January 28, 2026

“Don’t it always seem to go you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Pave Paradise put up a parking lot.” From Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell.

Kauai is beautiful! There is a reason it is called “The Garden Isle.” It earned that nickname because it’s insanely lush -tons of rain, dense rainforests, waterfalls everywhere, dramatic cliffs, and basically green in every direction. It’s the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands, which gave nature more time to go wild on it. The opening shot of the hit series “Fantasy Island” was filmed at Kauai’s magnificent Wailua Falls. One look at this idyllic locale and you can’t help thinking of Hervé Villechaize (Tattoo) calling to Ricardo Montalban (Mr. Roarke), “The plane! The plane!”

But Kauai is under attack. Not by climate control, disease or politics. But by Billionaires!

Thirty Seven billionaires collectively own 218,000 acres of Hawaiian land, a large portion of all privately owned land in the state. 

The biggest disrupter by far is Mark Zuckerberg who many say has destroyed the fabric of Kauai. His private complex on the island is more than 4,300 acres, solidifying his position as one of Hawaii’s biggest private landowners

Critics warned that large-scale development could disrupt daily life on an island so small it had only one traffic light until 1973. Kauai’s close-knit population -a mix of Native Hawaiians and descendants of Asian and Puerto Rican plantation workers – objected to the presence of a tech billionaire transforming their island. Their efforts to stop his advancement have proven to be futile. He is considering adding another 760 acres to his complex at an additional cost of 63 million dollars.

He forced sales at public auction where the highest bidder (in practice Zuckerberg) could buy the land. But it is what he has done with the land that is causing the most controversy. His 300 million dollars of buildings includes two mansions, a gym and tennis court, guesthouses and treehouses. Most controversial is an underground bunker the size of a football field where Zuckerberg could live for up to three years in the event of a nuclear disaster. All the workers were required to sign non disclosure agreements to protect Zuckerberg’s intentions. Our tour guide opined that the locals kid that in the event of a disaster they would kill Zuckerberg and live in the bunker. Who would know? They all signed NDA’s! As crazy is Zuckerberg’s plan to raise cattle only on macadamia nuts and beer!

All kidding aside, this mass land acquisition is tragic. Only 6% of native Kauaians can afford to buy property on their own island. Indigenous people are locked out of 94% of all land purchases. Many are leaving their homeland for service jobs in Las Vegas.

In our travels over the last 2 years Chongae and I have seen in many countries vast discrepancies in wealth but few have been as obvious as what we witnessed in Kauai, Hawaii. Many locals see the accumulation of land by very wealthy outsiders like Zuckerberg as symbolic of wealth reshaping the island’s cultural landscape – and of outsider privilege over community heritage. According to reports, parts of the newly-held property are believed to include Native Hawaiian burial grounds – including sites where locals say ancestors have been interred for generations.

Native Hawaiian residents and cultural advocates have voiced unease that sacred iwi (ancestral remains) could be disturbed or concealed amid ongoing development and construction activity on the property. They believe this may finally be an answer to stop this unprecedented land acquisition.

Let’s hope so.

Thanks for traveling with us.