KIHEI - A Chicago transplant who wants to give an outrigger canoe to Kalaupapa as a gift is equal parts dreamer, idealist and doer.
Michael Neubauer plans to join a crew in paddling a restored canoe from Maui and present it to Kalawai'a Goo of the Kalaupapa National Historical Park at this month's end.
"I went down to Kalaupapa, a really magical place," recalled Neubauer. "I felt it was odd there were no canoes or no access to canoes there.
"The outrigger canoe is the backbone of the Hawaiian people," said the nine-year Maui resident, who owns Dragyn Studios graphic design firm and teaches Hawaiian culture and canoe paddling at the Four Seasons Resort. "Without one (canoe), it felt like Kalaupapa was a prison, like people couldn't leave."
Neubauer's vision is to paddle the canoe, Kamali'i, from Kihei to D.T. Fleming Beach Park on Oct. 23, then paddle the following weekend from Fleming to Kalaupapa, the Hansen's disease settlement on Molokai. Kimokeo Kapahulehua of Kihei Canoe Club will accompany the Kamali'i, and Neubauer hopes a donor will come forward with an escort boat for the six-hour channel crossing.
The public is invited to help launch the trip, tentatively set for 3:30 a.m. Oct. 30 from Fleming Beach (the confirmed launch date will be at www.earthtrot.org).
"We're starting really early. I hope the currents are with us and the swells are pretty small," said Neubauer, who acknowledged rough seas start kicking up in the fall. "The canoe is not aerodynamic, so it will take longer to paddle (than normal).
"It will be an interesting journey. I think Uncle Kimokeo will provide us with enough experience . . . mana (spiritual power) to make the crossing."
The back story is that the Kamali'i had idled at a Lahaina beach for some five years; then Kihei Canoe Club bought it for $1,500 and donated it to Neubauer's project. With the help of fiancee Caroline Nawatzki; co-worker Kevin Gavagan of the Four Seasons engineering staff; and several others, Neubauer said he has been "sanding, refiberglassing and restoring" the vessel at the Kihei Canoe Club's beach site.
Kihei Canoe Club head coach Rob Hoonan called the initiative "wonderful, I'm all for that. . . . It's a great idea."
After having traveled throughout Asia, South America and Europe, Neubauer formed an out-of-the-box nonprofit, the Earth Trot Project, three years ago to "solve problems, cross boundaries and truly make a difference."
He admitted the Kalaupapa canoe undertaking is Earth Trot Project's "largest by a long shot."
The Chicago dreamer estimated he has pitched in $1,500 of his own funds and lots of elbow grease - an average of two hours a day for two months' worth.
"It's something that gives me hope. I feel good because the people of Kalaupapa settlement seem to want this. It's a really good way to bring a bit of lost culture back there."
Meanwhile, Goo indicated that up to a third of the community's 100 or so residents would welcome using the canoe after work hours.
And, as more than a thousand paddlers prepare for this weekend's 41-mile Moloka'i Hoe race across the Kaiwi Channel from the Friendly Isle to Waikiki, Goo said, "The big goal is eventually to try to get a crew together out of Kalaupapa to do the Molokai-to-Oahu race, just to do it. Then we wanted to try and take one able-bodied patient onboard to do the channel crossing.
"We're just grateful to have a canoe here," he said.
Kekoa Enomoto can be reached at kekoa@mauinews.com.
