Hawaii – Day 7

Our final morning! As with most other mornings, I woke up around dawn (5:50) and caught up on processing photos and blogging on the house’s back porch. It had a great view toward the sea, as well as birds scurrying around its garden. I will miss the view, the temperature, and the sound of wildlife.

We had to leave the house by 7:30, all packed up, as we were heading to the other side of the island to visit the Kualoa Ranch before going direct to the airport. We swung by Foodland for a quick grab-and-go breakfast. Chicken was in the parking lot rather than on the menu…

We arrived at Kualoa Ranch with plenty of time to spare for our 9:20am “Jurassic Adventure Tour.” The ranch hosts the filming of many films and TV shows, most notably the Jurassic Parks and Lost, though the film that used the ranch the most was Windtalkers. Below are posters showing all of the films and TV shows filmed on site. Three additional films are in post-production, but the guides could not tell us which ones as they were sworn to secrecy.

We were in a group of sixteen in an open truck for our 2.5-hour tour of the ranch.

The first stopping point was a bunker from WW2. It was built in 1943 to help protect the island from any future attack, but the attack had already happened (Pearl Harbor) and there would be no more. The area had hosted an airfield and had been run by the government, though it was handed back to the ranchers after the war. Originally established by missionaries, the ranch tried sugar cane at first in the 1800s, but the soil and the salt from the sea were not conducive, so they switched to cattle farming, which it still does today.

Inside the bunker, various rooms showcased different movies and shows. Some of the show “Lost” had been filmed inside this or other bunkers, and a few props had been left behind. There was also a Jurassic World exhibit.

Just outside the bunker was a wall made of chicken wire and a covering. It was 1-2 ft above the road. In the movie Triple Frontier, it represented a trail thousands of feet above a valley floor. There are lots of tricks in movie making!

The next stop was where they filmed the scene below in Jurassic Park, released in 1993.

Most of Jurassic Park was filmed on another island, but a hurricane destoryed the set before filming was completed. Toward the end of the film when the bad-guy is trying to flee in a jeep in the rain, the rain was real, from the remnants of the hurricane.

The next stop was the “Gyrosphere Station” from Jurassic World (2015). It was only part of a 15-second clip in the movie, but was essential for introducing the idea of the gyrosphere. We also learned how much CGI was used, including the addition of the glass for the sphere, as real glass caused too many reflections for the cameras. The ranch wanted to keep a Gyrosphere, but Universal wanted $1.2 million dollars for it. So you will find them at Universal Studios now!

Next up was one of the bunkers from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and the radio tower. The bottom of the tower was built, as you can see, with the rest filled in with CGI. the bunker is made of polystyrene.

This was also the grass bank that Chris Pratt ran down away from the erupting volcano. They had to shoot the scene seventeen times, so he got his exercise that day! The “volcano” (see previous photos of mountain in middle of valley) was too far away to be threatening in these scenes, so it was “moved” by photoshop etc.

We reenacted another scene here of a T-Rex attack, with the guide’s help.

We visited several other sites from various movies, but the set normally gets removed after filming. One set that was left was the Indominus Rex paddock. The set only ever had two of the four walls.

In between movie sets, our guide explained aspects of the local culture, including how the land is divided into valley districts called “Ahupua’a,” with a replica pig’s head used to mark the boundaries.

That was the end of a really, really fun tour. Other options included going around in a bigger bus (and seeing less), or in jeeps, or ebikes, or on horseback. We can’t wait to watch some of the movies and look out for what we saw. The guide recommended Triple Frontier which I had not even heard of and is on Netflix, so that will probably be first.

We grabbed lunch at a plate-lunch place around the corner, which was OK but not great. Plate lunches are typically meat and two sides, but the two sides are dry rice and a macaroni salad, which are not our favorites. Then, we headed to the airport and dropped off the car. We had plenty of time at the airport, so tried out a lounge with our new Priority Pass, which worked well. However, we were all tired, and were glad to get in our seats for the 8-hour direct flight back to Houston which went smoothly. Fortunately, I slept most of the flight, and on arrival, remembered that I had taken a photo of the pillar next to where our car was parked, or it would have been a long search. We were home, and immediately missed the cooler, less-humid Hawaiian climate. Until next time!

This page is linked to from my Hawaii-Oahu home page.

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