We still had not had breakfast at that point. There was a little retail park right across from the exit from the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. So we decided to check this out. I thought this may the kind of place where I would be able to find some Loco Moco. There were a number of places in this complex that were specializing in Hawaiian plate lunches, which are normally precisely the kind of places that would serve Loco Moco. However, all of them did not open until lunchtime. There was however a McDonald’s in the same complex. I had heard that McDonald’s in Hawaii has some unusual menu items. So that was fine by me. Graham was OK with this, too. I had heard that they have coconut filled pies. Unfortunately that was not the case, but I was pretty happy with the Hawaiian breakfast platter, which consisted of white rice, spam, Portuguese sausage and scrambled egg. Graham surprised me when he had the same. Graham had an Americano with his breakfast and I had an iced macadamia nut Kona coffee.
After breakfast we headed back to the car and resumed our journey. The next destination was only about 15 minutes further. We were headed for Kualoa Ranch, where I had booked the movie and ranch tour. Kualoa is a working ranch, but a number of famous movies have been filmed there at least in part. They include Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, George of the Jungle, Mighty Joe Young, Fifty First Dates, Along Came Polly, You, Me & Dupree and Hunger Games. I had also read that the scenery on that tour is pretty stunning. The drive to Kualoa did not disappoint either. We initially drove through a few pretty villages and then we were treated to some great views of the coast. When we parked the car, we got a good impression on just what great views were waiting for us. We had a quick look and then headed inside.
The first thing you come to when you enter Kualoa is a gift shop and a restaurant. You have to go through those to get to the rest of the ranch. I had a quick look around and there were some goodies that tempted me like a Hawaiian dress and some Plumeria lotion, but considering our tight luggage allowance, I resisted. We then went outside where the check in desk for the tour was. We only had a short wait and then we were checked in. We were told to report to the bus depot in an hour. The bus depot was just a short way up a hill. Behind the check in desk was a little museum about the history of Kualoa. So we spent a little while in there. Kualoa has had a very colourful history. Ancient Hawaiians considered Kualoa one of the most sacred places on the island of Oahu
. It was the residence of kings, a place of refuge and sanctuary and a training ground for Hawaiian royalty who were instructed in the arts of war, history and social traditions. In 1850, King Kamehameha III sold approximately 622 acres of land at Kualoa to Dr. Gerritt P. Judd. Over a period of time, the Judd family added more land until it reached the 4000 acres that it is today. The land still remains in the same family although the name of the present owners is Morgan rather than Judd, but the present owners are direct descendants of Dr. Judd. The land was named Kualoa Ranch in 1927.
Initially there was a sugar mill on this land. The mill was closed after years of meager rainfall that effectively brought an end to sugar farming at Kualoa. The ruins of that sugar mill can still be seen from the road that passes Kualoa Ranch. During World War II, the United States Military operated an auxiliary Army airstrip at Kualoa with many of the large monkey pod trees providing natural hangars for small planes. Today Kualoa is a working cattle ranch, but also offers a wide range of different tours and activities and is used as an outside location for films and TV series. Once we were done with the museum, we had a bit of a wander around and then had a quick bathroom stop before heading for the bus depot. At some stage we got split up, but we met up again by the bus depot. Once we checked in at the bus depot, we were pointed towards a school bus and asked to hop on. There were only 10 people on that tour so we had plenty of space to spread out. Once everybody was on board, we set off.
Our driver, who also acted as a guide told us to expect on the tour and mentioned that we would have two stops on the way. One would be just for photos and on the other we would have a bit more time to look around. We started our tour. We drove past the old sugar mill and then through an area of forest. There we had to stop for a while as people that were on a horseback-riding excursion were coming from the other direction and there is limited space for passing. While we were waiting, our guide explained that this was the area that was used as a hangar during the Second World War. I was not surprised about this at all as the trees were so dense that you could not see the sky above. Once all the horses had passed, we were on our way again.
I love reading your reports especially since so many of my former cms I worked with 85% of them switch over to doing Cruiseline so seeing them occasionally and your happy go lucky trip reports bring me many smiles
