You can do that fast and easy from the Ho’olehua post office on the island of
Molokai in Hawaii. With the service termed ‘Post-a-Nut’, you can effortlessly send a coconut to your nearest and dearest one by designing them or
writing whatever you want with coloured pens, markers etc. which are freely available at the post office. You don’t even have to buy the coconuts. They come for free. You only have to choose them from among the many
lying there. One has to only pay for the postage costs ranging from $11 to $15 to the US mainland and more for any other parts of the world. The postage fee also depends on the weight of the coconut. Molokai is a small island with an area of 670 sq km. The fifth largest island of Hawaii,
Molokai remains true to its island roots-it has its pristine beaches, breathtaking tropical landscape, environmental stewardship, rich and deep Hawaiian traditions (Molokai is said to be origin place of Hula dance) and
of course, the unique post office. For years, Molokai residents have resisted
tourists and it is also the least populated
among the islands of Hawaii.
In Molokai Island’s Ho’olehua village
stands the quirky little Ho’olehua Post Office,
housed in a small brown building located on
a sleepy street of brick-lined houses amongst
dusty red fields. It looks like the usual post
office from outside but is actually a creative
den inside. People come visiting here hearing
about its unique Post-a-Nut scheme.
The Post-a-Nut idea came to former postmaster
Peggy Keahi-Leary in 1991 when she
saw hundreds of coconuts from the Kapuaiwa
coconut grove lying strewn on the
roads and simply going waste. The vast grove
with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop is one
of the oldest and largest in the island and
under the care of Hawaii’s Exceptional Tree
Program.
The story goes that King Kamehameha
IV planted a thousand coconut palms there
in 1860s, one for each of the warriors in the
army.
Peggy kept thinking about the coconuts
going waste and hit upon the innovative idea
of mailing them to extract a few smiles from
its receivers.
She put up a sign at the airport advertising
her idea and business began to flourish.
From this post office you can mail a large,
round coconut that makes a sloshing sound
or small, oval shaped one. Writing your message,
you should leave a little space for the
address and postage stamp.
Gary Lam, the present postmaster says
jokingly that he is an official authorised coconut
inspector. Gary took over ten years
ago when Peggy retired. Since then Ho’olehua
Post Office has tripled its revenue.
Some visitors paint pictures, some write
love sonnets, some transform them into
birthday cards or wedding invitations.
Traveller Placido D of Tuscon, Arizona
writes on Trip Advisor online travel website
(the Ho’olehua Post Office is Trip Advisor’s
number one thing to do on Molokai): “I’ve
never had so much fun at a Post Office. The
postman has someone bring in dried brown
coconuts so customers can have a nice selection
to choose from. If you prefer, he also
knows a gifted painter that, for a fee, can
turn a coconut into anything your mind can
imagine…”
Gary says that more than 40,000 coconuts
have been mailed so far since Post-a–Nut
began mostly to the US mainland, Germany,
Austria and Switzerland but also far away
to a research station in Antarctica, Nepal,
Namibia and Scottish Highlands. Even to
places where they had never seen a coconut
before, like a small town in Japan.
The idea may be nutty to some but the coconut
express from Molokai seems to be going
great guns- till the coconuts keep falling.
