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From Aulani, we drove inward to central Oahu and the north shore. Dana chose to do a movie tour of Kualoa Ranch, a large working ranch that has been used in a number of famous movies and television shows. On the next day, we toured Dole Plantation, riding another train. Both tours and the drive around these parts of the island makes you feel like you are far removed from the hustle and bustle of Honolulu. It is really good to see all parts of the island, because they are all completely unique in so many ways.

Central and North Shore of Oahu

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Many of the bunkers from WWII still exist at Kualoa Ranch. We got off the bus and went into Battery Cooper, which consisted of a number of rooms buried deep into the mountain. Two outposts were heavily armed to protect Oahu from enemies approaching from the north.

10/20/16—10/24/16

The bunker is being used today as a place to show off some of the movies and shows filmed at Kualoa, including a few of our favorites shown here.

The beauty of the seashore and valleys on the ranch was interesting enough, but the use of those areas for films made it more fascinating. We saw where they filmed the famous golf scene on Lost, scenes from Godzilla and 50 First Dates. We even saw the skull of King Kong (under a tarp) for the new movie they are currently filming.

Both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World had a number of scenes filmed on the ranch. We stopped at the famous log that was used during the stampede scene from the original movie (right).

The Dole Plantation consisted of a delicious store, a pleasant train ride, and a leisurely stroll through a beautiful garden.

The North Shore presented us with Chinaman’s Hat, some windsurfers playing around at a beautiful beach, Byodo-In Temple (from a Lost episode), Turtle Bay (that unfortunately was void of turtles), and other interesting sites off shore.