‘Dragonfly’ already a hit with outdoorsmen

Moviemakers will improve road for hunters and hikers

BY PAUL C.

CURTIS

TGI Staff Writer

The late Tony Kunimura used to say that all

film production crews on Kaua’i leave behind is money.

Somewhere, the

former Kaua’i mayor is smiling about the touches that NDE Productions, the

company about to film the Kevin Costner movie “Dragonfly” on the island, is

planning above Wailua Homesteads.

“They’re going to leave us with some

terrific road improvements which we have not been able to do up to this point,”

said Ed Petteys, Kaua’i branch manager with the state Department of Land and

Natural Resources.

Along a four-wheel-drive-only road well mauka of the end

of Kuamo’o Road and above the Keahua Forestry Arboretum, near a place that is

actually Wai’ale’ale Crater but is more commonly known as Blue Hole (where some

filming for the blockbuster “Jurassic Park” occurred), road work will begin

Friday by NDE Productions in preparation for “Dragonfly” filming later this

month.

Left behind when filming is finished next month will be parking and

turnaround areas, and a new gate which will allow the state to restrict

vehicular access to the rugged area, Petteys said.

“So it’s going to be a

much-improved road, which is going to be a great benefit for public access. For

our purposes, they’re going to also add a gate which we’re going to be able to

use to control traffic further up,” Petteys said.

The improvements will

mean a smoother ride to the Ka’apoko Trail and Ka’apoko Tunnel trailheads for

hunters and hearty hikers, he said.

Though the road above the gate will be

closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic from this Friday through Feb. 20,

the trails in the area will remain open and accessible, Petteys

continued.

Pig-hunting is allowed only on weekends in the area.

The new

gate alone will mean several thousands of dollars worth of benefit to DLNR,

saving the state the cost of having a gate made and installed, Petteys

said.

“But just in terms of the better access and safer access for the

public, I think we’re coming out very well on this deal,” he said. “It just

worked out that this was a win-win, where the public is going to benefit and

they (NDE) get a chance to do their movie.”

NDE has shown aloha and

compassion for hunters and other outdoors people by “trying real hard to

recognize that there are public uses in that area, and trying to accommodate

those,” Petteys said.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at

pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).