Governor's egg hunt turns up unexpected treats
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Five-year-old Pookela Ahuna of Waimanalo had so much fun last year, he got his tutu, Ola Kakalia of Nanakuli, to bring him back to the Governor's Easter Sunday Egg Hunt yesterday at Washington Place.
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She agreed, but only after making sure the meaning of Easter wasn't lost in the pagan egg ritual: "First we went to sunrise services" overlooking Waimanalo Bay, she said.
Caira Sato, 5, scrambles after the plastic eggs scattered at Washington Place.
Kakalia, who also brought niece Kayla Kaneshiro-Holt, 9, from Waimanalo, said it was easier than cooking up a whole batch of Easter eggs for just two youngsters.
Close to 2,000 people, half of them children, queued up to take a tour of the mansion where Queen Liliuokalani used to live, or run over the spacious lawns speckled with plastic Easter eggs of red and yellow and blue and pink.
There was an extra treat when visiting Baywatch actor/producer David Hasselhoff upstaged the Easter Bunny with a surprise visit, stopping to talk about his "Baywatch Reunion" movie project and to give autographs while his daughters Taylor Ann and Haley Amber scampered around filling their Easter baskets.
"He just sort of showed up," said Gov. Ben Cayetano, "and he's got all sorts of plans for the movie."
"It's a new concept — part 'Baywatch,' part 'Fear Factor' and part 'Survivor,' " Hasselhoff said. "We'll have the 'Baywatch Reunion' cast — Pam Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth and the others — stranded on an island and the audience will get to vote on who stays at the end."
The TV movie, to be shot in July on O'ahu and broadcast by Fox during the November sweeps, will have four different endings, with viewers calling in to determine which is used, he said.
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Schofield Barracks soldier Derek Spelhaug got Hasselhoff to pose with little Justin Spelhaug, 6 months old, for a picture.
"Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff helped his daughter, Haley Amber, gather eggs. Gov. Ben Cayetano said the actor/producer's visit came as a surprise.
"This is great — we were at the White House Easter egg roll last year when I was stationed there," Spelhaug said, "and now we got to do the same thing here and take the tour and meet the governor."
And Hasselhoff.
"He was very nice," said Spelhaug's wife, Jesika, helping round up daughter Elisabeth, 4, "but he didn't want to hold the baby — he said he'd pose with my husband holding Justin."
All 7,000 plastic eggs, each containing wrapped jellybean treats from Aloha Gourmet Products Inc., were scooped up in minutes as wave after wave of children were let through the gate by age group.
Their excited cries soon gave way to the sound of crunching plastic egg shells being trod underfoot after the goodies were gone.
Children in Easter finery clambered over the ridgelike roots of the old pili nut tree in the front yard, looking like so many hidden treats themselves.
The front walk served as a parking lot for strollers lined up like limos outside a nightclub.
New York journalist Prakash M. Swamy, who came to the gathering from his Waikiki hotel, said he was overwhelmed by feelings of openness at the mansion and everywhere in Hawai'i.
Although the governor's personal security staff was never far away, and guards monitored the perimeter, Cayetano and his wife, Vicky, mingled freely with the crowd as usual.
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Swamy was the reporter on the scene for some 20 India newspapers when the World Trade Center's Twin Towers collapsed Sept. 11 a few miles from his office. He said that while he never cries — not even when his mother died — he cried when the Twin Towers came down.
A crowd of about 2,000 gathered at the governor's mansion yesterday for the annual Easter egg hunt, featuring some 7,000 colorful plastic eggs containing wrapped jellybean treats.
Hawai'i, he said, is "very comfortable compared to the sadness and tight security in New York City today.
"I could really see the level of the people's happiness," he said.
"If I cover the governor in New York," Swamy said, "we can't get within five feet of him."
There were other people in uniform around the governor yesterday: dozens of Girl Scouts at almost every entrance to the mansion or helping children find eggs.
"Happy Easter, and welcome to Washington Place," Scout Gloriani "Keeyan" Lontoc, 9, of Troop 458, smiled for the zillionth time at the doorway to the governor's residence.
"I haven't counted the number of people who came, but it's a lot," she said.
Girl Scouts from many troops volunteered to hide the Easter Eggs, coordinate a food basket drive for the needy and serve as greeters at the affair.
Samantha Suzuki, 7, a second-grader from Kanoelani School in Waipi'o, came late, but found three eggs, "a polka dot, a pink and a purple."
Samantha's hunt wasn't finished with that. She kept looking around for Mrs. Cayetano to talk about one of the first lady's favorite volunteer activities.
"I want her to come to my school and read," Samantha said.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
