Thursday 8/5 - Lost...

Mornings in Waikiki are surreal.

Having a six-hour time change certainly helps, but there is something about the morning in O'ahu which became addictive.  The air is warm but the sun isn't pounding down on your thinning hair yet; it would have been the perfect air and temperature for a nice long jog if I weren't determined to look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man when I returned home.

The beach crowd is sparse but not empty; by 6 AM there are already a few surfers, paddle boarders, and hearty swimmers parked out at the sandbar 200 yards offshore waiting for the next perfect wave.  The small army of hotel beach employees are setting up for the day, digging holes in which to plant chairs and umbrellas for their hourly rentals, hosing down surfboards and catamarans to sanitize them for whichever tourists will use them today.

These guys must be on East Coast time... no sleep on vacation!

It is the perfect time to get a bagel downstairs, grab a chair out back and watch the neighborhood wake up and start mobilizing for another hot, beautiful Hawai'i day at the beach.  It's for much the same reasons that we enjoy going for a walk/run in downtown Boston early on Saturday mornings-- it's just a lot of fun to watch a city wake up and start its day.

Quiet morning on Waikiki, ready to get going

By 7:00 Jen and I had scoped out a set of chairs in the first row of the pool, facing the beach.  So for the next three hours, we sat there while the world started buzzing around us.  It was nice to be able to hammer out three good hours of reading-- I was reading Nick Hornby's famous memoir Fever Pitch, turned into the horrible Jimmy Fallon/Farrelly Brothers Red Sox movie, while Jen was crushing a novel called Honolulu by Alan Brennert, highly appropriate for the vacation of course).

By 10:00 the sun overhead had already peeked over the rooftops of the beachfront hotels and was barely impeded by the palm trees high overhead, so I knew our time reading in the relatively cool air was basically done.  So instead, we decided to try out a particular Hawaiian activity that we'd seen for the last couple of days and wanted to give it a shot-- riding in an outrigger canoe.

I hope we didn't disturb this guy's sports page by asking to go on the outrigger.

So an outrigger canoe is just like a regular canoe except it has like a 15-foot-long attachment which is a lateral support float (called an outrigger, hence the name) to keep it from capsizing.  A lot of the hotels on the beach offer outrigger rides all day long; for $10 you can paddle out in the canoe with a small group, and ride two waves in.  Sounds fun, right?  Turns out it was a lot more entertaining that I had thought.

Our instructor shows us how to correctly paddle the canoe (he must have been at my demonstration for the Japanese tourists yesterday), and we hop in.  Jen's in the first position, I'm right behind her, there are three people behind us, and then our instructor/guide is in the back.  We push the canoe out into the water and then start paddling, heading out to the sandbar which is a good 200-250 yards out.  Then we wait.

The person in position 1 is the most vulnerable, which is why I volunteered Jen for the job.

It's really peaceful to be out there, just floating on the canoe with the backdrop of Waikiki in front of you, surfer dudes and dudettes trying to catch their waves and not be decapitated by an incoming outrigger, and bodysurfers roaming around, dangerously in our way.  Then the big wave starts coming.  The instructor yells "START ROWING!  FAST!  FAST!"  So we row.  Fast.  Fast.  Hey, we're team players.  Then he yells "STOP!"

As the undertow is pulling us out, all of a sudden we catch the crest of a wave and the next thing we know we start seemingly flying towards the beach.  It was incredible.  I've never been surfing before but right then I knew what the allure of it is; you find yourself just relaxing and submitting to the awesome force of nature, and the design of the canoe does the rest.  We rode the wave all the way to about 30-40 yards from shore before it ran out of steam, but wow, what a ride.  The best part was that we got to go out for another one.

The second one was even more intense than the first.  The ocean went calm for about five minutes as we waited, wondering when the next big one was going to come.  Fickle thing, that ocean.  It can come with five huge waves in a row, or it can make you sit and wait for the next one.  Funny thing is that we have no power over it.  As humans, for all our technology, for all our supposed mastery of our environment and our planet, we are essentially powerless against the force of the ocean.  It dominates us.  It is really quite a humbling thing to realize.

Especially when the next big wave comes and completely sends us flying through the air towards the shore.  When we come back down, the bow of the ship clips the ocean and sends up an intense spray of sea and salt directly into our faces.  For about five seconds, I can't see a thing.  I pity Jen, who was in front of me and took the brunt of the water-beating.  I briefly pray to whatever gods there may be because I am pretty darn sure we're going to capsize out here in the Pacific.

Next thing you know, the outrigger steadies itself and we're back to riding the crest of the wave toward the shore.  I say a quick thanks to whichever god(s) answered my prayer and relax for the rest of the ride.

To cap it off, we saw a giant turtle just swimming in the water about 10 yards off the shore as we paddled back in.

Primitive shower facilities for the beach staff-- the union should complain about the accommodations.

After the surreal outrigger experience, it was time for the real plans of the day: the official Hummer Tour of LOST (and other assorted movies) filming sites!

(Again, a disclaimer: if you haven't seen LOST, you will probably be bored out of your skull by this section.  So have a good night and I'll see you tomorrow.)

Okay, they're gone.  So let's get to the good stuff.

Most of the good LOST filming sites that we didn't see on Wednesday at the North Shore are located on private property called the Kualoa Ranch, which is located on the northeast (called "windward") coast of Oahu.  This side of the island is only about a 30 minute drive from Honolulu, but it is feels so much farther away.  (Or maybe it was being in the same place where Hollywood filmed a show about people being trapped on an island which was seemingly immune to the usual laws of time and space which led to the sense of isolation?)

I hope whoever lives here never threw his son out of an 8th story window.

After stopping to pick up our tour guide companions, a nice couple a few years older than us from Perth, Australia, named Brad and Emma.  The first tour stop was a little road off one of the highways through the mountain valleys which separate the city areas with the windward coast: the house that was used as Anthony Cooper's residence (John Locke's father), on a street called Nu'unu Pali Drive.

From Season 1 episode "Deus Ex Machina."  Of course John Locke rides in style.

There was another brief stop on this road, but the next day we explored it a little more, so I'll save those details for later.

Now on the windward coast, they showed us the pier on which the Others marched Jack, Hurley, Kate, and Sawyer at the end of season 2, and where Ben gave Michael the boat in which he and Walt left the island.

From the show- season 2 "Live Together, Die Alone" screencap

The Others hold some of the survivors captive and then release Michael

Pier in the distance, but background completely recognizable

Thankfully we're not blindfolded - the island in the back is called "Chinaman's Hat. ("Also, Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please." - Walter Sobchak) 

Panoramic with Asian-American's Hat in background

One of my favorite scenes of Season 6 was just before Jack and the others got on the sub (before, of course, the tragedy that occurred on the sub itself), in which Jack shoves the fake John Locke off the pier and into the water while they commandeer the sub, leaving fake Locke and Claire behind.

It looked a lot cooler with a CGI submarine parked at the dock

A very badass Jack moment from Season 6.

Now on the property of the Kualoa Ranch proper.

Most of the ranch is only accessible through ATV's or by foot.  It was pretty impressive, though, that our driver/tour guide Ricardo was able to take us over some rather unimproved terrain-- unfortunately I wasn't told that I should have taken my Dramamine before the tour.

The rest of the time, the Hummer took us all over Kualoa ranch, full of ridiculous scenery, luscious mountain backdrops, beautiful distant ocean views, and very recognizable LOST backdrops.

Yeah, I could live on this property.  Might not be quite big enough for my needs, but I could make do.

from Season 3 "Tricia Tanaka is Dead."  One of the all-time feel-good moments in the show.

Not sure I would ever want to jump-start a 1974 VW bus going down this hill.

The tour guide was nice enough to let us recreate pushing the van down the hill....

...unfortunately, this time the clutch snapped and it crashed into the rocks, maiming all on board.  Not quite the storybook ending we were hoping for.

Season 1 "Solitary."  Hurley decides to blow off steam by building a golf course.

My putt to capture the first (and hopefully, last) Island Open.

Season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass."  Jack and Ben sit on logs to discuss their plan of action.

Jen is definitely more devious and manipulative, so she gets to be Ben, while my hero complex makes me an obvious Jack.

Season 6 "Ab Aeterno."  Jacob gives the Man in Black a bottle of wine to pass the time.

Jen and I contemplating our future on the same log.

Also from "Ab Aeterno."  The Man in Black reflects on being the personification of Evil Incarnate.

Similar thoughts are clearly going through my head here as well.

Season 5 "Jughead."  The bomb.

Jen at the Jughead site.  This LOST tour really was "the bomb." (Thank you, I'll be here all week, try the veal.)

Season 4 "The Other Woman."  Jack and Juliet kiss at The Tempest.  Awkward seeing as how one season later she is married to Sawyer, and Jack ends up with Kate.

I hope that isn't a precursor for this couple!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the crazy polar bears that pop up every now and then on O'ahu.

Season 5 "Jughead."  In 1954, John Locke surveys the US Army camp actually used by the Others.

2010.  I survey an empty valley, but it's totally as badass as what Locke was doing.

Yeah, they filmed "Jurassic Park" at this site.

This valley shot was used a ton of times from different angles and depths.

As seen in season 6 "Ab Aeterno," this was Richard's house in the 1860's flashback on the Canary Islands.

We loved the LOST tour.  As a film teacher, I was interested in learning about the technical use of the ranch as a set.  Ricardo said a lot about the different camera techniques that directors use to achieve different effects; especially, how to use essentially the same set and manipulate it with angles and focus areas to make it seem as if the scenes are taking place miles apart on the island.  Ricardo had been a film major at Hawaii Pacific University, and had good insights for many of the spots as to what the director's intention was in the shot.

On the way back to Waikiki, we had a nice conversation with the Australians about their city of Perth, the differences between Australian and American culture, popular sports in both countries, and life in general.  Great afternoon.  After a quick (and cheap) dinner at the Maui Tacos at the Royal Hawaiian food court, I was ready to call it a day.

I was belly-button-north by 9 PM, thinking of some of the LOST sites and realizing, "We have to go back, Jen...  WE HAVE TO GO BACK!"

(From season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass.") "We have to go back!"

TOMORROW: We go back.  But before that, we hike to the top of a volcanic crater.  Later, more great scenic views, and one last night in O'ahu.