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Polynesian Cultural Center is one of those “don’t miss” attractions that a lot of people miss. Most vacationers who travel in groups see it because it’s on their itineraries, and it’s easy enough to sign on for a tour at your hotel.
If you’re traveling on your own, however, it’s the kind of thing you put off and put off until suddenly it’s time to go home and you’ve missed it. The problem lies in the location – the North Shore of Oahu – and the fact that you need commit a full day to explore it.
Still, it’s the top paid Hawaii attraction. What you get is seven native villages that give you the chance to participate in the daily adventures of Hawaiian and other South Pacific cultures. The Center also stages what they claim to be “Hawaii’s most authentic luau” and “The world’s largest Polynesian night show.”
Let’s take one of the villages – Tahiti — as an example of what you’ll see apart from the entertainment and food.
Tahiti is the name of the largest island and administrative center of French Polynesia. A hundred-plus French Polynesian islands surround Tahiti.
More than any other group of Pacific islands aside from Hawaii, Tahiti, with its fast hip-shaking dances and compelling wooden drum rhythms, characterizes Polynesia in the minds of people around the world.
In the village, you’ll meet the warm, inviting Tahitian people and gain insights into their fascinating culture. You’ll learn both the women’s and men’s movements in their exciting dances. You’ll learn why the Tahitians make both fragrant flower and beautiful shell lei, sample Tahitian coconut bread, tour the garden and even give your kids the opportunity to try some fishing.
The large "celebration house" is the central location for the presentations, "grass skirt" and shell work production and the dance platform. The kitchen area is where the earth oven is located, surrounded by the plantation, and there’s also a fishing hut on the edge of the lagoon.
That’s a handful of Tahiti, but remember that there are the luau, the show and six other villages to visit: Hawaii, Samoa, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, Tonga and the Polynesian Triangle.
Obviously, there’s plenty to see and do, but you’ll enjoy every minute of it – even if it does occupy an entire day.
Pick an agent from the Hawaii-Aloha Web page (hawaii-aloha.com), or call 1-800-843-8771. We’ll help you work a visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center into your vacation plans.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
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May 5th, 2009
Once you’ve got your vacation under way, you’ll be trying to find a really good restaurant where price is not a consideration, but where you can expect the very best in fine dining.
There are terrific restaurants on all the islands. We’re discussing only Oahu here. What follows does not consist of “reviews,” but of characterizations of eight restaurants that live up to the highest of expectations. Keep in mind that we take no advertising on this site so these are selected because we like them and our clients have reported favorably after visiting them. (Most of the reviews you’ll see elsewhere are of restaurants that advertise in the brochures or on the Web, so they’re certain to be favorable.)
Shown alphabetically, all these restaurants are “award-winning.” Their chefs are “celebrity chefs,” some on an international scale, all of them locally.
3660 on the Rise
Outside of Waikiki in retro Kaimuki, the 3660 menu has an innovative Euro-Island touch – the culinary marriage of the East/West heritage and home-grown ingredients now known as the Pacific-rim style.
Alan Wong’s
Alan Wong’s features Hawaiian Regional Cuisine. The dishes are a reflection of the diversified cultures in the islands, using fresh, locally-grown produce and seafood prepared imaginatively.
Chef Mavro
George Mavrothatlassitis is probably the most decorated among Hawaii’s great chefs. His restaurant specializes in French-Hawaii cuisine. The menu, which is changed quarterly, includes pairings with good wines by the glass.
Hoku’s
Located inside the upscale Kahala Hotel, this multi-level dining room offers exotic and innovative fusion fare — Hawaiian, Asian and European flavors. You’ll see the open kitchen with woks, a kiawe wood grill and wood-burning ovens,, and ocean views are available to every table.
Hy’s Steak House
Hy’s is not part of the national chain. Its cuisine is pretty much "Continental," but also has mixtures of American, European, Hawaiian and Pacific influences. The Broiler Room centerpiece yields house specialties — steaks, chops and seafood – that have been broiled over kiawe wood.
John Dominis
Known first for its view of Diamond Head and the Waikiki skyline across its oceanfront, John Dominis is famous for its seafood. The restaurant boasts that it uniquely can do fish eight different ways. You’ll pass an exotic fish-on-ice spread as you enter the restaurant.
La Mer
This elegant restaurant has an internationally-known menu with neoclassic French cuisine. The chef uses local ingredients blended with flavors from the south of France.
Roy’s
Roy’s is where Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine — European techniques with Asian flavors — was born. Now a spreading chain of fine-dining restaurants, the original restaurant is located in East Oahu. Its European sauces and bold Asian spices create toothsome new tastes.
For more insight into the myriad dining options you’ll have on all the islands, pick an agent from the Hawaii-Aloha Web site (Hawaii-aloha.com), or call 1-800-843-8771.
Posted by Jim Winpenny.
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April 8th, 2009
He grew up in Hawaii and was graduated from the famous Punahou School (Barack Obama’s alma mater).
A swimmer with skills beyond those of any of his contemporaries, he was graduated from the University of Southern California, where he was the school’s first All-American swimmer and a 1931 NCAA freestyle titlist in 1931. He participated in two Olympic games. He won the bronze medal for the 1,500 meter freestyle in 1928, and 1932 he won the gold medal for the 400 meter freestyle.
After marrying his college sweetheart, he gave himself one year to either make it as an actor or start law school at USC. His role in the 1933 Tarzan serial “Tarzan the Fearless” (also issued as a full length movie) launched a successful career during which he starred in more than 100 movies. (“Fearless” would be the only movie in which he starred as Tarzan.) He also starred in the first international film “Search for Beauty” (1934), and his next major role was in 1936 as Flash Gordon in the popular “Flash Gordon” serial, which he reprised in two sequels, released by Universal in 1938 and 1940. The three serials were later shown extensively on American television during the 1950s and 60s, then edited for release on home video. Other characters he portrayed included Western hero Billy the Kid, Buck Rogers, and a brother in his real-life fraternity in the movie musical “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.”
He remains the only actor who portrayed Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers — the top three comic strip heroes of the 1930s.
His name? Buster Crabbe.
But if you want to speak of Crabbe in conversations of Olympic heroes, swimming greats from Hawaii or Hawaii people who made significant contributions to popular culture, it’ll be hard to do in Hawaii. Most of us don’t know even what you just read.
We’ll talk with you about Duke Kahanamoku all day and night. He was Hawaii’s greatest athlete. There’s a statue of him on Waikiki Beach. One of Waikiki’s most popular restaurants and party places is a virtual shrine to Duke Kahanamoku. We even celebrate his birth date (August 24, 1890).
There is no commemoration of Buster Crabbe, no trace at all — even in most of our memories.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
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March 23rd, 2009
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We try to keep reminding you that this dismal economy actually is a very good time to be considering a Hawaii vacation. It’s the middle of the peak season, yet rates for lodging and attractions are amazingly low and special offers – twofers in particular – abound. The state tourism people are sending that message to all their markets – vacationers, business travelers, meeting planners, eco-tourists, golfers, people wanting alternative travel considerations …
An example of the lengths to which the state is going in that respect is the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau’s (HVCB) “Hawaii Free” program, the bureau’s latest effort to show corporate-meeting and incentive groups how affordable the Islands of Aloha are for doing business.
HVCB has compiled a listing of more than 150 free activities for groups to incorporate into attendees’ itineraries while doing business in Hawaii. The listing, which includes the islands of Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and Hawaii’s Big Island, can be found at HVCB’s new “Added Value Resource Center,” offered online to business groups at BusinessAloha.com.
The idea for groups is that the program helps them make the best use of their money and spare time by showing how they can put together a full schedule of free activities for function attendees to enjoy and soak up the unique Hawaii culture and way of life.
We who live here know about most of the arts and cultural displays, scenic sites, and historic locations that make Hawaii such a special place. HVCB has drawn on its resources to share that knowledge with visiting groups so their attendees can experience the rewards of meeting in Hawaii while saving on their bottom line. Here are some examples of what you’ll find on the list:
• Listening to the music of the Royal Hawaiian Band at Waikiki’s Kapiolani Park
• Touring the Waioli Mission House Museum in Hanalei, Kauai
• Enjoying Art Night each Friday in Lahaina, Maui
• Seeing the preserved ancient Hawaiian village
at Lapakahi State Historical Park in North Kohala, on Hawaii’s Big Island.
While the program is aimed at business groups, all that free stuff is available to you, too.
Hawaii Free is the fourth cost-savings program HVCB has introduced recently to help corporate meeting and incentive groups do business in the islands while staying within budget. The other three programs HVCB offers in its Added Value Resource Center are “Hot Rates, Hot Dates!”, which offers special savings on accommodations and activities at hotels and resorts statewide through 2010; Value-Added Discounts on retail goods and activities in partnership with the Retail Merchants of Hawaii and Activities and the Attractions Association of Hawaii; and the Hawaii Speakers Bureau offering elite Hawaii-based leaders to address groups meeting in the islands on various subjects, including Asian affairs, medicine, scientific research, and technology.
Here at Hawaii Aloha Travel we have early notice and access to virtually every deal and offer that pops up, and as is the case in all but the last of the foregoing, we can put you on to them as you make your plans.
Worth thinking about? Pick an agent from our home page, or call 1-800-843-8771. You’ll probably be surprised by how affordable a Hawaii vacation can be these days.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
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March 4th, 2009
If you’re going to be vacationing on Oahu over the weekend of March 14 – 15, there will be a festival going on you won’t want to miss. Dubbed “Pacific Harmony,” the 15th-annual Honolulu Festival celebrates and displays the fascinating arts and diverse culture of the Pacific. This year’s theme is “Heart of the Pacific, Creating our Future.”
The weekend celebration will feature live musical and cultural performances, as well as impressive art exhibits by artisans from Japan, Australia, Tahiti, The Philippines, The Republic of China (Taiwan), Korea, Hawaii and the rest of the United States.
And it’s all free. The events will be located at the Hawaii Convention Center, Ala Moana Shopping Center, Waikiki Shopping Plaza and Waikiki Beach Walk, concluding with a Grand Parade through the heart of Waikiki on the final evening, Sunday, March 15.
During the weekend you’ll be treated to performances by the Obama Girls (no relation) from Obama, Japan; the “daijayama” or fire-breathing dragon float, and the Descendance from Australia, among other spectacles. The festival also will showcase Hawaii cultural groups who will share the beauty of their heritage with you in several venues.
The festival has become enormously popular locally and a special treat for visitors. Last year, almost 100,000 spectators enjoyed the festivities and the event attracted some 6,000 visitors from Japan. More than 90 cultural groups performed, many of them coming from countries throughout the Pacific Rim.
If you would like more information or details about the Honolulu Festival, pick an agent from the Hawaii-Aloha Web site , or call 1-800-843-8771 and check out the festival blog http://honolulufestivalinhawaii.blogspot.com/
Posted by Jim Winpenny
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February 24th, 2009
Heiau (Hawaiian temples) are historic structures in Hawaii that rarely appear in travel brochures or receive any attention unless your hotel happens to be near one. They were places of worship that were the centerpieces of Hawaiian religious beliefs. From each heiau, the kahuna (priest) communicated with the gods and advised the ali’i (chiefs). Heiau once existed throughout the Hawaiian Islands, but their use ceased with the abolishment of the kapu (taboo) system by Kamehameha II in 1819.
With the prevailing universal determination that Hawaiian culture should be preserved, several heiau have been maintained through the decades since 1819. The following is a profile of one of them – a structure that has stood for nearly fifteen centuries and the only one to have been overseen by the same family since it was built. Born nearby, Kamehameha the Great was brought to this heiau for his birth rituals.
Mookini Luakini, in the North Kolaha area of the Big Island, has an oral history that can be tracked back to 480 A.D. The giant temple is constructed of water-worn basalt rocks that its oral history says were transported 14 miles from Pololu Valley in the space of one night.
The heiau’s current Kahuna Nui (priest/guardian), Leimomi Mookini Lum, was temple-trained by her father and uncle to assume stewardship of the physical site, its history, and its sacred, secret mysteries.
There is little mysterious about “Momi” Lum, who retired after 32 years of service as an investigator with the Honolulu Police Department’s Juvenile Crime Division. She now devotes full time to preserving the family heiau complex. She is, incidentally, a devout Catholic.
For most of its existence, Mookini Luakini was a closed heiau reserved by Hawaii kings and ruling chiefs for fasting, praying and offerings. It was the focus of religious life and order for the Polynesians who migrated to Hawaii from across the Pacific. The impressive temple measures roughly 250 feet by 125 feet, nearly the size of a football field. Its walls, constructed without mortar, are still nearly 30 feet high in places. They are said to have been originally six feet high. The walls were raised to their present height about 1,000 A.D., when, according to the chant, the high priest Paao from Samoa raised the walls and added the distinctive scalloped altar, in gratitude for being granted use of the temple. The heiau was dedicated to the god Ku, the god of war. The Mookini family, as direct descendants of the Priestly Order of Ku, was designated kahuna nui for the site.
Through succeeding generations, a single family member was trained in temple ritual and tradition and was responsible for providing guidance and direction. This unbroken line of guardians provides a rare cultural link with Hawaii’s past. Lum is the seventh woman in the family line to carry the mantle of responsibility, which is usually reserved for men. In 1963, Mookini Luakini was designated a National Historic Landmark, the first in Hawaii to be registered under provisions of the federal Historic Sites Act of 1935.
You can visit Mookini Luakini, but it isn’t easy to get to. You can find a flight to Upolu Airport, which has a single runway without taxiways and just two aircraft parking areas, or, after a long drive on Kohala Mountain Road to Hawi, and a dusty walk from Upolu, you’ll find yourself on a grassy hillside with a wind that can make conversation difficult. Behind you is the wild Maui Strait and above you are rushing clouds that may seem to move faster than any you’ve seen before. The aura is both thrilling and eerie.
You can’t miss the heiau.
There are many, many unpublicized sites, spectacles and treasures among these islands. To discover some more of them, browse the Hawaii-Aloha Web site (hawaii-aloha.com), or call 1-800-843-8771.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
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February 23rd, 2009
Forty-six years ago the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce launched what has since become the world’s premier forum for people of all ages to display their skills and knowledge of the art of ancient and modern hula.
The annual Merrie Monarch Festival inthe town of Hilo on the Big Island has created a renaissance of the Hawaiian culture that is being passed on from generation to generation. The week-long festival includes art exhibits, craft fairs, demonstrations, performances, a parade that emphasizes the cultures of Hawaii, and a three-day hula competition that has received worldwide recognition for its historic and cultural significance. If you plan to be vacationing on the Big Island (or anywhere in Hawaii for that matter), and if you think you’d enjoy authentic hula performed beautifully by dedicated dancers, you should try to work the festival into your plans. The week dedicated to the festival is Sunday, April 12, 2009 through Saturday, April 18, 2009.
It’s a really big deal. In preparation for the Merrie Monarch Festival, hula studios and instructors in Hawaii and on the U.S. Mainland hold classes, workshops and seminars all year long to teach the art of hula, the meaning of Hawaiian chants and songs, the Hawaiian language, the making of Hawaiian clothing and crafts, and the history of the Hawaiian people.
Proceeds from the festival support educational scholarships, workshops, seminars, symposiums and the continuation of the festival.
The weeklong festivities begin with a Ho‘olaule‘a (music festival) on Coconut Island on Easter Sunday and continue all week with free noonday entertainment at the Hawaii Naniloa Resort and the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel on Banyan Drive. On Wednesday, there is a free exhibition night at the Edith Kanaka`ole Tennis Stadium that begins at 6:00 p.m. Thursday is the solo Miss Aloha Hula Competition, Friday and Saturday feature the group Kahiko (ancient) and ‘Auana (modern) hula competitions. There are arts and craft fairs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at several locations and the big Merrie Monarch parade winds through downtown Hilo beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Except for the hula competition, the events are free.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
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February 18th, 2009
Many of those of us who live in Hawaii, when we move into a new home or open a business or a business office, have it blessed. When ground is broken for a new construction project of any kind — corporate or private — the land is blessed. It’s not necessarily religion or superstition, it’s part of living in Hawaii.
Amid the amazing mixture of ethnic groups among our islands, many of our forebears brought beliefs and practices with them that since have become ingrained in the culture; and, of course, some of the ancient Hawaiian beliefs remain in one form or another.
Accordingly, it’s a good idea for you to be aware of some of those aphorisms if you plan to vacation in Hawaii.
- You’re in for future misfortune if you take away lava rocks from the volcanoes. Over the years, literally thousands of vacationers actually have mailed rocks back after experiencing bad luck once they got back home. In fact, it’s often suggested that you leave behind everything you find in Hawaii ("Take only pictures; leave only footprints") — but that caution smells as if it might have retailing interests behind it. (Don’t take free stuff; buy everything.)
- Not that the opportunity is likely to arise, but do not carry pork over the Pali Highway. Your car will stop and break down. (Background: King Kamehameha led his warriors over the Pali in 1795. At the time, he had a bad relationship with the demigod Kamapua`a, who was half man and half pig. The two agreed not to visit each other. If you take pork over the Pali, you are taking a piece of Kamapua`a from one side to the other, and Pele will stop that from happening.)
- Honor bachi — "what goes around comes around." If you abuse someone else’s spirit, negative consequences will befall you. If you hand out good, you get it back as well. (You may call that "karma" at home, but this is a little more personal.)
- Things bad that happen occur in threes.
- A lot of us sort of follow Feng Shui, which is a way of arranging things according to rules of the environment. For example, you might position your bed so your feet are not facing the door, or you may avoid having your back to the door as you sit at your desk. The wrong positioning will allow negative forces to enter the premises through you.
- Always take your shoes off before entering the home of a local resident (unless told by the host it’s okay to leave them on). This isn’t a superstition; it’s practically law. To ignore it is to be really insulting.
There’s no need to lose sleep over the thought of running afoul of any of the foregoing. But be advised.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
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January 20th, 2009
When you visit Hawaii, you’ll have ample opportunities to learn how to hula. If you already have learned the traditional dance, this is a good time to be here and indulge your interest.
The annual Invitational Hula Festival was held November 6-8 at the Waikiki Shell. Hula artists from 16 countries have assembled to celebrate everything natural in Hawaiian culture: costume, language, music and dance. Performances, although judged by 21 of hula’s most prestigious keepers of the art, remains a continuous cultural education and spiritual discipline.
Then, on November 13-15, the17th the annual World International Waikiki Hula Conference took place which is a rare opportunity to come to Hawaii to learn, share and experience the hula firsthand, with a variety of respected hula masters, many of whom do not travel outside Hawaii to teach. This all will all take place again next year, so you can give it a try on your Hawaiian Vacation.
Hula, while unique to the Hawaiian Islands, is taught worldwide in schools called halau. Hula is a very complex art form, and there are many hand motions used to signify aspects of nature, such as the basic Hula and Coconut Tree motions, or the basic leg steps such as the Kaholo, Ka’o, and Ami. If you’d like to take up the dance – or at least investigate its intricacies – go to www.mele.com and click on Halau Hula Listings.
If you’d like to attend either of the foregoing events, pick an agent from our Web site or call 1-800-843-8771.
December 23rd, 2008
Two of the most prominent figures in Hawaii’s history were related — Bernice Pauahi Paki Bishop was the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I, the warrior chief who united all the islands of Hawaii under his rule in 1810, thereby creating the Hawaiian monarchy.
Kamehameha the Great of the Big Island made his mark by conquering each of the other major islands’ leadership – with more than a little help from British and American traders who sold him guns and ammunition and trained his men in their use.
Princess Pauahi Paki was born in 1831 and educated by American Protestant missionaries. She met and married a young American named Charles Reed Bishop, whose surname is found throughout the islands on roads, schools, the famous museum, and the facades of leading businesses and institutions. Widely respected in his own time, he was a widely successful businessman who through banking, real estate, and other investments, became one of the wealthiest men in the kingdom. Because the name is so prevalent in the islands, many assume it relates somehow to the missionaries. Nope.
At the time of Pauahi’s birth, Hawaii’s native population was about 124,000. When she wrote her will in 1883, only 44,000 Hawaiians remained.
Pauahi witnessed – and deplored — the steady physical and spiritual demise of Native Hawaiians. Foreign influences that had been introduced with Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaii in 1778 had weakened the traditional order of Hawaiian life and culture. Diseases to which Hawaiians had no immunity caused tens of thousands of natives to die in epidemics.
Pauahi Bishop was certain that a lack of education helped bring that decrease about. She hoped there would come a turning point – a time when, through enlightenment, the adoption of regular habits and Christian ways of living, the natives would not only hold their own in numbers, but would increase again like the people of other races. Remember, she not only was married to enormous wealth, she also was the heir to most of the lands of high-ranking Kamehameha chiefs. She said she “felt responsible and accountable” for having so much.
She was determined to establish an institution bearing the name Kamehameha, and a hospital and schools for boys and girls. The schools’ enrollment would not be restricted to boys and girls of pure or part aboriginal blood, but that class “should have preference.” In her will, she left her estate, about nine percent of the total acreage of the Hawaiian kingdom, to found the Kamehameha Schools.
After Pauahi’s death, Charles Bishop, as president of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate’s Board of Trustees, ensured that his wife’s wish was fulfilled. He provided his own funds for the construction of facilities and added some of his own properties to her estate. Until his death in 1915, he continued to guide her trustees in directions that reinforced her vision of a perpetual educational institution that would assist Native Hawaiians to become “good and industrious men and women.”
Pauahi’s original endowment has grown to become one of the most important trusts for Hawaiian people. Today, her estate encompasses nearly 365,800 acres of land in Hawaii which, combined with other assets, are valued at more than $6 billion. The revenue generated by these assets fund Kamehameha Schools’ educational programs and services for thousands of students statewide. Her endowment supports the largest independent pre-kindergarten through grade 12 school in the United States.
It’s ironic that those two relatives – Kamehameha and Pauahi — made their marks in entirely different ways. One gained stature and position through the spilled blood of his countrymen; the other earned adoration through her benevolence and compassion.
Hawaii’s history is complex and fascinating in spite of the simplicity of her culture. If you’d like to delve a little, The Bishop Museum on Oahu is the ideal place to start. Plan on spending at least a day.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
November 17th, 2008
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