Today, I got to join Amanda and her class on a field trip to the Kualoa Ranch. Kualoa Ranch is one of the most historically significant destinations on Oahu. Ancient Hawaiians considered Kualoa one of the most sacred places on Oahu. It was a residence of kings, a place of refuge and sanctuary - a pu`uhonua - and a training ground for royalty who were instructed at Kualoa in the arts of war, history and social traditions.
This estate, Kualoa Ranch, was so named in 1927 and has been used for various purposes over the last eight decades. During World War II, some of the lands of this estate was used as an auxiliary airstrip with many of the large monkeypod trees providing natural hangars for small planes.
The photo above shows the ranch entrance off Kamehameha Highway just beyond Kualoa Beach Park. There are two major areas of the ranch: the northern half of the ranch including Ka'a'awa Valley which contains most of the movie locations sites, and the southern half that includes Hakipu`u Valley, the 800 year-old Moli'i fishpond, and Secret Island. If the ranch's views look familiar, that's because Kualoa Ranch has been the site of many television shows and Hollywood films such as Jurassic park, Windtalkers, Pearl Harbor, Godzilla, Tears of the Sun and 50 First Dates. TV shows include Hawaii Five-O, Magnun P.I. and most recently the hit show LOST.
This above aerial view shows the main ranch houses on the left, the fishpond above and Kaaawa Valley in the middle
Amanda petting "Ralph" the horse
Jake and Amanda swimming with a dolphin (well almost swimming with a dolphin)
Jake's new haircut, he's going to be a "lady-killer"
Jake playing with his new girlfriend Sammy
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