Gingerbread hale spring up in South Shore rains

KOLOA — Somewhere between the mountain and the sea on the South Shore is Candyland.

“We have properties on the mauka side and on the makai side so this is Candyland,” said Stewart Munroe of the Kukui‘ula Development Co. “It’s half-way between the mountains and the sea, so it’s naturally the Ginger Stone ‘Half-Way’ Hale.”

The team of Munroe, Scott Reed and ‘ohana were selected as winners of the first-ever gingerbread hale in-house contest that attracted entries from four teams to the Kukui‘ula sales office.

Veronica Lovesy, who teamed with Suzy Olson to create “Paniolo Hale,” said the contest was inspired by the Kukui‘ula Village shopping area which is scheduled to open in the summer of 2009.

“Each of the buildings is a separate hale, so the motivating factor was to create hale out of gingerbread,” Lovesy said.

The overall theme was to create a plantation-style hale, a living garden, or Hawaiiana, Lovesy said.

Using a basic gingerbread house available at Costco or Wal-Mart, Lovesy said the teams were let loose with their creativity with principals from Kaua‘i Design & Architecture serving as judges as well as providing their opinion on style and use of ingredients.

“It was kind of cool to see what everyone came up with,” Munroe said. “It was a lot of fun, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s contest.”

Lovesy said Munroe actually broke up his house and put it back together again, the chunks of gingerbread forming the walls of the house.

“At first, we were concerned because that was the only team that didn’t have any women on it,” she said.

But those fears were waylaid as Terri and Madison Reed became involved.

“I did all the mortar and the swimming pool which is melted ‘Jolly Rancher,’” said Madison, 10, a home schooler who interrupted her study of fractions to explain about their award-winning hale. “My mom, Terri, did the macadamia nuts which is the brick wall and the red lichorice roof.”

Lovesy said she and partner Suzy Olson used the paint swatches available for customer selection to determine what colors their “Paniolo Hale” would become.

“We actually used a paint color authenticated from the plantation era to paint the lasagna and decking,” Lovesy said. “Graham crackers don’t take to painting at all.”

The lasagna was used to replicate the corrugated iron roofs of the hale.

Joni Brooks, who partnered with Kamehameha Schools student Jennifer Heu, took a different approach, using tin foil for the corrugated iron, or to-tan, roof. Her hale was landscaped using palm trees created out of Rollos and Andre mints for the decking. The hale’s walls were decorated with Sweetarts and Spree candies while Cookies and Creme Nestle’s Crunch formed the doors and windows.

The team of Laurel Iverson and Jim Buckley did not have to show off their “Mark’s Love Shack Hale” entry as their photographs were morphed into figurines that were part of their entry’s landscaping punctuated by cinammon stick palm tree trunks topped with Norfolk pine needles forming the palm fronds.

Another feature of that hale were sponges painted black to represent lava rock forming the stone walls to the hale as well as a semi-enclosed outdoor shower.

“The fun part of the whole project was the secrecy shared by the different teams, being careful not to reveal what materials they were working with,” Lovesy said. “And getting the kids and family involved made it truly community.”