Life In Waa Waa

[Jake]

Greetings All,

I hope I am posting this in the right place. I scanned through the seven pages of topics on this forum but did not find anything specific to Waa Waa, so I'll just start with an open-ended question to see what kind of response this gets before asking further.

What is life like in the Waa Waa subdivision?

Feedback on any aspect of life specific to Waa Waa is most welcome.


Best regards,

Jake

[jdirgo]

Well, as I'm sure Paul told you, its off-grid, roads aren't great and its thick tropical rain forest. But it is beautiful. Wa'a Wa'a seems to self-select its residents. The people that are there enjoy the rain forest, the remoteness and off-grid lifestyle.

I suspect the reason you haven't heard from many residents of Wa'a Wa'a is because it is off-grid and to get internet access, they have to go with a wireless provider and not a lot of them have.

I don't live there, but I do love the area.

John Dirgo, R, BIC, EcoBroker, ABR, e-PRO
Aloha Coast Realty, LLC
808-987-9243 cell
http://www.alohacoastrealty.com

[Jake]

Thank you for the reply, John. Between my conversations with Paul and my online searches I think I am beginning to get the general picture. But of course there is always more to a place than meets the eye and Kathy has raised a couple of points that were not immediately intuitive for me, and I appreciate that.

Another question for anyone who knows is how is the fishing on the Wa'a Wa'a shoreline? Is it difficult to catch dinner standing in the surf or on the cliffs? What species are caught?

Thanks,

Jake

[JerryCarr]

Ummmm . . . I don't know a whole lot about the Wa'a Wa'a area, and there are undoubtedly parts of the shore I haven't seen, but I don't think there is anywhere along there you would be safe standing in the surf. I would fish from a nice high cliff or rock and still watch for rogue waves.

[missydog1]

Plus before you go eating fish caught from shore you need to learn (if possible) what tends to carry ciguatera.
Agree with Jerry, that whole coastline is wild. People fish from the rocks (high above) at the Maku'u end of HPP, and near the lighthouse at Kapoho. I don't know about Wa'a Wa'a, except that the subdivision owns a stretch of oceanfront undivided in interest - as your real estate agent must have told you.

[Carey]

I did a search & Found this:
http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5129

and think I found the thread that Kathy was referring to:
http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3112

[Wao nahele kane]

Jake,
We own a lot in Waa Waa and will be moving and building there as soon as our house sells. We’ve spent a considerable amount of time there when clearing the lot of Strawberry Guava and cane grass. We’ve perhaps met 1/3 or more of the residents just when clearing our lot during the period of 10 or so days.

Waa Waa is a place unto its own. If you can establish an off grid home, you can live there without working a regular job or you can work like everyone else. Waa Waa offers very comfortable and flexible lifestyle choices. It’s up to you. This is the one thing that you will be hard pressed to find in any of the other subdivisions. So… keep that in mind first and foremost if you’re looking for something like that.

Many residents live in screen houses and theft is minimal although not unheard of (occurring sometimes when people leave on vacation) and probably less than most other areas. Less because everyone in the development knows one another and they know if you don’t belong. They also have no problem approaching strangers and clarifying why the stranger is there, people have been arrested who did not belong and the neighbors are tightly banded together to keep these would be intruders out. We were approached and questioned by every person who saw us at the front of our lot the first time around. The first time we went to check the lot out we hadn’t even got out of the Jeep before a person pulled up alongside us and questioned us about what we were doing there, it seemed that if we didn’t have a good reason for being there, we would have had a problem on our hands. Our lot is on Pakaka Rd. we’ve great neighbors too, all friendly and all transplants, so, once the people know you, you are in and then told exactly what goes on in the development. A couple folks are a little on the odd side but you’ll find that all over Puna. Many people in Waa Waa are into the arts, music, pottery, etc. There are several retired couples and several well to do.

House separation buffers are mandated by the county and as I recall 20' side setback is the maximum side set back in ag 1 and above, so if you build 20' from your lot line and live on 2000' acres, nothing can stop your neighbor from building on his 700 acres lot 40' from you. So the lot size is a rather mute point unless you're going to build dead center of your 2000' acre lot or something to that effect. Some people have secured 2 lots or more side by side to get a little more privacy, although, if you can’t get privacy with 150’ span by 1000’ and a jungle climate to promote growth, you’re doing something wrong. There are 20’ setback buffers along the sides of these lots, this leaves you with a 110’ buildable corridor and a guaranteed minimum of 40’ between you and your neighbor as will be with all ag1 lots or above (depending on your 1 acre width) or you could be 800’+ from your neighbors. Our house will be constructed near our neighbor’s house and neither of us have any issue with this as we’ve a giant Mango tree and other plants between our house locations. We will end up with far more than 40' buffer and we're side by side (same approximate frontal set backs for our houses) and it will be more like 100' if memory serves me, between our houses.

We have spent time at the lot in the middle of the night and our neighbor uses a generator to charge her battery bank. The sound from the generator is negligible when it comes on for short periods of time. We will be using a full Solar array to power nearly everything including our AC. The evening brings the intermittent sweeping beam from the Kapoho light house across the sky above (not your lot, not even if you build to maximum heights would you get hit by the light house).

As per the roads, you do not need 4 wheel drive. That said; you should not use a new BMW to be punished on the roads if you expect to make normal commute time in and out of the subdivision. A high clearance vehicle will do fine at a normal driving pace 25-30 mph, you could even buy a cheap normal clearance vehicle and give it some punishment at those speeds. We traded the BMW for a Land Rover but we went 4X4 extreme for other uses not because the Waa Waa roads warrant it as they certainly don’t.

Road maintenance and fees are strictly volunteer based. We’ve one resident who keeps the roads graded and in check, he will come around to collect money for the road work fuel/materials etc and this is usually only around $20 and you don’t have to pay it if you don’t want to. I for one would give him far more if we could get the road perfect BUT it isn’t necessary as the few pot holes provide natural speed bumps to keep vehicle speeds in check.

There’s a lot more to know about the subdivision and if you’re interested I will write a few neighbors and see if they are willing to talk with you via e-mail or you can drop me a line via my e-mail and I’ll fill you in on the other things (Waa Waa volunteer fire department and medical response team, etc). (Yes… most people there have wireless internet and use it). They are mostly intelligent and educated transplant off girders who respect nature, not crazy recluses that are high tech ignorant.


E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.

[Jake]

Thank you for the links, Carey. And Kathy, I really appreciate your time and help.

Cheers all,

Jake

[Jake]

Wao nahele kane,

We must have been posting at the same time. More excellent information there, thanks.

Feel free to pass on my e-mail address to anyone in Wa'a Wa'a who cares to chat. It would be great to hear from them. jacobcyrus@yahoo.com

Although I am only in the early stages of my search and cannot at this point forecast exactly when I will be set up for the big move, I am certainly interested to learn whatever I can ahead of time should this plan ever come to fruition. And what better source of information about a place than its residents, eh!

Thanks again for the reply.


Jake

[Wao nahele kane]

Kathy,
We've driven a Mustang convertible through the area several times with no strain on the undercarriage, but then we weren’t driving much more than 10mph or 15mph either. Several of our neighbors have normal cars inclusive of a Dodge caravan and other regular commuter cars. In all reality we are talking a few pot hole groupings here and there, not mega ruts and rock obstacles. I've seen far worse paved roads in Hawaii! Let's keep the dirt road real here and not turn it into some sort of issue as it isn't an issue at all. I simply wouldn't subject a Laborghini to it on a daily basis and that's all there is to that.

As theft is concerned, I think Jake is best off talking to residents and property owners in Waa Waa directly. I've spoke with several current residents in Waa Waa about the topic and I as a current property owner in Waa Waa don't agree with your one occurrence based opinion.

Furthermore, many of the things you said about Waa Waa are absolute hogwash and completely incorrect. For example - “It does not rain a whole lot there, and the air is very fresh. It can be quite hot. The prevailing vegetation is different than much of Puna and includes a lot of lauhala, which is not easy to clear by hand. There are albizia trees. The seller I dealt with had trucked in an immense amount of cindersoil, which improved the property greatly.”

Waa Waa receives around 118 inches of rainfall per year, about 10'. So it rains a "whole lot" there and water catchments commonly overflow. Yes the air is clean there and of cleanest on the Big Island while enjoying the best escape from VOG to boot, whereas Leilani Estates and Pahoa may get Vog... Waa Waa wont. If Waa Waa were to get (which is extremely rare and short lived) Vog you can best bet all of Puna is getting Vog much thicker.
There are very few Albezia trees in the development and the “prevailing” vegetation (which it is not) of “Hala/Screwpine” (native plant and amongst the oldest primordial specimens on the planet) is not something one would need to clear unless they desired to and they can easily take Hala out with a chain saw like any other small tree. Large thick Hala branches can be broken down by simply pulling on the branch too hard, so care is needed when working with them. The prevailing vegetation in Waa Waa is the Ohia tree and the vegetation in Waa Waa is precisely why some people prefer Waa Waa to any other development.

I could go on with regard to your postings but I don’t see the need as you’ve little to no knowledge about Waa Waa beyond some misinformation and a few stories told to you by one resident some time ago when you were considering a purchase in the area.

We’ve one neighbor who is in her 60’s and lives alone, loves it and been there since the early 80’s with never experiencing a single house break-in… go figure.

Curiously enough you won't perhaps find anyone from Waa Waa on here, not because they don't have internet but because they are busy living life old Hawaiian style and don't spend much time bantering on-line, unlike me who is still stuck here on the mainland in a concrete jungle surrounded by people back to back, wasting time away in the cyber world.

When people want to know who you are it means they know everyone in the development and you aren’t one of them. It also means the development is so small that everyone knows everyone else. That’s a good thing… period.

As per those who are not known coming into Waa Waa and causing problems… they are coming from your neighborhood Kathy and looking to cause problems elsewhere and Waa Waa appears to be an easy target for them but, as they end up finding out… they get caught. And Kathy... please tell your neighbors to stop dumping trash aside the road between Honolulu bay and my Waa Waa. We've free dump stations on this island and aside the roadway past Honolulu Bay is not one of them.
Thanks.





E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.