Blur Hawaii – Part Two

Kualoa Ranch itself was used as a location several times during lost. For example, this field you see in front of you served at least two purposes. One was “Hurley’s Golf Course,” (maybe not this exact spot, but maybe a little bit to the right of here) the other was Richard Alpert’s encampment in the ’50s when the nuclear bomb “Jughead” hung perilously over the camp leaking radioactive material. Just to the left of this spot is the hill Hurley’s jump-started DHARMA van ran down in the episode where he finds it…and the Three Dog Night song “Shambala” plays.

Here’s my buddy Nate recreating a famous shot of Jack from LOST waking up in the bamboo forest, taken at the “main” location they used for bamboo forest stuff on the show. Is it the exact location where Jack awakens in the series premiere? Probably not, but it’s close enough dammit! We then hiked deeper into the forest until we came to a little river/waterfall, which was pretty cool. This is probably the place where I received the most mosquito bites of anywhere on my weird jungle adventure in Hawaii. Man, that place was brutal.

We also found the tree where Kate hides from the Smoke Monster early in the show. I think they used that tree a bunch of times during filming, but more importantly was this cool ass waterfall we found as we hiked deeper into the jungle. It was a little misty, a bit muddy, and very slippery, so we were all very proud of ourselves when we came through without any injuries. Also, we found out there was yet another filming location right across the street when we exited the jungle, but that was just a tree you see in one scene in a later season involving characters that no one really cares about. Ho hum.

Liliha Bakery, in addition to having decent malasadas (though not as good as the ones at Leonard’s), was the filming location used for Kate’s mom’s diner on LOST. Pretty cool, right? No? Well, from here we ended up going to lunch nearby and then a couple off us splintered off from the tour to do not-LOST-related stuff with the remainder of our days. We missed seeing the beach where they crash land and call home at the start of the show (oops!) but, you know…we had other things to we wanted to do that day.

Oh, wait. I lied. There’s some cemetery near the diner we explored first, because a couple scenes were filmed there. One was Jack and Hurley talking when Kate comes up to them and holds Jack at gunpoint. The other, I think, was a scene along this little stream. I decided to walk out into the stream to take some better photos of it. Can I tell you exactly what was filmed here? No, not really. Maybe Kate washing her face in one of the early episodes? Maybe this is where Jack drank from THE CUP in Season 6? Who the hell knows. At this point everything looked the same.

Later that evening five of us decided we wanted to do something hokey and tourist-y, so we went to a luau. I’m pretty sure this is the same one the Tanner family went to on that episode of Full House when they go to Hawaii, but I’m not 100% certain. We had a blast at the luau, mostly because everyone else was drinking (DD here!) and it was nice to be on our own for a few hours.

The luau also offered up one of the best sunsets of the entire trip.

Saturday began with a short drive to the North Shore for morning snorkeling at Shark’s Cove. The cove offered me many cool sights, including lots of fish! Unfortunately, the sheer amount of people trying to navigate the shallows of the cove combined with the literal shit-ton of fish feces in the water lead to me contracting a bacterial infection (and a touch of conjunctivitis to boot!), which all luckily kicked in right as I was leaving the island. NOT COOL, FISH! NOT COOL, CHILDREN. KEEP YOUR POOP OUT OF MY COVE.

The best bowl of poke I had during the trip was at a little truck across the street from the cove. I think it was called Ahi Limo? I can’t be certain, but it was fucking incredible. At my old job we used to order from Mainland or Sweetfin or whatever that place is on W. 3rd near Beverly Hills, and this poke blows their poke out of the water.

Does this guy look like he beach vacations, or what?

I’ll spare you all the photos of the amazing shrimp plates at Giovanni’s, but you should definitely check out my Instagram for all the food porn pics you can stomach. It was probably one of the culinary highlights of the trip, as we got one of everything on the menu (not the hot dog) and tore through all the plates like we were chasing some kind of speed-eating record. 

Our night ended with what could only be described as a series of epic games of Jenga back at our 10-bedroom estate. The gentleman in this photo is 6’8″, in case you’re wondering what made this game so epic. According to our research, if you can get your Jenga tower to level 27 or 28 you’ve reached an expert level of play. Our game eventually ended with 31 and 1/3 levels built. For one night, our motley little crew knew what it was to perform at a near-professional gaming level.