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A new marketing campaign will feature “the Hawaiian Islands” rather than just “Hawaii” as a way to emphasize the different personalities of the islands. It is important to match up your vacation expectations with what each island has to offer.
When I visited with Hawaii Aloha Travel agent Lin recently, she told me that she begins a conversation with visitors by asking what they want to experience in Hawaii: rest and relaxation, adventure, history and culture, and so on. Then she suggests locations and activities that might be appropriate. “Sometimes people tell me they want to party and have a lot of night life and they want to stay on Kaua‘i,” Lin said. “I have to tell them Kaua‘i is not a party place.” You can certainly find a good meal and some evening entertainment, but might be disappointed if looking for the type of night life that Oahu offers.
I was impressed with Lin’s approach because I have now welcomed five groups of visitors from my family. When they say they are coming to Hawaii, I would ask what they want to do, or what they would be disappointed to miss. Often, that sent them to guide books to compile long lists of attractions – too long, really, to enjoy the trip. At that point, if we reduce the list, they feel like they’re “missing out” on something. Beginning with the type of experience they want avoids the list as a starting point – we can then compile the correct assortment of activities.
I would now add one more caution. A family friend listed many historic and cultural spots, all of which are on Oahu. We crafted an itinerary that included tours and time to relax. However, she thought Honolulu would be a much smaller town, surrounded by rural areas with easy access to empty beaches. I now would also ask what image of Hawaii you have in your mind. If you expect “Hawaii” to mean rural areas, we need to adjust your itinerary or your expectations so that you are not disappointed. Hawaii has some of everything to offer – but not all on the same island.
Posted by Cindy Scheopner Follow me on Twitter @Scheopner
August 13th, 2010
A new luau on Oahu exudes the spirit of Hawaii — it takes your hand and invites you to move in step with the music and dance, humor and joy of this special place.
The most authentic thing about a luau in Hawaii is the feeling of community joining in celebration (a baby’s first birthday, graduation, holidays). They celebrate fellowship as much as occasion. This sense of community seems lost in luau productions that are essentially stage performances. While entertaining in their own way, they feel like a re-creation of tradition: an artificial demonstration of what was or might have been at a point in time.
Return to Waikiki celebrates and honors the past as a living part of Hawaii today. It is a labor of love for the community of organizers: Sakara Blackwell’s event planning, food from DH Catering and the music of MAKANA. But, as with a luau, the experience is more than a sum of the parts. Many people cooperated to create the atmosphere and entertainment, which incorporates vaudevillian elements along with traditional and contemporary music and dance.
The setting in the International Marketplace is key, as well. Both Sakara and MAKANA emphasize its importance as the last area of Waikiki untouched by development. The luau area adjoins an ancient banyan tree under the stars. It also reflects the theme of Return, as Waikiki has long been a gathering place. Before travelers gathered in hotels, Hawaiians met there to sing, dance, eat and celebrate life in these islands. The entire evening is an invitation to experience Hawaii as a living community of people united in spirit with family past and present in this place.
I attended the
Return to Waikiki luau last night at no cost to me as part of a press/industry preview. I was prepared to enjoy the food (it was ample and fabulous); I also knew I would enjoy MAKANA’s music. I intended to compare the experience with other luaus in terms of entertainment value, price and proximity. But it is a different kind of experience.
Return to Waikiki retains the very best sense of community celebration in a luau, and firmly places it in Hawaii. It can be experienced on many levels — as a wonderful meal and musical entertainment, as education about Hawaii history, and as the collaboration of people who want to share their love of Hawaii through food and music with honored guests.
August 7th, 2010
A regular part of the weather forecast in Hawaii is the prediction of when the monthly box jellyfish swarm will hit. About ten days after a full moon there is a warning for swimmers to stay out of the water along affected beaches.
There are two important parts of that warning. First, the jellyfish invasion is very regular: the City and County of Honolulu has a calendar predicting future swarms that allows you to plan
Hawaii activities. When my sister and her husband visited, we wanted to spend one day snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. The week of their vacation was close to the time that boxjellies are expected. I sent a message by Twitter to a local TV weather person, who assured me that the waters should be clear by the day we selected.
The second part of the warning is that it does not affect all beaches.
Hanauma Bay is affected and occasionally closes if there is a strong swarm of jellyfish. However, the beaches on the windward side of Oahu are not affected — I never see them in Kailua.
The Hanauma Bay website warns swimmers to avoid contact with jellyfish, either in the water or dead ones on the beach. They have powerful venom. If you are stung, you may feel a stinging, burning sensation, redness and swelling and even long red welt lines where the tentacles touched your skin.
A final caution. The monthly jellyfish swarm usually lasts three days. If those are days you planned to spend in the water, either move to a different beach or re-arrange your schedule. On the day I took this picture in Waikiki, I saw people walking past the warning sign into the water — including children. Dealing with a venomous sting is not a memory you want to take home from Hawaii. Heed the warning and give the little jellies their space.
Posted by Cindy Scheopner Follow me on Twitter @Scheopner
August 5th, 2010
The huge ship in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie is in Kanehoe Bay this week, shooting scenes with Hawaii’s starkly beautiful mountains as a backdrop. The bay is a sheltered area with magnificent views of the Ko‘olau Mountain Range on the windward (eastern) side of the island of Oahu. Only a slight turn of the camera lens puts the ship at sea, with an unimpeded view of the Pacific Ocean.
The ship was referred to as the Black Pearl by many when it first arrived in Hawaii in February. However, this movie, subtitled On Stranger Tides, features the pirate Blackbeard and his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. In this installment of the series, Captain Jack Sparrow (defined by Johnny Depp) is searching for the Fountain of Youth. Depp filmed a special greeting for the recent Comic Con in which he managed to spend almost two minutes and reveal only that if he were going on a search for the Fountain of Youth, it would be very dangerous and he’d need a map - and perhaps a Bloody Mary. The video greeting also set the movie release date as May 20, 2011.
The pirate ship is in Heeia Kea Small Boat Harbor, located along the Kamehameha Highway opposite the Mokapu Peninsula, which is home to a Marine Corps Base. As you look at a map of the island of Oahu, the Mokapu Peninsula looks like the tail of a whale sticking out into the ocean. On the right side is Kailua Bay, ringed with a sandy beach that is perfect for kite boarding and wind surfing. President Obama stayed on this side of the peninsula in a house right next to the Marine base on his most recent trip. The left side of the peninsula is Kaneohe Bay, home to four boat harbors, including the public harbor in Heeia State Park.
If you take any of the circle island tours - either driving or on a bus - you’ll pass this area of Oahu. It’s a great opportunity to take a photo of yourself in an exotic movie location, even if the pirate ship has already sailed away.
Photo by Richard Denton.
July 30th, 2010
Nothing says “Hawaii” like pineapple. A cooking segment on national television yesterday featured pineapple recipes as part of a luau theme. And yet, even while living in Hawaii, I learned three things about the fruit when I visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation.
First: Pineapples do not grow on trees.
Until then, my closest encounter with a pineapple was from a can or in the produce section of a grocery store. Even after moving to Hawaii, I found pineapples at the weekly Farmer’s Market. (They were a product that I could identify without photos from the Farmers Market Cookbook.)
When my sister visited from the mainland, we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation on our tour of Oahu. I was introduced to pineapples in the wild — on short bush-like plants. Not only were they much closer to the ground than I imagined, they also came in many varieties. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that pineapples come in different types, like apples, but I always equated the name with a standard yellow icon. Twenty varieties are grown in a display garden near the entrance with helpful nameplates.
Second: Pineapples are not native to Hawaii.
The plantation has a series of signs that tell the history of pineapple in Hawaii. Although the fruit seems almost synonymous with Hawaii, it is not native to the islands. In fact, the Hawaiian name for pineapple means "foreign fruit" (halakahiki). Wandering around the pineapple display garden and reading the signs is free and, for me, the most interesting part of the stop (except maybe getting a photo of my sister and me with our heads stuck through a board so it looks like we’re in a pile of pineapple, also free – and priceless for embarrassing our children).
Third: Sometimes you learn more as a tourist than as a local.
I would not have driven out to the plantation on my own – at least partly because I now think that driving 30 miles is SO FAR AWAY (a consequence of living on an island). But there is a lot of information presented in an entertaining manner aimed at visitors who are interested in Hawaii but don’t know a lot about it. Sometimes, that’s more valuable than an authentic “local” experience.
July 29th, 2010
It may be difficult for the casual observer to identify trees by their appearance (it’s easier if they grow fruit.) But in the case of the sausage tree in Hawaii, it’s hard to be mistaken.
The distinctive brown lobes hang from the tree in great abundance. This tree is on the UH campus at Manoa, but there are others on Oahu and the other islands of Hawaii. The tree is native to tropical West Africa. Its proper name is Kigelia Africana, it is a cousin of the Calabash Tree (both are members of the Bignonia family of flowering plants.)
While the fruit is eaten by many animals, the fresh fruit is poisonous to humans. It may be dried, roasted – or fermented. According to Wikipedia, an alcoholic beverage similar to beer is made from the fruit of the sausage tree. The fruit is used in African herbal medicine as a treatment for a variety of illnesses and apparently in skin care products.
The tree has beautiful flowers that open at night and attract bats, who pollinate them. According to the Honolulu zoo, the bat is considered to be Hawaii’s only native land mammal. Bats are common on the islands of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui but only rarely seen on Oahu. The Hawaiian Hoary Bat is an endangered species and federally-funded research on the bat is ongoing on the Big Island.
Given the scarcity of bats, I’m not sure how this sausage tree is pollinated but it seems very productive. Sausage trees are often planted as ornamental trees in tropical regions because the flowers are pretty and the fruit is so unusual. I don’t often quote Wikipedia, but I have to repeat this caution, “Planting sites should be selected carefully, as the falling fruit can cause serious injury to people, and damage vehicles under the trees.”
I will refrain from any further comment about things that fall from trees in Hawaii. Feel free to insert your own joke here.
July 26th, 2010
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The islands of Hawaii will figure prominently in the new Hawaii Five-O television series. Producers refer to Hawaii as the "fifth character of the show."
"Our president is from Hawaii. We have a perfect storm of Hawaii being relevant and an important hub internationally," say executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. They describe Hawaii as a gateway into the United States and from the US out to the world. This allows them to tell not just American stories, but ones with an international flavor as well. "Hawaii is an international destination and the stories will reflect that position in the world rather than the neighborhood murder."
Kurtzman and Orci produced Fringe and the recent Star Trek movie. The Hawaii Five-O creative team also includes Peter Lenkov, whose credits include 24 and CSI:NY. Lenkov says the original Hawaii Five-O was his dad’s favorite television program. "It is important to honor the original show," he says. "One of the pitfalls in a remake is not respecting or being passionate about the original material. We are all very passionate about the original show and understand what made it work."
The producers spoke this week at Comic-Con in San Diego, along with the director of the pilot, Len Wiseman (Underworld and Live Free or Die Hard). Wiseman and Lenkov were asked what it was like working in Hawaii. They responded, "People in Hawaii opened arms and doors to us, because of the brand. Nobody said no to us, we were able to do whatever we wanted to do." Lenkov said he did some ride-alongs with the police department and spent a lot of time talking with them to get a sense of the types of crime that are unique to this area of the world.
Hawaii Five-O won the award for Most Anticipated New Show at Comic-Con. Fans had a chance to win one of three surf boards signed by the cast, limited run t-shirts, collector edition posters, ringtone cards with the show’s theme song and a "vacation getaway to the filming location of H50 on the tropical and vibrant island of Oahu" — the show’s fifth star.
July 25th, 2010
Canoe races for island championships are happening this weekend in Hawaii, top crews will go on to compete at the State Canoe Race next month.
Hawaiian Canoe Racing is a popular sporting event in the islands. Racing canoes are made from Hawaii’s giant Koa tree. The Koa tree is one of the tallest trees in Hawaii, often reaching several hundred feet in height with a diameter of over 10 feet. The Koa trees are resistant to salt water, making them perfect for boat-building.
This is a team sport as there are 6 paddlers in the canoe, each trying to mimic the paddler in front of you with the same rhythm, timing, press and totally becoming one. When everyone is working together and in sync, the canoe glides with ease thru the water with such a rhythmic force.
On August 7th, you can watch an actual canoe regatta in action during the State Championship Canoe Races at Keehi Lagoon (near the airport) on Oahu. It’s an all day event, beginning at 8:30am until the last race is completed, approximately 6pm. There will be lots of yummy ono (good) food for sale including plate lunches, shaved ice, and other local favorites. Local vendors will also be selling clothing, canoe paddles, bags, souvenirs, stickers and many other fun items.
This is a culmination of summer long regatta races, with only qualified crews racing. Until now, each association has only raced against other clubs in the same association, but now at the state race the best paddlers finally get a chance to race against crews from other associations and neighboring islands. It’s an exciting race for all paddlers!
Like many other islanders, I have been paddling since I was a teenager, and as long as I am capable will continue to do so. I am in this photo (seat 1) with my crew from a race on July 17th at Keehi Lagoon. We’ve been getting 2nd place all season, so were happy to win 1st place this week.
Hopefully we’ll see a Hana Hou (do it again) this weekend at the Oahu Championships.
July 23rd, 2010
After two weeks at sea, Pacific Cup sailors squeeze their boats into Kaneohe Bay and celebrate safe arrival in Hawaii! The first boat arrived Friday but many are not in yet.
Last night’s jazz dinner kicked off a week of parties celebrating the semi-annual “Fun Race” across the Pacific Ocean. Some of the boats who made the crossing were pretty small – it’s hard to imagine them bouncing along the ocean swells. The smallest is just 21 feet long and skippered by a woman. Emma Creighton sailed her boat “Pocket Rocket” with only one other person (double-handed). This is the first year that type of boat – a Mini Transat – was allowed in the race. The youngest crew this year is two 21-year-old college students from Florida. Their boat, “Further”, is just 27 feet long. That’s the same size as the boat that Rick and I have, and it doesn’t have a bathroom. That would be a LONG two weeks!
The boats check in several times along the race and especially as they get close to Hawaii. When they are near Oahu, a local boat goes out to guide them in (to avoid the coral in Kaneohe Bay). The crew is met with Mai-Tais, and lei for both crew members and the boat. Those are some happy sailors in the arrival photos – thrilled to be in Hawaii and probably equally happy to be near a shower once more.
Spending two weeks in a boat of any size is a bonding experience for the crew. At last year’s Transpac, a wedding was performed upon arrival in Hawaii. This year, people on two Pacific Cup boats have announced engagements. (They don’t announce if any divorces result from either the race or the expense of preparing for it.)
The parties continue over the next few days as each boat is welcomed to Hawaii. The atmosphere is relaxed and celebratory – many of the boats have made the Pacific crossing multiple times. Owners, skippers and crew find old friends and competitors who want to hear every detail and share stories of what went wrong or when the wind failed.
July 21st, 2010
Hawaii has a starring role in the television series "Hawaii Five-O" now shooting on the islands. But more often, Hawaii stands in for other tropical locations - as in "Lost" and a new medical drama set to begin production in August called "Off the Map."
"Off the Map" is from ABC studios and is listed on the network schedule as "coming later this season." The creator and executive producers also were associated with "Grey’s Anatomy." The series is shooting in Hawaii, which stands in for a South American jungle, the location of a tiny medical clinic. The description from ABC calls Off the Map " an uplifting medical drama that explores how far you have to go to truly heal. … In this ensemble drama, five doctors who have lost their way will go to the ends of the earth to try to remember the reasons why they wanted to become doctors in the first place." Filming in Hawaii begins August 30.
Using Hawaii as an unidentified tropical location is also common in movies. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (4)" is shooting on Oahu and Kauai this summer. This past week, the Halona Blowhole and Koko Head Rifle Range were closed for two days to accommodate filming. Parts of the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, "At World’s End," were shot on Maui and Molokai. There is a long list of movies using Hawaii to represent something tropical - either a different, specified location or one that is unknown.
Perhaps my favorite use of Hawaii as a movie location is when it stands in for something on a different planet! This summer’s "Predators" movie contained a line from the female soldier who said something like "I’ve never seen this jungle and I’ve been in a lot of them." I wasn’t sure which part of Hawaii she was looking at, but it seemed familiar to me. The movie lists four Hawaii filming locations, all on the Big Island. The movie summary calls the location a "vast jungle on a distant world."
The "distant world" of Predators is supposedly unknown. In "Avatar," the characters know where they are going (if not why). That word, too, is represented by Hawaii. Parts of the movie were shot on the Big Island, Kauai and Oahu.
Hawaii can play itself, pretend to be other known countries or worlds, or represent unknown lands or planets. Pretty versatile!
July 18th, 2010
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