The Pork Vanished

Informant: Female/30’s/European mixed ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

My cousin used to own a big blue van. We all used to cruise in it all the time. This particular time I wasn’t with them, but they told me this story.

They were driving through the tunnel of trees with a couple hundred pounds of raw pork in the back of the van. They bought in bulk. It was the middle of the day. They start driving through the tunnel when their van suddenly stalls. It completely dies. There is nobody on the road; no one coming, no one going, nobody behind them and nobody in front. The turned around, and the back doors of the van are wide open. When they looked in the back, all the pork was gone.

They shut the doors and drove out of the tunnel, not seeing one car on the way.

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The Black Dog in the Tunnel of Trees

Informant: Male/27/European ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

I was told by a friend: "When you're driving through the tunnel of trees and you see a woman in white with long gray hair, stop and pick her up. But if you ever see a man or a dog, don't stop. Don't look back, don't look in your mirrors, just look straight ahead. If you look back, they will follow you to your house and it will be bad."

I'm driving home one night to Koloa. When I enter the tunnel, I see a black dog standing on the side of the road. Looked like a Rottwiler. I don't think anything of it, it's just a stray. Halfway through the tunnel, I see a black dog on the side of the road. I start to worry. At the end of the tunnel, the same black dog is standing in the middle of my lane, facing me. I remember what my friend said: "Don't stop."

So I continue driving, 50 mph. I'm thinking, "Move move move move get out of the way get out of the way, I can't stop he told me not to stop!" I finally reach the dog, and I go right over it. I don't feel anything, no bump, nothing. I don't look in my mirrors, I just keep going. 

I go back the next day thinking I clipped it, maybe it got out of the way. There was no sign that I hit anything in the road. Could it have been Poki?

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The Knudsen Gap Hitchiker

Informant: Female/age unknown/Japanese ancestry

Location: Knudsen Gap, Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

It was 10:30 p.m. and my sister was leaving work from Kalaheo and heading towards Lihue. She notice that she was the last car as she passed the Tunnel of Trees. As she was going down the slight hill where there is an old, short concrete bridge, she notice out of the corner of her eye there was a really bright light shining from the passenger seat window. She suddenly realized a very dark figure had entered her car and was sitting in the passenger's seat. The air suddenly became extremely cold; so cold that her teeth started chattering. She didn't dare look at the dark figure that was sitting right next to her. She just kept asking out loud, "Is that you, dad? Is that you, dad?"

This lasted the span of about a minute as she was about to make the turn that goes between the mountain. Suddenly the dark figure jumped out of the car into the hao bushes. The air in the car returned to normal. She wasn't freezing nor were her teeth chattering.

That dark figure scared her so badly that her husband had to drive her to work for about three weeks until she felt comfortable enough to drive by herself again. She never encountered that scary ghost hitchhiker again nor does she ever want to. That stretch of road is called the Knudsen Gap, and there have been quite a few tragic accidents on that straight away. I think (don't quote me on this) it might have to do with that dark figure that jumped in her car.My sister didn't look at it so she wouldn't crash. I can only imagine what that thing looked like. Scary...

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The White Spectre in the Tunnel of Trees

Informant: Female/28/Japanese ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

Three of my friends were heading home through the tunnel of trees late one night from a party. They had a bunch of food with them, but were sure they didn’t have any pork, because everyone knows that you should never take pork through the tunnel of trees.

Two friends were in front, blasting the music. The third friend was in the back of the truck with the food, alone. As they started driving through the tunnel, the friend in the back noticed something rise up from the road. It was white, and it started coasting along the road, dipping and floating and getting closer. He started pounding on the window to the cab, but since the music was so loud the two friends in the front couldn’t hear him. The white thing, which looked like a big white sheet, caught up with the truck.

The truck stalled, and the two friends finally heard the frantic pounding on the window. The white sheet flew up over the truck and down the road. It then turned around and came back, over the truck, and down the other side.

By this time the two friends in the front were trying to pull the friend from the back inside. They watched as the sheet went up and down the road countless times. They finally decided to check all the food, throwing off all the tinfoil. They discovered an entire pan of kalua pig, and threw it out the side of the truck. The white sheet passed over it, then descended on it, and vanished along with the pig.

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Pork in The Tunnel of Trees

Informant: Male/27/Hawaiian-Korean mixed ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

A while ago, when my parents were just married, they were coming back from a party with my uncle and his wife around 2am. Being local, they had a bunch of food with them from the party which included kalua pig among other things.

To get back home, they had to drive through the tunnel of trees. When they entered the tunnel, their car started acting funny. They thought that my uncle was messing around with everyone, but when they looked at his face, he was pale. They realized he wasn't messing around. His foot was on the gas, gunning it, the car still running but not moving.

Finally someone realized why they weren't moving and yelled, "The pork! Get rid of the pork!" So they threw the pork from the car and the car shot forward at full speed since my uncles foot was still on the gas. They moved so quickly they almost flew over the side of the road.

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Pele in the Tunnel of Trees

Informant: Male/40/part Hawaiian ancestry
Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

A friend of mine was driving home to the south side of Kauai to Koloa town one night. In order to get to Koloa one must pass through the "tunnel of trees," one way in one way out. 

It was about 2:00 a.m. and he was driving home alone after a party in Lihue. The moon was full that night, but as you enter the tree tunnel there are no street lights, just glimmers of moonlight shining through tree openings flickering like a strobe light. 

As he entered the tree tunnel, he noticed an old lady dressed in white hitchhiking in the middle of the night. He thought it odd, but just kept driving and stepped on the accelerator to get out of the tunnel as fast as possible. He did not recall the events that took place after this; all he remembers is his car had skidded to the side of the road and stalled. When he looked in his rear view mirror the old lady dressed in white was sitting in his back seat. 

He did not stick around to ask her how this happened but just ran as fast as he could through the tunnel of trees to get home. He was clearly shaken when retelling the events of this night, but speculates that this person was "Pele."

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The Running Man

Informant: Male/30/Filipino Ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

I was out one night with some friends partying. Believe it or not, I didn't have one drink or smoke anything weird. I was dead sober that night. Around 3am I was driving through the Tunnel of Trees on my way home. All of a sudden I see something out of the corner of my eye.

A man was running along side my car.

I wasn't driving 5 mph. I was driving normal speeds, probably around 50 mph. I couldn't see his face or make out facial features since it was dark, but I could see his arms and torso pumping as he was running. So I was like "forget this," and I gunned it. 80 mph. The guy catches up to me, running. So I gun it again. 110 mph. The guy is still running next to my car. I look over at him, and all I see are red, glowing eyes.

The next day I told my aunty what happened, and she said whoever that was wanted me dead. That road is really windy, and I could have easily driven off the cliff.

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