than 30 years, Maui Whale Festival and Whale Day organizers the Pacific Whale Foundation has educated more than 3 million Maui residents and visitors about the ocean, as well as established educational whale-watching tours and ocean eco-tourism programs in Hawaii. The foundation works with the international community to promote whale research and protection.

For more information on the Maui Whale Festival—which continues through May 15—and a schedule of upcoming events,click here. For more information on whale-watching activities hosted by thePacific Whale Foundation, click here.

Golf in Hawaii with Parker McLauchlin

Great promo video for golf in Hawaii.

Mele Kalikimaka from Hang Loose Golf

Mele Kalikimaka to everyone! Christmas is something that is celebrated by millions of people worldwide. Over the years, different Christmas traditions have formed in various locations, and Hawaii is no exception to that rule...

The Christmas traditions of Hawaii is a labor of love and creativity. Hawaiians import their Xmas trees long before the season arrives from across the Pacific Ocean, which arrive on the Xmas Tree Ship. They look for the best grand firs, noble, and other popular varieties of fir or pine. Many grow their own trees in their backyard. More creative Hawaiians create Xmas trees by decorating the Palm trees for outdoor displays and they substitute Santa Claus’s sleigh and reindeers with an outrigger canoe and dolphins.

They also provide the elves with aloha shirts. With creative twists, the Christmas traditions of Hawaii become surprises each year. This way, Santa wears aloha shirts and the Holiday dinner is a community luau with a kalua roast pig and Xmas leis.

Before the arrival of Christianity, the forerunner to the Christmas traditions of Hawaii is the four-month New Year celebration of rest and feast to honor the earth called Makahiki. This period was Christianized into Christmas but retained Hawwaian flavors of candy, fruitcake, sushi, lumpia, tamales alongside turkey and roasted pork.

The Xmas carols are sung in Hawaiian and accompanied by ukulele or guitar by choirs and bands while families celebrate luaus and picnics on the beach or in their backyards. Those who go to the beaches wear Santa hats and leis to go with their shorts and bikinis. Even Santa Claus is a barefoot big man wearing Hawaiian clothes. Because Hawaiians love the spectacular, they put up thousands of lights on their vehicles and parade them through the streets, horns blaring and people flock the sidewalks to watch them go by.

The different cultures and ethnic groups that have settled in the islands celebrate the Christmas traditions of Hawaii in their own unique ways, which may be also religious or plainly secular. These celebrations are never without singing and hula with guitars and ukeleles. The beach is never far away after the Xmas meal where most go to swim or surf.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!