Lana'i. What an interesting little island.
Dole Food Company bought the entire place in 1922. A pineapple plantation covered most of the interior until recently. Now abandoned, the fields are all dirt, weeds and shreds of black weed-guard plastic. There's a town, one cop, and three hotels: Hotel Lana'i, the Four Seasons Manele Bay, and the Four Seasons Lana'i Lodge at Koele.
Nonna, sales manager of the Four Seasons properties, informs me that the cop once pulled Mr. Murdock, the current owner of the island, over for driving with his grandchild on his lap. "Don't you know who I am?" he's reported to have said."Yes," came the reply, "And that's why I'm giving you a ticket."
It's dry. It's dusty. But looking up form the dirt, a single ridge line comes into view. Scraggly, but regal Cook-Island pines stand along it in single file, lending the impression that we are all treading on a sleeping stegosaurus.
We are in official transport shuttles on our way to Manele Bay.
"The pines wick water from the clouds down into the island's aquifer," Bethany Howe, another sales manager, informs. She has the bubbliest way of talking science. "And there's a wild turkey!" pointing to the side of the road. "Sometimes you'll see little axis deer running along here." I scan over the flapping black plastic fields hoping to see one. "They're originally from India."
This will be my first night actually sleeping at a Four Seasons. Nonna and Bethany promise a bay full of spinner dolphins in the morning. This is beginning to feel like a safari.
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