HILO — The Department of Land and Natural Resources has sent KapohoKine Adventures a cease and desist letter prohibiting the tour company from taking visitors to the former Kaimu Bay area.
HILO — The Department of Land and Natural Resources has sent KapohoKine Adventures a cease and desist letter prohibiting the tour company from taking visitors to the former Kaimu Bay area.
KapohoKine co-owner Tony DeLellis, whose company takes paying customers down to the Kalapana-Kaimu area, said his company doesn’t take tour groups over the accreted land to a black sand beach that was created when lava from the Kupaianaha vent filled in the bay in the early 1990s.
He also points to Rob Pacheco, owner of the tour group Hawaii Forest and Trail, for singling out KapohoKine while Pacheco sits on the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the DLNR’s oversight board.
In an email that DeLellis has circulated among local tour companies, he says KapohoKine “would be willing to do whatever was reasonably required to remedy the situation, but we don’t think that the draconian Gestapo tactics outlined in the letter (which warns of multiple fines for violating state regulations) by the DLNR are appropriate.”
The lands that were created in the eruption that destroyed Kalapana are classified as “unencumbered lands” and placed under the jurisdiction of the DLNR’s Land Division.
“Unencumbered lands have a set of rules,” Pacheco said. “The rules prohibit commercial activity without a permit.”
Despite this, many tour companies bring their customers onto the lava fields to see the new black sand beach.
“We have to follow the rules,” Pacheco said. He suggested a permit system could be set up, but it would take time to do so.
DeLellis said KapohoKine doesn’t take customers onto the prohibited areas.
“Down in Kalapana, we do the same things that dozens of other businesses do, which is take them to Uncle Robert’s and let them meet the people.” Robert Keliihoomalu, a well-respected Hawaiian, and his family own an awa bar that has survived inundation by the lava.
A description from KapohoKine’s website seems to suggest that this quarter-mile hike has been offered on the Secrets of Puna tour:
“Hear first-hand stories of life in Kalapana from the former residents who witnessed the destruction. You’ll walk across the lava flows which entomb the former village of Kalapana, and find the new black-sand beach of Kaimu.”
And an online reviewer wrote of the tour: “After parking the van, we proceeded to walk across the 1990 lava flows to the new Kaimu Black Sand Beach at Kalapana. All of the lava we crossed was once land just 20 years ago.”
Stephens Media sent the DLNR on March 2 a request for more information, which has not been answered.
“(DLNR) haven’t been able to tell me what the problem is,” DeLellis said.
From Pacheco’s perspective, the problem facing DLNR is how tour groups that want to go down to the new beach may do so without violating the department’s rules.
“It’s a dilemma for the department,” he said. Pacheco hopes to meet with the Keliihoomalu family to get their sense of the situation. He clarified that the state is the entity that has issued the cease and desist letter, not him.
It’s not the first time KapohoKine has run into trouble with the state. Last May, the BLNR voted to fine the tour company $15,000 for constructing an unauthorized hiking trail at Honolii Gulch; Pacheco recused himself from that discussion.
“They should take a more reasoned, more intelligent approach to the situation,” DeLellis said.