Dallas News about MaC's Nut Co. of Hawaii

Snack on or savor all of Hawaii's nut trail

06:29 PM CDT on Friday, October 3, 2003

By DONALD L TELFER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

HILO, Hawaii – As the fiery lava hissed into the sea, Monika Nauen parked her van near a hardened lava flow that marked the end of the roadway. Supplying fresh macadamias to tourists setting off across the jagged field, Monica spends the day near the lava flow while her husband, Christian Bernadzik, is kept busy at home picking, cracking and packaging the king of nuts.

"It's nuts, nuts, nuts seven days a week," Monika said in a German accent over the deafening sound of rat-tat-tat. The enterprising owner of MaC's Nut Co. of Hawaii fashioned a homemade stainless-steel cracker in his crowded garage. Dubbed the F15 Starcracker, the computer-controlled marvel of engineering breaks the nuts still wet in the shell at the speed of an F-15 fighter jet. The cream-colored "macs" are cleaned, flavored and dehydrated, then packed and vacuum sealed by a processor near Hilo.

The "Great Hawaiian Mac Nut Trail" begins in the lovely city of Hilo. On the windward side of the Big Island, Hilo is often overlooked by visitors who are put off by the frequent rainfall. But the moisture has helped create an exotic greenhouse with towering koa trees, bright African violets and lush fiddlehead ferns, once a Hawaiian staple during times of famine.

Downtown Hilo is lined with handsome buildings, fine restaurants and colorful antiques shops. The city was destroyed by tsunamis (giant waves) in 1946 and 1960, and a memorial to the many who died is housed in the Pacific Tsunami Museum.

The prettiest section of town is Waiakea Peninsula. Protruding into Hilo Bay, the peninsula is lined with stately banyan trees that form a canopy over Banyan Drive. Many of the trees were planted by notables such as Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, King George V and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The peninsula is a fitting beginning to the Mac Nut Trail that is also known as the Belt Road or Route 11. The trail through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, down to Na'alehu (the southernmost town in the United States) and up to Kona is about 100 miles long. It would be an easy two-hour drive on the mainland, but on the Big Island a visitor would be lucky to travel it in three hours. I lingered three days.

The first stop was a few miles south of Hilo at the huge Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory where growers bring their produce for processing. The rolling roadway off the Mac Nut Trail goes through a 2,500-acre orchard of towering dark green macadamia trees. At the end of the road is the Mauna Loa factory, where about 40 million pounds of macadamias are processed each year, including macs from Christian's farm. The self-guided tour of the factory is interesting, and the best part is sampling the nuts and chocolate candy.

From the orchard, the Mac Nut Trail runs southwest near the onetime hippie town of Pahoa and MaC's Nut Co. The route then climbs to an elevation of 4,000 feet and turns into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park is one of the state's most popular attractions.

Taking center stage is the Kilauea Caldera, an enormous crater that measures 400 feet deep and 3 miles across.

Crater Rim Drive meanders around the summit and a string of lunarlike craters. The drive goes through terrain ranging from bleak desert to lush rainforest. Intersecting the park is Chain of Craters Road, a long, winding roadway that ends at the lava flow near Monika's van.

It was nearing the end of the day when I returned to the trail and continued to Macadamia Meadows, a sprawling bed-and-breakfast inn that overlooks a

luxuriant grove of macadamias. A working eight-acre farm owned by Cortney and Charlene Cowan, the mini-resort is near Waiohinu, a village Mark Twain described as a town where "trees and flowers flourish luxuriantly." The foliage may be luxuriant but as with many growers, the Cowans must supplement their income with the bed-and-breakfast.

"No one can make a living growing macadamias alone," Charlene said the next morning as we enjoyed a hearty breakfast of pineapples, oranges and mangos. "There are about 700 macadamia farms on the Big Island, and most of us either need a full-time job or operate a bed-and-breakfast."

I left Macadamia Meadows and angled north through a variety of landscapes and climates. Yes, climates. The Big Island is home to most of the world's dozen or so climates, and the weather can change dramatically in just a few miles.

"You can climb up the mountain or take a short walk down the road," Bill Shriner said, "and the climate will change completely."

A retired Air Force helicopter pilot, Bill and his wife, Diane, operate the cozy Lions' Gate Bed & Breakfast near Kona. A coffee, fruit and macadamia farm compressed onto a 10-acre patch of rich soil, the property has been farmed continuously for hundreds of years.

As the sun set over the meticulously maintained orchard, I found that a glass of Australian merlot went well with Christian's garlic-salt macadamias. I could not have envisioned a more exotic evening, except for the rat-tat-tat still ringing in my ears.

Donald Telfer is a freelance writer in Saskatchewan, Canada.