Every time someone visits us, we take them up to the Tropical Farms Macadamia Nut Outlet near Kualoa Ranch, which runs the Ali'i Tour. This is a remarkable little tour of an extraordinarily gorgeous and historically significant property still owned by the Morgan family, who bought it in 1850 from Kamehameha III.
I'd provide an internet link, but there isn't one. This little gem is sparsely listed and apparently rather a well kept secret. Not sure why, but I suspect it could be because lots of movies and television shows have been and are filmed on this property, including the old Fantasy Island, Jurassic Park, Fifty First Dates, Lost, You Me & Dupree, etc., etc. It also has a venue available for special occasions. In any case, I found out about it from one of the gals who does my toes (great pedicures here btw, but that's another post), and have been taking people there ever since.
The tour is led by a Samoan named Chief Sielu Avea, who is not only phenomenally knowlegeable and a champion fire knife dancer, but also incredibly funny. So funny, he's now started a
Polynesian Revue at Sharkey's Comedy Club in Honolulu, but again, that's another post.
The property is comprised of lovingly tended lush gardens of trees, flowers and plants important to Hawaiian culture, all nestled beneath the stunning Kualoa mountains and running down to the shores of an 800 year old fish pond fed daily by the abutting sea, and originally created to feed the king's warriors.
The tour consists of a ride through the gardens in a funky little old green bus with windows and doors removed and decorated with native plants. The chief narrates the entire tour and stops here and there to give mini lectures on the uses of each plant for cooking, building, clothing and medicine, and offers us fresh flowers and fruits to eat, all the while making his guests laugh merrily at every turn.
Gradually the tour winds down to the water, where we leave the little bus for a small stone ampitheater where the chief and his assistants demonstrate coconut shelling and processing, fire starting using wild hibiscus wood, and fire dancing, among other things. It's quite impressive and informative, not to mention fun.
After the demonstration, we head out to a boat for a ride around the huge fish pond, which offers gorgeous views of the property and the incredible beauty of the mountains behind. From the pond, you can clearly see the dragon of Kualoa, kua meaning back, and loa meaning long. It's one of my favorite settings on this island, the view from that fish pond.
The fish pond also butts up against the back of a small island, where the old TV show Gilligan's Island was filmed. This is not Coconut Island, which is also closeby out in Kaneohe Bay where most of the show was filmed, but the lagoon scenes were all filmed on this fish pond.
Once the boat returns to the dock, we board the little bus again, and we're taken up on the other side of the property where a lot of the TV and movie filming is done, with some sets still intact. Then up and around on the hillside with more plants and a gorgeous sweeping view out to Turtle Island, which, as you can see in the second photo below if you click for a larger view, really looks like a turtle from there. :)
The tour ends where it began at the Tropical Farms outlet shop where I nibble the samples and stock up on some of the best Macadamias I've found so far. There's also gratis Kona coffee tasting on the deck, local body care and perfume products, and many other locally produced gift items for sale.
All in all, it's a lovely, highly enjoyable tour and the laughs alone are worth the price of admission. Now the rest of y'all come visit so we can take you there! :)
Aloha!
