A Good Day in Paradise

Today I finally got the chance to go to the Macadamia Nut Farm. It's pretty much the best kept secret on Oahu. I've been hearing about it for three years now, and I decided I'd try my best to get there this time. So glad I did.

Getting there requires a drive up the windward side of the island--an awesome drive, to be sure, so there's no sacrifice involved in the trip.

Upon arriving, you pull into a dinky, dirt parking lot, and if you're lucky, you can find a spot to park... Then you enter through a gift shop where you can purchase Hawaiian memorabilia, sample and/or buy Macadamia Nuts with all varieties of coatings, taste varieties of flavored coffee, also available for sale, and purchase tickets for the "tour".

Betty has been there several times before, so she led me quickly to the tour ticket booth. As luck (although I don't believe in luck) would have it, the tour bus was just about ready to pull out, so we were ushered onto it post haste.

I use the term "bus" very loosely.

Last winter my daughter was in the Peace Corps in Kenya. Several times she wrote in her blog about the most common and practically only mode of public transportation--the matatu: a bus-like vehicle which is usually crammed overly full of riders, which often breaks down during transit, and which doesn't have windows or air-conditioning.

Although our conditions today in Hawaii nowhere mimicked those my daughter described about Kenya, for a split second I felt a little like I had been transported to Africa. It's a neat feeling to get a small sense of what someone you love has experienced.

But I digress!

As the bus began, the driver described the vegetation we passed and gave a little history about the area. He occasionally disembarked to grab a piece of fruit, cut it up with a machete type instrument, and share it with us, his riders.

When we got off the bus, we were led to a dock where we stepped onto a boat of some type.

We stopped out in the water and the guide proceeded to tell us about all the movies/tv shows that had been filmed in this location. The mountain behind the trio being photographed is the location where part of Jurassic Park was filmed. The opening scene from Gilligan's Island took place to the rear of the direction we were facing. Part of 50 First Dates, Along Came Polly, ER, Lost, Fantasy Island, Tears of the Sun, the new TV version of Hawaii 5-0 and just recently, scenes from upcoming movie about Bethany Hamilton (the young surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack) took place in this beautiful location.

Okay, enough name-dropping.

After the little boat excursion, we settled into a small outdoor amphitheater for a show. The chief, and main entertainer, was very good (if not a little bawdy) and had us laughing inbetween serious stories about the history of starting fire, surviving on coconuts and twirling flaming batons.

After his presentation, they offered to take photos of the people/families in the audience with each one's cameras, and they also took photos with their cameras to sell to us when we returned to the main visitor's site. Betty and I didn't take them up on this offer, although I did manage to talk her into having our photo taken with the chief while we were on the boat. (Being the good tourist, I purchased that photo as a momento)

My friend, Betty.

Some final goodies. We were told that the taping of the last episode of Lost had already taken place and that the crew and cast of the show were having their farewell Picnic at Kualoa Ranch, just up the road from the Nut Farm. Betty, being obsessed with the show, wanted to stop to see what she could see. So we did, but we didn't. Didn't see much, that is. We did see some canopys set up under which she thinks the crew was picnicking, but no cast was in sight. She took a photo of what was there though, and we left with her being a happy camper.

Then we headed over to the Hukilau Cafe and had lunch. I'm liking that place more and more--too bad it's so far away, not easy to get to for breakfast or lunch, but definitely worth it if in the area. AND , I got the scoop on the movie version of the Hukilau Cafe. So when we left there, I was the happy camper.

So....we got to hang out with half-naked men, we tasted freshly cut coconut, we rode in a matatu type bus, we sampled a variety of macadamia nuts, saw the crew from Lost (maybe), had a great lunch & got the scoop on the Hukilau Cafe, rode around the island up windward and across the north shore (my favorite place on the planet earth), saw the sun shine all day and took a lot of photos.

Yeah, I guess I'd have to say it was a good day in Paradise!