Hawaii's adventure islands: Lanai and Molokai

Sunset, Feb, 1989

In Hawaiian legend, Lanai and Molokai share a long, dark past. Man-eating spirits and fiendish ghouls dissuaded intruders from invading Lanai's spiny mountain strongholds and wooded gulches. And on Molokai known as Pule-oo ("Effective Prayer") inhabitants were protected by the formidable reputations of potent kahuna (priests) working in the shadowy depths of secluded valleys.

Perhaps it's coincidence, but the two islands remain the least touristed of Hawaii's major islands. They're served by regular interisland flights and have hotels and car rentals, but you won't find any freeways, stoplights, elevators, nightclubs, shopping centers, or supermarkets.

What you will find is a Hawaii little changed over the centuries: long stretches of empty beach, windswept headlands, and remnants of history hiding among tangled ferns and mangroves. A vacation here is characterized by rural simplicity, ohana (sense of family), aloha (love, understanding), and adventure. These same attractions, however, are tempting developers, too. Dramatic increases in tourism could be just around the corner.

Day trips from neighbor islands can let you sample the pleasures of Lanai and Molokai, but to get a real feel for the easy pace of life you'll need a few days--or more. This will give you time to explore little-traveled jeep tracks to empty beaches, to snorkel in rocky coves filled with a rainbow of reef fish, and to hike through misty rain forests of trees, silvery-stalked lilies, and man-size ferns.

Days pass gently here. These islands offer a peaceful, picturesque place to vacation. The next four pages offer our suggestions for discovering the essence of the islands, though by no means a comprehensive guide to visitor attractions.

For help in arranging a visit airlines, accommodations, car or jeep rentals, essential topographical maps, and so on turn to page 52. A victim of its reputation as a dull place covered with pineapples, Lanai does, in fact, boast the world's largest pineapple plantation 14,000 cultivated acres and 90 percent of U.S. production. But the island's other 74,000 acres are distinctly on the wild side, with prehistoric and historic ruins, offshore shipwrecks, upland meadows, deep gulches, and treasures left by the tides to beckon beachcombers.

Except for the state-owned harbor area at Manele Bay, the entire island is private property. Tourists are technically guests of owner Castle & Cooke, Inc., and its Dole subsidiary. The only hotel (the 11room Hotel Lanai) has housed hunters, businessmen, and other adventurous visitors since the 1920s. Its veranda is still the local gathering spot for evening conversation, its dining room the island's only restaurant, Fare is simple but delicious fresh fish, grilled steak, homemade pies.

An island-wide master plan includes two new hotels. Expected by summer, an elegant 102-room lodge outside Lanai City will provide dramatic contrast to the rustic Hotel Lanai. By summer 1991, a second luxury hotel will open overlooking Hulopoe Beach.

To explore Lanai, we suggest three daytrips: over jeep roads to an ancient fishing village on the black lava cliffs of the southern shore, to a windswept north shore beach, or along the forested backbone of Lanai's single mountain range.

The Hotel Lanai will pack lunch for you, but you can also supply yourself at Lanai City's Pine Isle Market or Richards Shopping Center, both on Eighth Street facing the green and both open at 8 A.M. Dahang's Bakery, just across the green, opens for breakfast at 5:30; you may want to try its Filipino pastries.

Jeeps are essential for the day trips we recommend (see page 52). We give detailed directions from Lanai City All pineapple roads tend to look alike to firsttime visitors, so take the time to spot specific landmarks. Take food and water when you go, and be ready to get dusty you simply can't avoid it if you want to have any fun. Some of Hawaii's best-preserved ruins dot the eastern bluffs of Kaunolu Bay: house sites, and animal pens, graves, shrines (heiau) of a centuries-old fishing village. From the bluff, a manmade notch in the rocks some 60 feet above the sea frames fin-shaped Kaneapua Rock. Some of Kamehameha's warriors proved their valer by diving from the opening, but you can use it as backdrop for a quiet lunch. Just inland, rock stacks mark numerous wellpreserved prehistoric petroglyphs. (Some petroglyphs have been newly etched by vandals. The old ones are harder to spot than the unweathered fakes.)

Descend the hill to the beach and walk right around the base of the cliff to the tidepools below. The black lava-rock pools simmer with life old and new coral, urA victim of its reputation as a dull place covered with pineapples, Lanai does, in fact, boast the world's largest pineapple plantation 14,000 cultivated acres and 90 percent of U.S. production. But the island's other 74,000 acres are distinctly on the wild side, with prehistoric and historic ruins, offshore shipwrecks, upland meadows, deep gulches, and treasures left by the tides to beckon beachcombers.