January 30, 2024
Nawiliwili, Kaua’I, Hawaii
The art of posting photos is still, unfortunately, not an acquired skill. One will continue working on it, but it may just be the connection to the internet. The connection to which is shaky at its best. Land was sighted just before it had gone 7:30. A beautiful sight it was. The ship was a little late in docking, and thus all the tours got a little bit of a late start. People genuinely seem happy to be on land, or even within sight of it.
The 8:15 Hollywood in Hawaii – Movies and Waterfalls tour didn’t actually leave until just after it has gone 8:30. The cruise terminal here really isn’t much. It is only about a ten minute walk from town but it isn’t much more than a pier and a warehouse.
The tour is conducted by Polynesian Adventures. Our guide and driver was Kaleo. The first stop or more accurately drive by, was the Lihue airport. It was apparently used the several movies recently, “The Decendants” and “Honeymoon in Vegas”. Now sixty years ago this airport was nothing more than a landing strip and a small open building for passangers. Boy a lot has changed. Kaleo was able to show us strips from the movie on the bus so we could match up the movie with the local. That was a nice touch.
The second stop was the Ahukini State Recreational Pier is situated at mouth of the Hanamaulu Stream. Not much here, it consists of an old broken-down cement pier with a wooden walkway located where the stream meets the Pacific Ocean.
Hanama’lulu Bay immediately looked familiar. It didn’t take but a few seconds to recognize it as the sight of one of my favorite movies, Donovan’s Reef (1963, John Wayne and Lee Marvin). There is a little left of the light house on the breakwater which was used in Donovan’s Reef, but it was instantly recognizable. The beach at Hanama’ulu Bay was also recognizable as the place where Lee Marvin’s character Thomas Aloysius 'Boats' Gilhooley came ashore.
The next stop Lydgate Beach, well actually a drive by again as tour stopping is greatly discouraged.There were enchanting views of the lush greenery, white-sand beaches, to protected swimming areas, and crystalline water. Very postcard-worthy. This was one of the sights for Evis’ Blue Hawaii. From here you could even just make out the beach in front of the Coco Plams Hotel, another Evis Blue Hawaii site.
Then it was up into the hills to see Opaekaa Falls. This 151 foot waterfall has been featured in many movies, Again Donovan’s Reef, The Wackiest Ship in the Army and Blue Hawaii. When we turned to go up into the hills we passed the site of the Coco Palms Hotel. Now just an empty shell. Mary and I stayed there in the early 80’s.
Coco Palms Resort was a resort hotel in Wailuā, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, that was noted for its Hollywood connections, Hawaiian-themed weddings, torch lighting ceremonies, destruction by a hurricane, and long-standing land disputes. The resort includes or is near to many culturally significant spots and the sites of some of the most important legends and historical events for Native Hawaiians.
The land is ancient Hawaiian royal property that has been in dispute since 1866. In that year, Junius Kaae, along with Kapiolani, Kalakaua, and others filed a petition seeking to revoke the will of Kealiiahonui, which had been filed in probate by Levi Haʻalelea in 1855. The petition was eventually overturned by Sanford B. Dole almost immediately after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Dole acted as a justice of the supreme court of the provincial government after stepping down from the bench and then being seated as president of the Republic of Hawaii. Litigants were made to sign an agreement for this adjudication to be allowed by Dole.
Lyle Guslander leased the site of Coco Palms from the Territory of Hawaii in 1952; the resort opened in early 1953. The hotel manager, Grace Buscher, took control of marketing the hotel as a Hawaiian-style getaway for tourists. A number of films were shot on location at Coco Palms, including Elvis Presley's film Blue Hawaii. The hotel made a big business out of Hawaiian-style weddings for decades. Buscher started a tradition, still in use at hotels throughout the islands, known at the hotel as the torch-lighting ceremony. Buscher also initiated a tree-planting ceremony to replenish the old coconut grove and honor individuals of note.
Coco Palms was destroyed by Hurricane Iniki in 1992. In 2016, Honolulu developers GreeneWaters LLC formed a partnership, Coco Palms Hui LLC, to restore the resort. Their intent was to reopen Coco Palms "as part of Hyatt's Unbound Collection.” In 2019 the project collapsed. RP21 Coco Palms LLC, also known as Reef Capital Partners, plans to construct a 350-room resort to be completed in 2026. Kaleo said they when doing some of the renovation that a burial site was discovered and things have come to an end again. We’ll see, but I doubt it will ever happen.
We continued to drive up route 56. We saw several other features of the Hawaiian landscape which were used in various movies. More often than not they were used for a fifteen second background shot. It has always been an issue in movies that places which in the movie are right next to each other, in real life are nowhere near each other. It kind of hurts the movie magic when you pull back the curtain and see where is actually happened and where is supposed to happen.
The last stop was in Hanalei. We drove by the Tiki Tzatziki restaurant where part of “The Decendents” was filmed. Kaleo recommended the Kalypso Island Bar & Grill, so once the bus was stopped we got off and made are way there for lunch.
It was a good recommendation. They had a very nice Mai Tai Pina Colada’s. Then we shared the Coconut Shrimp. This was really very nice. It had a little spice to it which was nullified by the pieces of fresh fruit. Mary had the fish tacos, which were excellent. My craving for simple pasta with butter and cheese was satisfied, although I did steal a bit of the fresh fruit off of Mary’s taco and put it in my pasta. It was wonderful. After that we drove back to the ship singing along the was and generally having a good time. We got back shortly before sailing.
At 6 there was another Seven Seas Society event which we attended. The smoking jacket went on and I disappeared to the lounge. Just as it has gone 9 it was time for bed. Early day tomorrow in Honolulu.
Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico
Comments