HAWAIIAN MOVIE TRAILS

Why? There are several lovely resort hotels. We chose the Cocoa Palms. Here, away from the city's rush, you really begin to feel that it's a tropical paradise. Your windows have no glass. It's never that cold. Below your porch or lai, the lagoon is filled with water liies. The lagoon also teams with fish, and the visiting children are busy all day trying their luck with bits of bread. But the real fishermen are the children who live here. It doesn't take one of them very long to catch a whole stringer full. If you don't care to fish, how about an outrigger ride on the lagoon? Let's hope you get a paddler who knows what he's doing. Of course, you won't want to spend all of your time at the hotel. One of the spectacular scenic views on Kawaii is Himea Canyon. It's a softer, gentler version of the Grand Canyon. Sometimes views as grand as this can be a little disappointing in pictures because of the extra brightness of the sky. You can use a Kodak polar screen to darken the sky and emphasize the clouds. Another delightful hotel on Kawaii is the Hannah Plantation. While you're waiting for lunch, you can sharpen up your putting and you'll eat delicious food on a patio overlooking the beautiful bay where the movie version of South Pacific was photographed. Your sleeping quarters are located on the side of a steep hill. And you can either ride a little trolley car or if you're young and healthy, walk. Of course, with a lovely pool and models like these, who can resist time out for a closeup? [Music] Let's take a ride on Hawaii's only navigable river, the Wua. Our guide was full of information. Let's listen. how trees spelled h a u. This is the wood that they use to make the outriggers for their canoes and also the fishnet floaters. It's a very light wood and the bark you can strip it and make good strong rope out of it. The blossoms are bright yellow early in the morning. In the evening they'll turn a dull yellow or a little orange and the second day it'll gradually turn red. Just look at it. You can see why they call it how how on the devil you going to get through. The leaf of the how tree resembles the map of this island here, island of Kawawaii. And if you look at it closely, you'll see there's five main veins on a leaf. And it all starts from one spot. That spot is Mount W Ali Allay and it's five main rivers. [Music] The trip's destination is a natural amphitheater called the Fern Grtau. Here, the vegetation is so dense that even at high noon, it's a little dark for picture taking, but it's so beautiful that you'll want a personal record shot anyway. But we we'll have the girls dance with me. A little brown girl first. Okay. On the trip back, people seemed friendlier and soon everyone was busy learning some of the Hawaiian songs. body. [Music] [Music] Wondering [Music] car. It's not hard to understand. [Music] Not the island or the nation of the rock. [Music] Each evening after dinner at Cocoa Palms, guests enjoy the ceremonial lighting of the torches. A runner clad only in a red lava lava races through the coconut orchard with a flaming torch. It's a thrilling sight no matter how many times you've seen it. Another delightful out island stop is the Valley Island of Maui. We were happy to learn that our new friend KT was planning to visit Maui. He adjusted his schedule to fly with us. The official seal of Hawaii bears the inscription, "The life of the land is preserved in righteousness." The natives of Maui say Maui no cooi cooi which means Maui tops them all. Many Malahinis also think that Maui truly is the best. Among its other attractions, it offers gorgeous mountain scenery, golf courses, and modern resort hotels. [Applause] There are acres of waving sugar cane and historic little settlements. At the foot of this hill lies the old harbor village of Lahina. Anyone who has read James Mishner's novel Hawaii should be especially anxious to visit this picturesque sea coast town. A 100 years ago, Lahina was known all over the Pacific as the crossroads of the whailing fleet. This is where the first white missionaries arrived by formasted schooner and may have preached their gospel under a huge spreading banyan tree that covers a whole city block. [Applause] The lusty sailors stayed at this very same pioneer hotel. Lusty they were, and many a sailor spent his night sobering up in the village jail. The Russians took an active part in the early settling of Hawaii. This pair of lovely models posed for KT by a cannon dredged from the wreck of a Russian warship sunk in 1816. [Music] [Applause] Maui also has its share of lovely scenic coastline and pleasant fine sand beaches. One of the advantages of having a nativeborn guide was in finding such out of the way places. At Fleming Beach, KT was busy once again making some view camera shots for his professional collection. Close to Maui lies the sparsely settled island of Lai, owned by the Dole Pineapple Corporation. No trip to Maui would be complete without a visit to Halakala Volcano, one of our weirdest and most beautiful national parks. The winding road is safe enough, but you may find fog and rain on the lower slopes. At 9,000 ft, it was a relief to break through the clouds. It's a good, healthy climb from sea level to over 10,000 ft, enough to make some people groggy. But of course, Jack and I are used to tough situations, and the altitude didn't bother our picture taking up bit. [Music] [Applause] Halakala means house of the sun. Its crater is 27 mi around and 3,000 ft deep. Big enough to hold all of Manhattan. The silvery green plants growing near the summit are called Halakala Silver Sword. These plants grow nowhere else in the whole world except on the slopes of this one volcano. A friendly park ranger told us some interesting facts about the silver sword. It's a member of the sunflower family and grows 9 to 20 years before producing a tall stock that bears several hundred strange little purple brown blossoms. [Music] These blooms go to seed quickly, leaving the entire plant to wither and die. Halakala silver sword. A strange and exotic plant. [Music] At the end of a busy day, it was fun to relax under the stars and watch one of the best entertainment groups on the island perform. With the help of our movie lights and tape recorder, you can enjoy the show too. [Music] [Applause] [Music] My home. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] again. Oh [Music] god. [Music] [Applause] [Music] The largest of the islands, Hawaii, is called Big Island. It's also known as the Orchid Island. If you arrive on the Kona side, you may stay at the Kona Inn, a lovely resort area built right on the Rocky Coast. A signpost in the center of the grounds reminds us how far we are from most places. Practically every room has its own lai, a pebble toss from the blue Pacific with a view like this. The Kona Coast is the Blue Marlin fishing capital of the Pacific. Every day we saw fish being unloaded and hoisted in front of the Kona in to be weighed and photographed. Soon Chuck and I had the fever and thought we'd try our luck. So we chartered a boat and out we went. [Music] Faithful KT went along. If we caught a 400-lb blue marlin, KT wanted to be in on the fun. [Music] The lines were soon baited with artificial squid, and the watching and waiting began. We watched and watched and waited and waited and suddenly a giant marlin hit that bait. There it was, a strike and a loss. I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but that's all the fish we saw that day. Our luck is just like yours. Meanwhile, back at the end, the smarter folks enjoyed the sun, caught minnows in the saltwater swimming pool, or watched the waves. Wave watching seems to be one of the most fascinating sports of the Kona Coast. But not all of the island of Hawaii is peaceful. Remember, this is a land of still active volcanoes. [Music] Look closely and you can see the legendary goddess Madame Paley in the swirling flames. The natives will tell you that she appears with every volcanic eruption. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] This area was laid waste in 1960. Steam still issues from cracks in the ground, and it's not safe to stray from the marked spots when exploring the craters. [Music] [Applause] [Music] The countryside for miles around is buried with light volcanic ash and only the redly ha flower grows in some of the protected areas. The natives used to believe it would rain if you picked one. Naturalists study these steaming sulfur events closely, trying to understand the mysteries of the volcanoes. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] At the foot of the volcano lies Hawaii's second largest city, Hilo. Here the land is alive with beauty, for this is the center of the famous Hawaiian orchid industry. Let's visit Kong's floralally gardens. [Music] Young Hawaiians are inquisitive. And before long, as we rushed around making close-ups with both our still and movie cameras, we had the curious ones asking questions about getting close to flowers. Chuck enjoyed demonstrating the use of a supplementary lens to this young lass. [Music] And then for a moment we lost our heads and joined in the fun as these two high school girls showed us how the twist was competing with the hoola. [Music] Well, fun is fun, but we had serious work to do. Besides movies, we wanted slides. Because of the high contrast lighting, we used fill-in flash. Note how as we stop the action for a moment, the flash cuts down the lighting contrast and puts detail into the shadows. The movie maker does the same thing with reflectors. Kong's friendly Filipino gardener explained that Hilo's rainfall and temperature are perfect for growing orchids outdoors. He told us that each plant has to be repotted every 6 months. Some orchids grow on stalks 5 ft long and others have blooms less than an inch across. [Music] At Kong's Gardens, the flowers are there for the tourists benefit and not to be picked. However, most of the orchids at Hilo are grown for their great commercial value. These skilled women sort the blossoms and make them into floral specialties of all kinds. Hundreds of thousands of floral are woven by hand and shipped out of Hawaii every year. [Music] [Applause] [Music] When we returned to Honolulu back on the busy island of Aahu, we did as all tourists eventually do. We went shopping for souvenirs. One favorite spot for shoppers is the international marketplace at Wik Ki. Hawaii is a shopper's paradise. Here you can buy a bikini for your best girl, a sweater for your wife, or a colorful mumu for your sister. Visitors say mumu, but it's spelled with four U's, and the natives say moo moo. They come in a thousand colors and patterns. [Music] [Applause] [Music] One of the ancient Hawaiian arts is wood carving. And one thing that almost every tourist takes home is a carving generally made of monkey pod or koa wood. We asked the owner of this shop, Blair's, if we could make a picture story showing how these lovely things are made. Come on out and see how they do it. Once again, our movie lights came in handy as we watched the production of a fish tray from the raw Good. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] It's hard to believe that 30 minutes ago, this lovely tray was part of a tree trunk. [Music] No visit to Hawaii is complete without a visit to Pearl Harbor. We took a Navy launch tour of the area and we were fortunate to have a young Navy public information officer as our guide. Pearl Harbor is our biggest Pacific naval base. It serves as the central docking, tanking, and training area for the Pacific fleets. Pearl Harbor is the first line of defense for America's West Coast. [Music] Even though it was more than 20 years ago, no one at Pearl Harbor has ever forgotten December 7th, 1941. The destination of this launch ride is a national shrine built over the sunken battleship Arizona. The Arizona is still listed on Navy Roads as being sentimentally in commission. It's a strange feeling to realize that just beneath your feet still lie the bodies of 1,12 American servicemen trapped in this twisted rusting hulk. [Music] The young officer explained how the Japanese planes attacked in several waves. At one end of the shrine is a small chapel where the names of the men who died here are engraved in stone for us to remember always. [Music] Overlooking [Music] Pearl Harbor is Punchbowl National Cemetery, a military graveyard built into the crater of an extinct volcano. Here lie the bodies of 14,000 American war dead. There are so many things to remember about Hawaii. Once you've been there, a trip like this becomes a fabric of happy memories of places and people and things kept alive to enjoy again and again through the magic of photography. Memories have a way of fading. Only a camera can keep them fresh forever. What is Hawaii? You've been there, too. So, settle back and take another look. This is Hawaii. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music]