Informant: Female/38/Korean ancestry
Location: Puhi, HI
My father told me that my great-grandfather worked for the sugar mill in the early 1900's, but at one point was laid off. Not knowing how he was going to support his family, my great-grandmother told him not to worry: she had been saving money, and gave it to him, telling him to buy a car to carry fares as a taxi driver.
One night my great-grandfather was driving southbound past Puhi in an area that is now near Kaua`i Nursery and Landscaping. Just before approaching the dip in the road, he saw a woman on the side of the road. It was dark, so my grandfather pulled over and offered her a ride. The woman accepted and got into the back of the car. Looking in the rear view mirror, my great-grandfather could see that she was an old Hawaiian woman. She said she was going to Koloa, and my great-grandfather took off in that direction. After passing through Puhi, he looked in his rearview mirror to speak to the woman, and was shocked to see that she was gone. There was nobody in the backseat of his car. My great-grandfather was sure that it was Pele.
My dad told me that you're not supposed to bring pork through that area, and I was shocked to hear that because I had never heard it before. I heard that you're not supposed to bring pork through the tunnel of trees, but I had never known about that area. But then I remembered something that happened a few y ears ago.
My coworkers and I were driving back to the office in Lihue from Koloa. Right when we were passing by Kaua`i Nursery and Landscaping, our car died. We pulled over on the side of the highway right next to the nursery, right after the dip in the road...right about where my great-grandfather's passenger would have vanished from his backseat.
