Day 4 was a day of many pictures, ergo it is split into two posts. Swimming in the waves wore us out so much that we actually slept until 7am (11am our time), so we had to rush to get ready. We grabbed a quick "continental" breakfast on our way to the car, and it was the weirdest hotel breakfast I've ever seen. Just orange juice, doughnut holes, bananas, and hard boiled eggs--all of which are good things, but I never would have thought to eat them all together. Anyway, we headed up the Pali Hwy (a gorgeous drive!) towards Kaneohe to go see the Kualoa Ranch.
The Kualoa Ranch is a beautiful place, and it just so happens to be where my sister, Sarah, works. She gives tours through the jungle on horseback, which is pretty much the job of her dreams. The ranch is also a popular filming location for movies and TV shows (of course, "Lost" is one of them!), so there are always plenty of tourists. Sarah, being the wonderful sister that she is, signed us up for two different tours in the morning. Since she is an employee, we were supposed to get 50% off, which is a great deal, but she got her flirt on with the supervisor and he gave them both to us for free! (Go Sarah! I knew she was the pretty one for a reason...) Anyway, Sarah was working that morning, so we were going to go on our tours and then meet her for her lunch break. But on our way to start our first tour, I could hear Sarah's voice giving her pre-tour lecture to the tourists. So I peeked out from behind a bush and snapped a picture of her in action.
I thought I was being very subtle, but apparently not. She said I popped out of the bush like a baby on its birthday and it made her laugh in the middle of her speech. Oops. I guess I wouldn't make a very good paparazzi.
Well, on to tour #1--the Movie Tour. We loaded in a bus and it drove us all around the valley where movies and TV shows are filmed. On the way to the valley, we saw our first "Lost" item: the submarine! Not a real one, of course--just a piece of Styrofoam that sits on the water to look like there's a submarine. It was way back in the mechanic's shed, which made us a little sad, but at least we could see it from the bus.
The first stop was a bunker that was built in World War II and is now used as a museum. It was also used as a Dharma Station in "Lost."
The view from the bunker was absolutely gorgeous.
Inside the bunker we got so see photographs, autographs, and other memorabilia from several of the TV shows and movies that were filmed on the ranch.
Once we were finished with the museum, we came down into the valley, where we found a very famous old log.
So many things were filmed right out in the open in the valley. "Jurassic Park," "Godzilla," "Mighty Joe Young," "George of the Jungle," "50 First Dates," "Lost," "Hawaii Five-O," and many many others.
The top of the hill on the right is where Hurley starts his golf course in "Lost."
The hole in the bottom left of this picture is part of a Godzilla footprint. It was originally 6 feet deep, but the cows on the ranch kept falling in and getting hurt. Stupid cows. So now all of the footprints are filled in to only a foot deep.
The road where Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore filmed parts of "50 First Dates."
A little way up the valley, a crew was filming the movie "Battleship." It's an action movie that is supposed to come out in 2012. It stars Liam Neeson and Rihanna, who were supposedly there. As we drove by, the crew was prepping a couple of scenes, but no, we didn't see any actors. I wish that the bus had driven a little slower, and that we had been sitting on the other side. It was too hard to get a good picture so quickly.
Another place in the valley is a reconstruction of an ancient Hawaiian village. This hut in the village was used for Richard's home in Spain on "Lost."
The movie tour felt like it went by really fast, but it was fun. Once it was over, we got on another bus for tour #2--The Ocean Voyage. We drove in the opposite direction of the valley, and arrived at a beautiful garden full of all of the plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables (are avocados a vegetable?) that are native to Hawaii. Then we were led down to a dock on the fish pond.
We all got on a little flat motor boat, and started across the pond. Right next to our dock was another dock, and it was used a lot in "Lost." (It's the dock where the submarine was usually parked.)
The fish pond is called the Moli'i Pond, and it is a man-made pond that was built hundreds of years ago for breeding and harvesting fish. On the other side of the pond is a strip of land called Secret Island. It's also a popular filming site, and of course "Lost" filmed there several times.
The boat let us off on Secret Island, and we walked across it to the edge of Kaneohe Bay. Right on the sand, there was a big boat, and we all got on it and started out into the ocean. This is me, right before the boat pulled off the sand. That tiny rock island behind me is called the Chinaman's Hat, and it is in the background of lots of scenes of "Lost."
It was such a bright, warm, beautiful day. I thought the sun was going to burn my eyes out, even through my sunglasses! It made picture taking a bit difficult, but it also made everything so beautiful. This is a little island called turtle island, because it looks like one.
The view of the opposite side of the bay.
The boat took us all the way out past the Chinaman's hat before it turned around and headed back.
It was so fun and relaxing to sit on the boat and feel the waves and the wind and the sun. And the bay was gorgeous. On the way back, the captain parked the boat right next to a reef where there were lots of baby turtles swimming. I'm not so sure how young they were, though--they looked pretty big to me!
When we were almost back to the beach, we spotted another dock that was used in "Lost" and "50 First Dates."
Back on the beach at Secret Island. I thought it was beautiful, and I wish we could've stayed for a swim at such a pretty place, but oh well. The stretch of beach behind Tyler was used for the Korean fishing village in "Lost."
Our wonderful boat, the Kailani.
And back across the fishpond. That whole mountain is just one part of the Kualoa Ranch. Crazy!
Our tours were both over, so we went to find Sarah. She was hard at work getting a group of Japanese tourists ready for their tour.
Many of the tourists Sarah gets have never seen a horse up close, and definitely have never ridden one before. It was pretty funny to watch her stick them in a saddle, show them where to hold on, and then slap the horse's butt to send them on their way. I could tell a lot of them were scared, and I felt scared for them!
She's definitely good at her job. It was now lunch time, but of course we couldn't go to lunch without taking pictures with a million different horses first.
Once we could tear her away from the horses, we enjoyed a nice lunch together in the ranch cafeteria. (Which we saved 50% on! Yay Sarah!) It was fun to talk to Sarah and see where she works. But soon she had to get back, and we needed to move on, so we said goodbye and left. Or almost left...
On our way to the car, we saw that we were parked right by a dirt road that looked like it might lead to the area where the mechanic's shed was. So we hurried over, checked to see if anyone was looking, and then casually started down the road. It was maybe 100 yards to the shed, but it felt like the longest walk ever. We tried to walk calmly, so as not to attract attention, and we decided to play dumb if anyone caught us back there. And finally, we made it! We somehow managed to sneak back and be right by the submarine! It was a miracle.
Very, very cool. Sarah said later that she would have killed us if she knew what we were doing. I guess we are definitely not allowed to be back there. But that just makes the sneakiness all the more satisfying!
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