Mahie Paradise Place (Kurtistown, Big Island)
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We’re a retired couple living full-time on the Big Island, and one of our greatest pleasures is sharing the beauty of Hawaiʻi with friends and family. Mahie Paradise Place was created as a place to gather, relax, and experience the island in a way that feels personal, generous, and unhurried. We love to entertain, to grow and cook food together, and to give the people we care about the chance to enjoy Hawaiʻi without the pressures that often come with travel. While airfare is usually the first thing people think about, the real cost of a Hawaii vacation is almost always lodging and meals. When you stay with us, those costs disappear, allowing the focus to stay on the experience itself.
Overview
Set on 2.2 acres in Kurtistown, Mahie Paradise Place feels less like a single home and more like a small, private resort. The main house is approximately 2,000 square feet with four bedrooms, complemented by a separate guest house and a smaller children’s cottage, making it easy for groups to spend time together while still enjoying privacy and quiet when needed. A spacious outdoor lanai anchors the main home and naturally draws people outside throughout the day.
At the center of the property is a large 40-foot heated swimming pool, protected by a polycarbonate cover so guests can swim comfortably even during tropical rain. Nearby are shaded lounging areas, a hot tub, and a 3,000-gallon koi pond, where brightly colored fish move quietly beneath the surface, adding a calm, almost meditative counterpoint to the energy of the pool. Poolside recreation includes an outdoor ping-pong table with a practice robot, cornhole boards, and a foosball table, making it easy to drift between relaxation and play. A firepit for relaxing evenings is centered between the home, ohana and pond.
Food is central to life here. Guests enjoy fresh fruit smoothies and desserts made from fruit grown on the property, along with vegetables harvested just steps from the kitchen. We also source beef from a local rancher and some of the freshest fish in the world, caught by local fishermen the day before. Eating this way is often a revelation. Tropical fruit and vegetables picked at peak ripeness bear little resemblance to what you find in a grocery store, richer, sweeter, and better in every way.
The grounds themselves are lush and productive, with hundreds of banana plants alongside pineapple, lilikoi, cacao, avocado, papaya, citrus trees, guava, sugar cane, kabocha squash, and more. A 30 by 20 foot greenhouse with a hydroponic system produces fresh greens and vegetables year-round, including lettuce, bok choy, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and asparagus. For special gatherings, we use a traditional imu to prepare kalua pork, grounding celebrations in Hawaiian tradition.
Living Off-Grid (Designed for Independence and Abundance)
When we bought this home, it was not connected to the electrical grid at all. If we wanted to live here, solar wasn’t a lifestyle choice; it was the only option. It took more than a year before grid service was finally available, and by then we had already committed to building an energy system that could fully support how we wanted to live.
Today, the property is powered primarily by an unusually large private solar installation consisting of 94 panels rated at 400 watts each, capable of producing up to 300 kilowatt-hours of electricity on a sunny day. That power feeds a 75 kWh battery system and three inverters delivering a combined 200 amps of service, providing a level of energy capacity that far exceeds what most homes ever experience.
Although we are now technically connected to the utility grid, it exists purely as emergency backup. Our grid service is limited to 100 amps, which means that when running on grid power alone we cannot even heat the swimming pool due to amperage limits. Off-grid, everything runs effortlessly. In practical terms, our solar system has roughly twice the usable capacity of our grid connection, a complete reversal of the normal relationship between homes and utilities. Even the solar company that installed the system considers it one of the most robust private residential solar installations on the island.
We sometimes joke that we’re “accidental preppers.” We never set out to pursue a prepper lifestyle, but by designing for independence, reliability, and scale, we naturally built a place that can operate comfortably and indefinitely on its own. We didn’t build this system to conserve energy or restrict our usage; we built it because we want to use energy, and doing so at local utility rates simply isn’t financially rational. Producing our own power at scale was the most practical and sensible solution.
That energy abundance supports a lifestyle that feels calm and unconstrained. The property comfortably powers two electric vehicles, a hot tub, a heated pool, multiple freezers, greenhouse systems, and everyday living, all without generators, noise, or interruption. It’s modern, quiet, and resilient by design.
Mahie Paradise Place is not about luxury in the conventional sense. It’s about abundance without waste, comfort without noise, and hospitality without pretense. It’s a place to swim while rain falls softly overhead, eat food grown just steps away, and settle into a rhythm that feels intentional, generous, and deeply connected to the island.
