As usual, we woke up early. But this time we had the view of a lifetime. I sat on our balcony and watched the sunrise over Diamond Head. It was a magnificent sunrise. This is what I am going to miss the most of.
is this hotel not awesome or what??
We went downstairs for our first Royal Hawaiian breakfast (it was included). Our seats were great and looked out over the beach. It was a “dining experience” which is rare in the morning -- raspberry smoothies in tall shot glasses to start with, guava juice, then fresh pineapple, and our “entree” - eggs, belgian waffles, or yogurt/ muesli. Our waiter kept trying to open our jelly jars and ketchup jars, did we look like helpless females? Pretty pink flowers on the table -- yes we were loving all this pink everywhere, it was like being a little princess in a pink palace.
After collecting our minivan, we got directions and a better map from our good looking valet. He gave me some suggestions of other places to see along the route too.
On our way out of town we saw a woman, who lived right in downtown enjoying the view (and her cigarette and coffee - wonder if it is Kona coffee?).
I found my way to the interstate through a neighborhood, odd that is the main freeway entrance in a major city. Couldn’t imagine living on that street. Princess was in the front and directed me on the correct roads, until we got off the freeway and, of course got turned sideways.
There was a very nice older man out walking his very tiny dog and he assisted with directions. My companions got very nervous thinking I was going to run over the puppy with our minivan. But that didn’t happen. We did see many interesting sites along the way including Club Texas, a very scary looking place for exotic dancers. We had to remember we were on an island populated by our military -- they have to work and market to their strongest demographic. It looked like the lower end of the market from the outside. The gas on this island is cheaper than on the Big Island, but not by much.
Hello, expensive gas here :)
Our first destination was the Dole Plantation (against our father’s wishes, as he had told us all the stories of the missionaries and their land acquisitions). Whatever, Pop, this place was beautiful and I love the smell and taste of pineapple.
It is located in a valley on the North Western side of the island. We were very fortunate as it was a magnificent day out -- blue sky, 70 degrees, oh yeah -- just another day in paradise.
This plantation was very well maintained. They had a massive general store selling anything pineapple you could desire -- pineapple gumdrops, pineapple teddy bears, pineapple t-shirts etc. They will even ship you fresh pineapples by the box.
Also they had some other “local” merchandise that I was not overly interested in purchasing.
Our first stop was the ticket booth to get a train ticket and a ticket to their garden area. We took the Pineapple Express :)
You know they have some serious visitors when they have a whole car on the train devoted to the Japanese and the program is in Japanese on the caboose.
Our train was fun -- it was an old time type train and it felt like we were at Disney on a mini train. They had music by Manoa DNA, a local band, playing while they had a narration of the history of the Dole Plantation and the process of pineapple farming. They had different varieties of local vegetation all along the route and seeing the pineapples actually in the ground was beautiful.
After we finished on the Pineapple Express, we got audio guides in the gardens and trekked out alone. They had the most interesting tree at the front. It was a rainbow eucalyptus and had colorful bark that fascinated me. I had never seen any tree like it before.
:) my favorite
I am not a huge flower person, and I don’t have a green thumb. But I do like to look at pretty flowers and it is always very tranquil and calming to be in a garden. This one was no exception. I learned a lot about the different types of flowers here and they threw in some of the history too.
It had gotten warmer on our walk through the gardens so of course it was time for a Dole Whip or in my case a Dole Whip Float (pineapple whip with pineapple juice -- can we say SUGER OVERLOAD, I couldn’t drink/eat too much of it, but it came in a great pineapple bank. It reminded me of those stupid little orange juice holders I begged my daddy to buy me at Six Flags when I was little. I could even remember the taste of those orange drinks. God only knows how many of those he had to buy me and drag home.)
While enjoying our sweets, we saw one of the residents float by -- it was a beautiful peacock.
After making our purchases, and no I didn’t get one of those shirts, I was very conservative here. We found our minivan in a much more crowded parking lot and headed north toward the North Shore.
Stopped at Hale’iwa at the beach. The waves were massive and crashing. The beach was very expansive and there were people out but not “out” like you sit out on the Gulf Coast. We saw a very interesting man with a grass hat driving a very wicked old wood paneled car. He asked Princess, who had just taken a photo of his car, to please not sell photos of his vehicle. Odd he drives around in an antique showy car but doesn’t want anyone to “sell” photos. I guess he is trying not to stand out -- lol.
Our next stop was Waimea Beach, I am a very careful driver somewhat. I normally don’t disobey traffic signs. But sometimes in unfamiliar places you make mistakes. Thank goodness I didn’t get a ticket. There was a line of cars on the right side of the parking lot stopped. On the left side there were no cars but one coming out. I went left and pulled in a just emptied space. As I did that my navigator spouted out that there was a sign that said One Way -- I looked around and finally saw a faded sign that had blended in with the background. That was after I was almost in the spot. So what is a conscientious Southern Belle to do? Why finish taking the spot and hope the two lady officers in the parking lot don’t ticket me. I didn’t want to see what their badge looks like.
Shave Ice truck parked near the beach, volleyball game going on along the “dangerous shoreline”. That sign didn’t stop any of crazy body boarders. There were lifeguards out there but they were eating lunch and didn’t seem too concerned about the people who were nuts enough to be out in the dangerous water.
We kept driving north -- you could see the waves crashing, but we couldn’t find a town with restaurants. There were a few food trucks that looked good and populated, but Princess was having none of it. So we kept driving. We ended up at the Turtle Bay Resort -- leave it to four Southern Belles to find the swankiest place around in the middle of nowhere.
The waves were violent out and they had a great little beachside restaurant -- Ola -- it had great views of the beach and was all open air. The breeze was great and our waitress was from Seattle, she had come to Hawaii for college and was trying her best not to go back.
I could work with this view...
The food was good -- garlic edamame, cheese plate, salads, pork and fish sandwiches....
We finally made it to Laie, on the way we saw shrimp farms. The wind was rough -- almost blew us off the road. We saw signs for BYU Hawaii. Those folks in Utah are getting the shaft -- choices - go to school in Utah or Hawaii??? hum, no brainer.
Surprisingly we saw a Polynesian McDonald’s -- what a sight!
Polynesian Cultural Center - looked a little cheesy but was very cool anyway. It has been there since the 1960’s -- they filmed parts of Blue Hawaii there. You can buy your tickets online prior to getting there. They have weird packages, escorted tours, special seating for the luau and night time show. What was up with that? It’s a lot like a Disney park, but an escort?
When we got there, we went straight to a bridge to watch their boat parade showcasing the different islands in Polynesia.
The best part was when the punter fell off the barge from the dancers rocking it so much -- “don’t come punting when the barge is rocking”.
Chintuya from Mongolia was our Ambassador. She was a senior at BYU studying accounting. Very nice and great personality -- she showed us around the different “islands” --
Samoa
Aotearoa
Fiji
Hawaii
Marquesas
Tahiti
Tonga
Somoa -- we learned about making fire.
And this guy climbed up the palm tree - he was showing off his assets- hum, can we take him home?
They had a Somoan kitchen - interesting that the men of this island do all the cooking....
Aotearoa -- aka New Zealand -- Kia Ora (Hello)
As they are the warlike tribes, there was a massive fence around this portion. Inside was the Marae -- the area with the tribal houses that I had seen when I visited Rotorua.
They had an area for us to sit and chuck sticks at each other. They let us try the Maori Stick game.
I am not the most coordinated and was glad that it wasn’t that difficult. They had some people in the middle trying out the twirling poi balls.
In Fiji -Bula (life or hello)- we went into the King’s house -- extremely cool -- there were four doors and you only are allowed to come in one of them. The King’s bed was a higher than his wife’s bed. The beds were made out of blankets. On his bed was a device that was for his head and hair -- the bigger the hair in Fiji the more powerful man -- the principle was for energy coming from the sun and gods. Gives new meaning to the words “hair power”.
This was the headrest/pillow
In Tonga, we had a great native drum show -- a few people from the audience were selected to perform. They were actually good.
We went on a boat ride and saw a Fiji religious temple - one of the few outside Fiji.
They took us to the Luau, Princess and Angel wanted to change into their Hawaiian dresses. Lily and I decided that was probably not necessary, we had a long day.
Princess got the special treatment due to her peanut allergy and they had a food chart showing her what she could and could not eat. Very conscientious chefs on this island -- or just scared of lawyers with food allergies :) The food was traditional Hawaiian food -- purple taro bread, pork, and coconut desserts.
The luau was different from the one we had seen last year in Maui -- They had a few people come out and do some of the traditional dancing.
After our luau, we went to a few of the shops and then found Chintuya again for our backstage tour. It was getting dark out and the moon was very bright here. The stage area was huge and the backstage of course was triple that. She told us more about the history of the complex and the recent addition of this massive amphitheater that could hold almost 3,000 people.
The show is called Ha -- The Breath of Life and they had a fire baton part. The first area we saw was where they kept the fire equipment -- wicked -- Bic lighters everywhere. And for some reason some of the leaf skirts were burnt up, she told us we would see why when we saw the show (and we did, let’s just say it take a real man to put on a skirt of leaves, but it takes a man of a different sort to sit on top of flaming coals).
They had a huge rehearsal stage with large mirrors for the performers. They had a giant flatscreen TV with a view of the stage so they would know when they needed to go out. There were a few young men changing into their loin cloths and they were not shy -- and of course grinning like Cheshire cats at all the geeky tourists.
My sister was fascinated by the costume shop, as was I. The staff was braiding a leaf skirt for the show that night and they had a trolley system like a dry cleaners for transporting and storing the costumes.
Our last stop was the actual theater and then we had just a few minutes before we had to find our seats. I think we had lucked out and got “house” seats -- the ones normally reserved for last minute important guests. We had only gotten our seats late the night before and they were center stage only a few rows up -- chaching.
Ha -- The Breath of Life -- was a very well put together production. Princess was a theater major in college and she was impressed, especially considering that most of the performers were from BYU and college kids.
It started out with a cartoonish like film showing on the screens above the stage with two islanders fleeing their island due to a volcano and then the show progressed them from having a child to them experiencing each of the different islands’ of Polynesia cultures -- from the dancing of Tahiti to the warring of Aotearoa. Finally they ended up in Somoa with the fire batons and it was awesome to see -- well worth the money. In a way in reminded me of the bible and Jesus’ life - the man character was even named “Mana” which means a life force.
It followed his life and his interaction with the people’s of each island. His wedding ceremony was in Tahiti and instead of saying “I do” they shake their heads instead -- because the question is “Will you ever leave your loved one?” I found this extremely romantic - no one making unreasonable promises or having expectations, just a simple question. Oh yeah we got to see him climb a tree too -- always a plus to any girl’s day -- two men in one day climbing a palm tree. So is life, it’s hard sometimes :)
During intermission they had pineapple delights (part of our “package”) -- it was ice cream, just like the London theaters.
After the show we made it out of the parking lot quickly but due to the interesting food at dinner, we stopped at the Polynesian McDonald’s (I haven’t been in one in ages and that plain cheeseburger Happy Meal was a temptation). I didn’t try the Taro pies because they didn’t have any hot ones ready -- next time for sure.
We took a different route back to the hotel while following their big tour buses -- the coast line was beautiful by moon light but the road was two lane the whole way. I drove very carefully.
Oddly enough we saw lots of construction signs -- but not much construction -- the signs normally said something to the effect of Project started in August 2007 -- hello, it’s 2012 now??? And I thought we were lax in the South with getting things done in a timely manner.
