{"id":1907,"date":"2017-02-11T00:40:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T00:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/?page_id=1907"},"modified":"2023-07-01T16:40:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T23:40:09","slug":"hawaii-lanai","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/?page_id=1907","title":{"rendered":"Journey from Maui to Lanai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Journey from Maui to Lanai<\/h1>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

\"Alison<\/p>\n

Pu’u Pehe or Sweetheart Rock embodies a Lana’i story of harrowing tragedy. <\/em>Ron Dahlquist\/MVB<\/h5>\n

Four Seasons resorts on Lanai<\/h2>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Is Lana\u2019I really Hawaii\u2019s \u201cMost Enticing Island\u201d or its \u201cMost Exclusive Island\u201d or its \u201cMost Secluded Island\u201d as a variety of slogans proclaim or is it something else? Perhaps \u201cHawaii as it once was\u201d is what truly makes this island both enticing and exclusive though it is becoming less secluded as each year passes. Travel with a Challenge editor, <\/em> Alison Gardner<\/strong>, takes a journey through time.<\/p>\n

Sharp at 6:45 a.m., I began my adventure aboard a surprisingly crowded Expeditions catamaran ferry crossing from Maui’s Lahaina harbor across to Lana’i. As we eased out of the harbor, I was startled by a brilliant vertical rainbow, straight as a pillar on the Greek Parthenon, shafting down from a thunderous black cloud into the waters of the Au’au Channel. I quickly embraced it as a blessing of the day to come.<\/p>\n

After the 45-minute ride across the channel, I stepped ashore to be warmly greeted by my host, Kep\u0101 Maly, a renowned Hawaiian historian and linguist raised on Lana’i. Mentally programmed by his name and professional background to anticipate a person of more obvious Hawaiian heritage, instead I shook hands with a fair-skinned, light-haired haole<\/em> (Hawaiian for \u201cforeigner\u201d). However, his formal yet gentle manner and the lyrical softness of his speech put me on alert that surely a story would unfold as indeed it did over a picnic lunch high on a volcanic outcropping later in the day.<\/p>\n

\"Senior<\/p>\n

Whether walking or driving the high elevation Munro Trail, the forests are outstanding and the views breathtaking. <\/em>LVB<\/h5>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

At the wheel of our 4-wheel-drive vehicle, Mike Lopez, PR Director for Trilogy Excursions<\/strong> and Lana’i City Service\/Dollar Rent-A-Car<\/strong>, didn\u2019t take long to reveal deep roots and a passion for his home island. \u201cI left here when I was a teenager to join the US Marines,\u201d he recounts, \u201cand after 20 years stationed around the world, Lana’i just became even more special to return to with my wife and children. I was the third generation of Lopez family on Lana’i,\u201d he recalls with pride, \u201cbut we\u2019ve got five generations here now. Even though Lanai has to change, I want it to be as good for them as it was for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike the Marine, with the stocky build and coloring that surely must reflect some Polynesian ancestors despite his Spanish American name, fitted more neatly into my file folder of Hawaiian heritage. But by the time I got back on the evening ferry to Maui, I confirmed that I had spent the day with two authentic sons of Lana\u2019i. With no fixed itinerary and a kind of hang-loose day in front of us, we set off to explore the island and \u201ctalk story\u201d as Hawaiians like to do.<\/p>\n

Lanai History and Nature<\/h3>\n

\"Historic<\/p>\n

Historic Ka Lokahi oka Malamalama church on the grounds of Four Seasons Resort Lodge at Koele<\/a>. <\/em>LVB<\/h5>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Without ever setting foot on Lana’i, many seasoned travelers will nonetheless identify its name with pineapples, a private domain transformed by James Dole in the 1920s into the world\u2019s largest pineapple plantation of 16,000 acres under cultivation. The pineapple era ended with the last harvest in 1992. Today, you can drive every red-dirt road on the island as well as the 30 miles of paved road and not find even a mini-plantation of pineapples.<\/p>\n

Lana’i is effectively owned by California-based Castle & Cooke under whose business umbrella the Dole Food Company now resides. Its US land holdings include 98% of Lana’i\u2019s 90,000 acres plus two luxurious Four Seasons-managed resorts. But fear not \u2026. when visiting Lana’i, there is no message of trespassing: guests are free to explore the island, including over 100 miles of dirt roads and trails inviting responsible outdoor adventures from seashore to mountain ridges. <\/p>\n

For those appreciative of the island\u2019s layered human history, it seems to fall roughly into four periods. Native Hawaiian occupation spans some 800 years from 1000 to 1800 A.D. with plenty of evidence left behind in the form of mountain top sacred temples (heiau<\/em>) and richly-carved rock petroglyph sites. Foreign ranching interests became a big part of island development for about 90 years from 1860 to 1950, and of course James Dole\u2019s Hawaiian Pineapple Company turned the island on its ear early in the 20th century, particularly attracting immigrant laborers from the Philippines, Japan, China, Portugal, Korea and Puerto Rico. Lana’i’s most recent economic lifeline is clearly tourism, following some carefully-controlled yet creative directions in which the local population of 3,300 takes an active interest.<\/p>\n

\"Lanai<\/p>\n

Mike Lopez knows all the tracks to sacred sites such as this mountain top heiau (temple) at Pu\u2019u Makani.\u00a0<\/em>Alison Gardner<\/h5>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Lanai City Culture and Heritage <\/h3>\n

The only town on the island, Lana’i City, is as charming as a well-maintained movie set frozen in time with its classic tin-roofed plantation architecture, orderly tropical landscaping, dead-straight street plan, and plenty of laid back locals. This mini-town seems to be treading water somewhere between 1930 and 1940. Expect no traffic lights or fast food outlets, but there are a couple of grocery stores, one gas station, and several recommendable home-grown restaurants. Without doubt, a snapshot of Hawaii as it once was except that nowadays most families take the ferry to Maui at least once a week to do their basic shopping because it is cheaper and there is more variety! <\/p>\n

The Lana’i Culture & Heritage Center<\/strong>, www.lanaichc.org<\/a>, is located in Lana’i City’s Old Dole Administration Building. It is already receiving high praise for the creative cultural authenticity with which it is telling the story of this island’s rich native Hawaiian heritage, and the ranching and pineapple plantation history of the 19th and 20th centuries. The powerhouse behind this initiative is my host, Kep\u0101 Maly, Executive Director of the Center. He is a recognized island authority on natural ecosystems and culture and an entertaining traditional story teller. But his talent doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

While standing atop the windswept heiau<\/em> sacred temple site of Pu\u2019u Makani with views of sea and deep forested valleys on either side, Kep\u0101 asked if I would like to hear a song chant. I was quickly time-warped back hundreds of years as the melody naturally unfolded \u2026. haunting, other-worldly, yet elegantly lyrical as only a Hawaiian voice knows how to deliver. Hawaiian? Yes, that is the story I must pursue as soon as we begin our picnic lunch perched on another cliff-side lookout.<\/p>\n

\"Kepa<\/p>\n

Kepa Maly does a Polynesian nose flute demonstration at the Lanai Culture & Heritage Center. <\/em>Alison Gardner<\/h5>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Kep\u0101 Maly was indeed born to haole<\/em> parents on the island of Oahu but in his youth he became the h\u0101nai<\/em> or foster child of respected Lana’i elders of the t\u016bt\u016b<\/em> or grandparent generation. The elderly couple spoke traditional Hawaiian as their everyday native tongue and gave him his name Kep\u0101 meaning to embrace or encircle. \u201cI threw away my English name long ago,\u201d he says. \u201cThat person is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

While growing up, he took the opportunity to hike every part of the island, even choosing as a teenager to pick pineapples on the night shift so he could explore in daylight. \u201cI would hear my parents and aunts and uncles talk story, the places of myth and history around the island, and then go find what they were talking about,\u201d he remembers. Later, to earn an adult living, Kep\u0101 had to leave Lana’i, becoming a park naturalist, cultural interpreter and a curator and exhibit designer for decades before the invitation to head the Culture & Heritage Center brought him home to his beloved island.<\/p>\n

\"Garden<\/p>\n

Expect no greenery or blooms in this Garden of the Gods, but the barren landscape changes color at different times of day. <\/em>Lanai Visitors Bureau<\/h5>\n

\"Explore<\/p>\n

Intriguing best tidal pools for marine life exploration are across the bay from the Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Ron Dahlquist\/MVB<\/h5>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

After checking the channel for more rainbows, I have just enough time aboard my catamaran ferry to Maui to reflect on what has indeed been a rainbow blessed day. I’ve met relaxed locals, both haole<\/em> and Hawaiian, who never seem too busy to stop and talk to each other and to newcomers with equal ease and attentive curiosity. I’ve explored byways (certainly no highways!) and trails leading to only a fraction of the island’s natural and archaeological possibilities. And I’ve talked story \u2013 plenty of it! — with two sons of Lana’i who have a gift for bringing its culture, history and present day challenges vividly to life. Next time I think I\u2019ll take my suitcase instead of my daypack, and see what I can do about blending into the island’s ohana<\/em> (extended family) for a week or two.<\/p>\n

When one of the locals calls me “Sista”, I’ll know I’m edging closer!<\/p>\n

Follow Up Facts<\/span>Lanai Visitors Bureau<\/strong> website, www.gohawaii.com\/islands\/lanai<\/a>.
\nExpeditions\u2019 Lahaina\/Lana’i passenger catamaran ferry<\/strong>, www.go-lanai.com<\/a>, operates five round-trips daily to and from Lahaina Harbor on Maui. $30 each way for adults.
\nTrilogy Excursions\/Trilogy Ocean Sports<\/strong>, www.sailtrilogy.com<\/a>, is Maui and Lana’i’s oldest family-owned and -operated sailing company. The company specializes in catamaran-based snorkeling, diving and marine life watching explorations around Maui, the marine reserve of Molokini and Lana’i, with on-board naturalists delivering plenty of information about the islands and surrounding waters. They also do informative guided tours of the island of Lana’i focusing on its ancient cultural and plantation settler history. Over 80% of Trilogy\u2019s tourism activity focuses on Lana’i and surrounding waters making it the second largest employer on the island.<\/span>
\n\"TrilogyA Trilogy Excursions catamaran cruises the channel between West Maui and Lana’i. <\/em>Maui Visitors Bureau<\/span>
\nPacific Whale Foundation<\/strong>, www.pacificwhale.org<\/a>, out of Ma’alaea, Maui, also offers Lana’i Wild Dolphin Snorkel Tours and other marine-based educational explorations in Lana’i waters.
\n
\nFor small-scale accommodation options on Lana’i<\/strong>, visit our Sleeping in Paradise<\/a> web page. We also invite you to get inspired by our web magazine\u2019s complete ALTERNATIVE HAWAII collection<\/a> of feature articles and resource pages to help you explore the REAL Hawaii way beyond Waikiki.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alison Gardner <\/strong>is a travel journalist, magazine editor, guidebook author, and consultant. She specializes in researching vacations throughout the world, suitable for people over 50 and for women of all ages. She is also the publisher and editor of Travel with a Challenge Web magazine, www.travelwithachallenge.com<\/a>.
\nEmail: alison@travelwithachallenge.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Feel free to explore other stories about alternative Hawaiian vacations well suited to senior travelers, their families and friends. Click on the titles below to read each inspiring article.
\nAlternative Hawaii<\/a><\/span>
\nMaui\u2019s wine, goats and lavender<\/a>
\nMoloka\u2019i mule ride (presently closed)<\/a>
\nHawaiian Islands volunteer vacations<\/a>
\nMaui\u2019s most Hawaiian hotel<\/a>
\nHawaii\u2019s tasty cultural cuisine<\/a>
\nHawaii tour operators and planners<\/a>
\nHawaii \u2013 sleeping in paradise<\/a>
\nLanguage and culture<\/a>
\nHawaiian bird pictures<\/a>
\nHawaii wellness vacationing<\/a>
\nHawaii\u2019s wellness providers<\/a>
\nDiamond Head<\/a>
\nMaui Zipline Adventure<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journey from Maui to Lanai Pu’u Pehe or Sweetheart Rock embodies a Lana’i story of harrowing tragedy. Ron Dahlquist\/MVB Four Seasons resorts on Lanai Is Lana\u2019I really Hawaii\u2019s \u201cMost Enticing Island\u201d or its \u201cMost Exclusive Island\u201d or its \u201cMost Secluded Island\u201d as a variety of slogans proclaim or is it something else? Perhaps \u201cHawaii as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1907"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14782,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1907\/revisions\/14782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelwithachallenge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}