By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

Kaimana Barcase found his true love at the garbage dump.

It wasn't any old garbage dump. It was Maui's Hana garbage dump — a dump so pretty, it won national recognition and is a regular stop on scenic tours of the area.

And he wasn't there throwing rubbish. He was there for a wedding.

The front face of the dump is landscaped with plant cuttings people have thrown away. Workers there have assembled a water catchment system out of scrap buckets, bowls and pipes to irrigate the terraces of plants. It's lovely, although the actual dump part is quite dumplike.

The wedding was held at the dump because the bride's 'ohana had lived in that area in generations past.

Kaimana was one of 15 groomsmen. Kea Kala was one of 15 bridesmaids. The two hit it off.

"I was originally not going to the wedding because my grandfather passed away just a few days before. But my grandfather always told me to keep my commitments, so I ended up going. My grandfather's services were at 9 the next morning in Hilo, which meant I had to catch the first flight out from Kahului. ... (Kea) didn't want me to fall asleep because if I did, I would miss my plane and miss the funeral. So we sat at a picnic table under a tree at Hana Bay talking story the whole night and just getting to know each other."

Kea was planning to spend time with her family in Kona before heading back to Chapman University. Kaimana drove from Hilo to Kona to see her.

"I show up at her home for our first date and she's late. She's nowhere to be found. You'd think that most girls, when they're late, it's because they're fixing their hair, trying on 10 different outfits to see which one looks best, but she wasn't even home. She was down at the beach, throwing net with her dad. That really indicated to me that this was a special gal."

That first date was almost a disaster: fancy restaurant, cockaroach in the food, rude waitress.

"We ended up grabbing a couple of pizzas and going out to the seawall at Hale Halawai on Ali'i Drive. We sat there with pizzas and sodas and that was our first date 'fancy dinner'."

That pretty much set the tone for their relationship:

No pretenses.

"It was almost like we had a down-to-earth relationship from the very beginning. In most relationships, you see the best side and THEN you see the real side. We got to see each other as our true selves from the very beginning."

"One of my first presents for her was a throw net. Most guys get their gal flowers or candy or jewelry. I got her a custom-made throw net."

They got married in 1999, but in a church, not the dump. Says Kaimana, "The Kona rubbish dump is not as nice as Hana's."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.