Part 1 of 3: The Waterfalling Estate
When I first bought Bliss Island in 2020, I received a phone call from a mysterious caller. She said she represented a Hollywood A-Lister. She wouldn’t tell me who it was but she said that her client needed a property big enough for a family with kids and a lawn area big enough to erect a 3000 square foot gym. The rental would last for three months while her client filmed a movie about King Kamehameha. This narrowed it down for me quite a bit. I correctly guessed that she represented, none other than, the Rock.
My plan was to make Bliss Island my home and only run retreats once or twice a month to help guests reinvent themselves. Kinda like the old tv show “Fantasy Island”. So up till this point, I had zero interest in renting my home out as a short term rental to anyone.
But, the Rock is not just anyone, and the daily rent being discussed over 90 days was $4k per day. This would fund my new mortgage for three years! Wowza! This got my attention, so I decided to go for it.
While preparing our offer, my wife and I found a lot of humor in the situation. We wondered things like, “would the Rock and his wife sleep in our bed? If they do, would it ever be the same again? I mean, come on, this is the Rock we’re talking about. Dude is HUGE! Should we retire the bed afterward out of respect for his greatness? I’m not sure I want to have thoughts in my head about what the Rock did in my bed while making love to my wife!”
I put a lot of time and energy into our bid. I was told that not having a pool or hot tub for his kids would work against me. I attempted to purchase a hot tub and one of those “out-of-a-box” lap pools. Unfortunately the supply chain for both were at a standstill due to all the home improvements people were doing at the onset of Covid. I even looked at flying them in private from Asia, but it would take over nine months to get either delivered to our island and I only had three months to pull it off.
I gave it a valiant effort, submitting a competitive bid. I ended up coming in second. One little truth about myself that I keep hidden, is that I am highly competitive. I don’t like to lose and I always go for the win! As you nod your head in agreement saying to yourself, yaeh, me too. This is where I would like you to look at the image I selected below. It is the Rocks’ most intense look. This is how I am when I compete.
This is for sure due to my background in competitive sports. I scratched and clawed my way through youth sports to take sports as far as my determination and limited physical gifts could take me. I made it as far as Division 1 college basketball and D3 football. Spending two decades playing thousands of games made me into a highly competitive person.
Recently I took up pickle ball at the suggestion of my brother-in-law Joe. I was pleasantly surprised that I won my first four matches despite never having played the sport. Joe told me I had natural ability. This fueled me Ego. Until I played my fifth match where I faced up against a fierce duo with major game. The one guy was a 6’6 lefty with an awesome surf. He filled up the small court. It felt like he was everywhere!
His teammate was a wily guy who hit every shot with top spin and could dink with the best of them. My team lost in extended play 19-17. The loss seriously bothered me for days.
Now, to let this really sink in, I need to provide some details that I left out. the match was at a public park, not Wimbledon. The average age of the players was mid-70’s. I was the youngest player by about twenty years. The 6’6 lefty was nearly 80 and the wily magician was, well, how can I say this? Not exactly an athletic specimen. I figure he was in his 80’s too. Get the picture?
Now that you realize that I have issues with losing at anything, we are on the same page. I have written a great deal about my focus on a presence practice this past year. My coach Patrick Combs will read this and probably suggest I sign up for another year to deal with this unrevealed problem of my Ego.
Back to my story. Not able to stop myself, I had to know which property won. I called the Rocks representative one last time to find out. She said, “He chose the Waterfalling Estate.” She said it like everyone knows this property. Out of embarrassment that I didn’t know it, I began wrapping up the call by thanking her for the opportunity, I then made a quip about my bed being happy, which she didn’t get and I didn’t elaborate on. 😂
Fast forward nearly two years this past early August. Facebook feeds me a story In Forbes declaring that the famed celebrity rental haven, the Waterfalling Estate, was going up for auction. Instantly remembering my loss to this mystery estate, the headline got my attention. I incorrectly thought 5e property was in the Four Seasons development on the Kona side of the island. But then I saw the address in the town of Ninole. Wait a minute! That’s ten minutes from my house on the Hamakua Coast. I looked th listing up and it showed that they were having an open house. I hopped in my car and drove over. I must see this property that lost me the Rock!
As I entered the property to drive down the expansive driveway, the view literally took my breath away. My very next thoughts in sequence were:
1) How did I not know that this property existed on the Hamakua Coast?
2) How is this property being listed for only $6mm?
3) I can see why the Rock chose this over my property.
As I pulled up to the house, I was greeted by a really friendly duo named Josh and Carrie. Josh was a rep from the auctioneer Sothebys and Carrie was the owners realtor from Hawaii Life. I would spend the next two hours viewing the property and asking a ton of questions. I could feel it coming on. What “IT” am I referring to?
Inspiration
My fuel!
Part 2 Coming Soon - Thanks for reading!
