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
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).