“Joy Kalea – Milestone 5.0 Ali’i Drive”

A pleasant cool wind sweeps us inland from the Pacific Ocean. A pleasant temperature of about 24 degrees Celsius surrounds us on the way through the small town Kona to our destination.

In colloquial language and to avoid confusion with the city of Kailua on Oahu, which is one of the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods outside Honolulu with approximately 39,000 inhabitants, the correctly named city of Kailua-Kona on Big Island owith about 12,000 inhabitants, just called Kona. The Hawaiian meaning of Kailua is two streams; two waters. The word Kailua is a compound word that consists of ‚Kai‘ which translates to the word ’seawater‘ and or ’sea‘, and the word ‚elua‘ translates to the word ‚two‘. This is absolutely true in both places, because both places have two different seawater currents.

From afar we heard the Hawaiian music playing and the laughter of the happy guests. It is a beautiful bar, whose floor is made of sand, because it is open directly on the beach of the ocean. We make our way through the guests and the dancing couples to our table right next to the music stage at which place our confidants play. By nodding, hugs and shaka show, we are duly welcomed by our friends with an ALOHA. It is an indescribable, warm, and friendly atmosphere, which is highlighted by enchanting guitar music, singing and extraordinary heartfelt hula. What a feast for the eyes is the dance, the music, palm trees, the sea, the ambiance! Here you can really relax your soul. Soon it will be time for visitors to whip out their cameras and take photos of the sunset over the sea. Each of the guests hopes to catch the last image in his mobile device, while the sun is swallowed up between the two worlds of the sky and the sea between the blue horizon, and she just lets us say goodbye to a green flashes.

We use this time to talk to Joy Kalea, who is this evening’s hula performer. Joy is a humorous, people-loving woman, as well as her welcome. As a hula dancer, she is constantly on the road in Hawaii between „Na Luau“ or outdoor celebrations, other events and always among guests. Like everyone else on the island, Joy has the gift and patiently crafts her leis and haku flowers cultivated from her garden. Since we are the guests of honor today as well as deeply conversing, the other guests in the bar have to be patient with the fact that many by this Kona venue has to talk with Joy or to take a picture with her.

Joy’s break is slowly coming to an end and we have an early morning appointment for an interview with her in the bag. The meeting is held at Milestone 5.0 on Ali’i Drive.

Early in the morning, we are packed with a camera and our gear packed with the car to our meeting point. We take a leisurely ride along the Ali’i Drive along the coastal road and look at the extremely early risers. The beaches are already well booked with surfers, high sport swimmers and bathers with toddlers. We also meet quite a few cyclists and joggers, who are probably already doing ironman training in the new year. Small sign, almost missed it; we see on the right side of the road somewhat overgrown by tropical plants the white marker with the inscription 5.0 Mile. Exactly at this small wooden peg, we have to turn left into the park. We are greeted by tropical giant trees and shrubs with colorful flowers. This oasis is overgrown with shrubbery from the roadside so that it is barely visible. We parked the car in the shade, still in the shade, packing our equipment out of the car’s trunk and crossing the green meadow still decorated with dew-colored algae in the garden. Hardly a few steps have been taken, we see Joy with her eye-catching, red dress, fully decorated with haku, or head lei on head and neck, with a loud ALOHA to us as we aproach. A Hawaiian welcome and a long hug in the middle of the colorful „magic garden of OZ“. I will go deeper into the story of her interview site in the blog about Kailua Kona and record the topics of her in another blog. So far, I only would like to briefly report that we were surrounded by an „Ancient game stone“ of old big pieces of lava rock.

Joy seduces us with her humor in an interview and tells us something about:

• Kamehameha the Great dedicates Ahuena-Heiau to God of Peace and Agriculture
• Kapu system first broken
• After Kamehameha the Great died in 1819, what role did the missionaries fulfill ?
• What is meaningful about hula ?
• Hula competition: Merrie Monarch
• Ukulele pronunciation
• Who is speaking the hawaiian language ?
• Where did the missionaries live ?
• Ironman
• world’s largest outrigger canoe race
• What feelings come up on stage in front of visitors ?
• What is important about the custume ?
• Is there a specific lei to certain music ?
• Are there any wishes ?
• ALOHA’s meaning
• What is important for visitors to know?
• What happened to Captain Cook?
• Haole definition

Let yourself be seduced and listen to Joy’s voice.