From Geocaching in Brooklyn to treasure hunting in Hawaii: ‘Finding ‘Ohana’ is escapist family fun

In the new Netflix young adult action movie “Finding ‘Ohana” we first meet the lead character, 12-year-old Pilialoha “Pili” Kawena, played by Kea Peahu, on the busy streets of NYC. Pili is a geochaing champion. For anyone over the age of 30, geocaching is a popular game played around the world that involves using mobile technology to find “caches,” or hidden objects, using GPS. Essentially, it’s a 21st-century treasure hunt, and Pili is a grandmaster.

But, after winning a major geocaching tournament, Pili and her late-teen older brother Ionae, played by Alex Aiono, are dealt the blow that they have to uproot from their apartment in Brooklyn — Greenpoint, specifically — to their family’s native O‘ahu, Hawaii, after their grandfather becomes ill. When…