puunene twilight

 

Cane Wagon

Burnt sugarcane loaded into a wagon. Where it then travels to Puunene, to be burned again, making cane sugar. The image is a slit scan generated from a static video shot of the moving cane wagon.

Sunday in Puunene

Just a lazy sunday in Puunene.

Another Slice of Paradise

Studio artist slit scan slice generated from a video pan in this particular image. What at first glance might appear to be a strange volcanic cinder cone is what awaits you hidden in central Maui. Just moments away from scenic Puunene, out where they filmed those 'children of the cane' movies.

The Mysteries of Puunene Revealed

It should be obvious from my various posts here that the 'power' of Puunene continues to fascinate me. It's kind of hard to avoid on any trip through central Maui. Then there was the troubling Puunene sex offender to resident ratio statistics, followed by further news that our illustrious governor in fact wants to build a prison in Puunene. Perhaps because of the ridiculously high sex offender statistics?

Of course the sex offender ratio is so skewed because no one actually lives there as far as i can tell, or at least so few people that any statistic must be taken with an intense grain of salt. More web searching turned up some more information, and then it all began to make sense. I quote from the Maui Info Source.

'A sugar pioneer, Claus Spreckels, bought up land in the arid desert of Puunene from the Hawaiians who sold him the "cursed" lands at a very cheap price. The Hawaiians were sure they had gotten the better part of the deal because they believed that the lands were haunted by the souls of the dead who were unsuccessful at making the leap at Black Rock in Kaanapali from this world to the next. Instead, these poor souls were condemned to "hell" in the arid wasteland of Puunene.'

So Puunene is hell on earth, or at least a form of purgatory. Perhaps those smokestacks are like some kind of giant crematorium, blowing out the ashes of condemned dead souls.

But they do have their own post office.

The Mysteries of Puunene

I'm still trying to figure out Puunene. If you are one of those believers of mystical power spots there's no denying Puunene is one, you can't help noticing it's 'power'. Now what that 'power' might actually be is a whole other story. But there's no denying it grabs your attention. Here's another view taken while driving the secret shortcut road through the heart of Puunene.

I tried some online searching to get a better handle on Puunene but it still remains a mystery to me. One frightening statistic that popped up was that the ratio of residents to sex offenders in Puunene was 13 to 1. Wow, that seemed outragous to me. One in 13 people living in Puunene was a sex offender? To look at this in context, the ratio for Honolulu is 1262 to 1. Of course then i noticed that only 13 people actually lived in Puunene (this is based on 2007 city-data online statistics). Wow, and they get their own post office.

Puunene and it's Sacred Energy

Hawaii is often considered by many people a place containing various locations of sacred energy. Special locations invested with some form of mystical or special power. Haleakala being the most commonly assumed one on the island of Maui. But many seekers of scared places forget the scenic gem of the pacific, Puunene. No matter where your journey on Maui takes you, the vision of Puunene in all it's stunning glory will often be in view during your journey to just about anywhere on the island.

Recently the mystic Braco visited Maui for a series of sacred gazing events at Studio Maui in Haiku. Perhaps best described by this informative article in the local Maui Time newspaper. However, we were able to capture this stunning image of Braco's secret visit to the sacred healing energy of Puunene, as witnessed in this photograph that captures the mystical power of this secret gazing event in all it's glory.

Puunene, Scenic Gem of the Pacific

No trip to Maui is complete without a glimpse of scenic Puunene, it's kind of hard to miss the billowing smoke stacks, the defining landmark of central Maui. Of course what really amazes me is that there's an old post office located there, since the surrounding area could be used as a backlot for the next road warrior movie, as long as it took place in dry and dusty cane fields.