By Wanda A. Adams
Assistant Features Editor

HILO, Hawai'i — I'll begin with an apology; I had planned to make a number of entries in this diary last night, during or before the Miss Aloha Hula competition.

But ... I got caught up in watching the dances and filing information for this morning's newspaper, and afterward, I had a story to do for print that will appear on Sunday about the winning entrant, Natasha Mahealani Akau of Halau Na Mamo O Pu'uanahulu.

I did save up lots of notes on this and that to share with those who, like me, just can't get enough of this Planet of Hula, the Merrie Monarch Festival. Just this afternoon, my friend Bonnie and I were visiting the popular craft fair at the Sangha Hall in downtown Hilo. Auntie Darlene Ahuna was entertaining and called up some friends to perform the kolohe number "Holo holo ka'a," about a couple who go for a drive, have some car trouble and have to pull over.

Despite having spent the better part of three days and nights watching hula, I immediately worked my way to the front. (Bonnie just rolled her eyes.)

From Miss Aloha Hula night: So, back to the Edith Kanaka'ole Stadium. When we arrived about 4 in the afternoon yesterday, the entirety of Halau Na Mamo O Pu'uanahulu was lined up to embrace a tearful Jennifer Kahaulani Oyama, who had just completed the rehearsal for her farewell performance, a much-enjoyed and emotional moment that additionally serves to pass the time as the votes in the Miss Aloha Hula competition are counted. (Little did they know they'd be crying again later that evening, with joy, when their entrant won.)

My habit in covering Miss Aloha Hula is to create a blank page in advance for every dancer with the halau name and songs to be performed, and then to scribble notes like crazy, as well as making little sketches of unusual costume touches or adornments.

Invariably, trends emerge, as in the year when everyone wrapped their dancers' bosoms tightly in stiff Pellon fabric.

This year, fortunately or unfortunately, one trend was toward the use of iridescent, diaphanous fabrics, epitomized by the 'auna costume of Trina Lee Kawailehua Perkins of Maui's Halau Na Lei Kaumaka O Uka, who wore a gown of light-catching metallic fabric that also personified another trend: red.

Five of the 11 contestants wore something in the red palette, including winner Tasha Akau, whose gown was a graceful, form-fitting velvet holoku in a bright scarlet. Two of the remaining six chose colors based on the red-to-blue palette that included a royal purple and a fuschia and purple print.

Fourth runner-up Nicole Moani Taylor of Ke Kai O Kahiki, a tall woman with an enviably slim figure, wore a particularly graceful gown in a delicious deep rose.

With its gored construction creating a bell shape, and her very feminine hula style, it made me think of Princess Kai'ulani's delicate beauty.

Another trend, day lilies for the headdresses, perhaps because many of our tropicals are hard to come by with the amount of rain and wind the islands have endured this winter and early spring.

Trend-watch: I promised a tip on a trend I spotted last week and confirmed yesterday — big, bright gerbera daisies as hair adornments. I saw a Miss Aloha Hula candidate wearing one last week and then noticed them tucked behind the ears of several other young women during rehearsals.

They're worn singly, well forward of the ear and they do make a bright splash of color and give a very different look than the usual plumeria or orchid with something of a flavor of the '60s ("be sure to weeeeaaaarrrr some flowers in your hair").

At the official Merrie Monarch craft fair, a vendor reported having sold out of all but two of her well-made artificial gerberas at $5 apiece (when I left she had only one). They sell the real thing by the stem at Watanabe Floral for almost that much!

What they wore: Bonnie and I take people-watching to the level of an art form and we've been making a Merrie Monarch Hall of Fame. Divisions include Best This and That, T-shirts We Wish We'd Thought Of and Outfits That Make You Ask Why.

In Bests, Frank K. Hewett landed the prize for Best-Dressed Judge last night with one of his trademark custom-made long tunic-style jackets, this one in a burnished copper color embossed with a gold design; 'ono loa.

In T-shirts, my favorites include:

• "Got Ahupua'a?" On the rear side: " 'Ae (yes), Waine'e."
• A handmade entry by shell lei maker Mel Lantaka of O'ahu, who used fabric paint to trace the words "Lei: For those with courage to wear them," on his T-shirt.
• A punny one from the Hilo clothing designer Hawaiian Force, which labels the wearer a "Radical Hawaiian Tarorist" and declares "Lose your roots and you become ruthless" with a drawing of a lo'i kalo (tarp patch).

Winner hands down in the "Make You Ask Why" group was the kane in a thigh-baring blue and black kihei (a garment that is draped around the body and tied at one shoulder) and striking ivory amulet in the shape of a he'e (octopus). He looked as though he'd walked in from another century except for the sunglasses and the digital watch.

But we also noticed (and so did many around us) the number of '60s throwback outfits, especially on free Ho'ike night: shapeless velvet dresses, skirts made out of handkerchiefs and Indian paisley bedspreads, cotton camisole tops, haole dreadlocks, a disdain for foundation garments, the accumulated soil of earthy living and, of course, patchouli.

"Puna," someone said in a whispered aside that summed it all up.

A musical note: We heard beforehand, and our experiences so far are carrying it out, that this year most of the music for Merrie Monarch will be home-grown, performed by the various halau house bands and ho'aloha (friends).

The usual uncredited performances by popular and well-known recording artists are few and far between. Kainani Kahauna'ele and Lopaka Kanaka'ole, both of whom are young musicians with CDs out, are the exceptions. But we're not suffering, as proven by the chicken-skin performance Thursday night on "Wahi'ika'ahu'ula" by Natalie Ai, daughter of Olana and Howard Ai, for contestant Nicole Moani Taylor.

In an hour we'll be back at the stadium for the group kahiko competition. A hui hou!