Disaster on Lana'i: An Island Hopping Adventure

For President's Day/Valentine's Day weekend, Jay and I decided to go on our first island-hopping adventure. We chose the small island of Lana'i because it's not one that most people go to (or have heard of) and we want to get to all islands, if possible, while we live here.

Also known as Pineapple Island, Lana'i is the sixth largest Hawaiian island and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island. It has no traffic lights and one city where most of the 3,100 inhabitants live: Lana'i City. It was brought to prominence in the 1920s as it was turned into a pineapple plantation by the Dole Pineapple Company. And although agriculture is no longer the main driver of it's economy, Lana'i is beginning to thrive on increasing tourism thanks in part to the two Four Season's resorts located at Manele Bay and the Lodge at Ko'ele.

We started out our trip by getting up early Friday morning to make our 10am flight. A front was coming through the islands around lunch time Friday, bringing high winds with it, so I was glad our flight would get us to Lana'i before then. Unfortunately, the weather on Lana'i was cloudy and windy, causing poor visibility and the cancelling of our flight at 11am. The airline was able to re-book us on the 3:30pm flight, but with 4.5 hours to kill and Evie's car seat checked, what were we going to do? Luckily, the airline was very accommodating and retrieved her car seat from the plane. We put her in the car and drove around Waikiki for an hour to let her nap.

Our afternoon flight was on-time and pleasantly without turbulence, and we were on Lana'i by 4pm. Our rental car was a Land Rover, as a four-wheel drive vehicle is necessary to access most parts of the island. We get the car and find it has a thin layer of reddish dirt all through it, which we slowly realized is normal for this rural island. We loaded up and drove the 6 miles to Lana'i City to find our rental home. We had considered staying at the Four Seasons, one of the only hotels on the island, but with rates starting at $699/night, it was hardly affordable (though I later learned they have "kamaaina", or local, rates that were cheaper). The "city" is less than 7 square miles, but we still struggled finding our rental house. We ended up on a dirt-covered street with homes that looked overcome with either foliage or junk. We eventually located our rental home, and realized that the huge wall and dense plants around it obscured it from view on our drive-bys.

Once inside, we found ourselves in a quaint plantation-style home that had new furnishings and decor. It was small but perfectly suited our needs. We headed down the street to the only market  on the island to pick up food for dinner. I thought the prices were pretty good ($5.41/pound ground beef) but maybe I've been living on an island too long. Once back in the house, our cute plantation home quickly turned into a nightmare. The bathroom consisted of a small room for the toilet with a curtain door and bugs crawling around (although they were not numerous and were likely due to the high humidity of this part of the island). The shower was also occluded only by a curtain and was a cement stall with no lights and a mirrored ceiling. It looked like something out of a Jason movie and coincidentally it was Friday the 13th (a bad omen?). We also had no bathtub, so we had to give Evie baths in the sink.

As I'm preparing dinner, I realize I have to cook with a gas stove. A gas stove that has had all the markings wiped off of it so we don't know which knob controls which burner nor how to turn anything on. We placed a call to the owner (who lives right up the street) and he came to the house to help. We discovered that only one burner works and the oven did not work at all. I made do with one burner to make spaghetti sauce and noodles, but Jay had to grill the garlic bread outside. There was no high chair, so we were stuck holding Evie on our laps to feed her.

After dinner, I noticed that my feet were exceptionally dirty. We got out the Swiffer (the only mop we could find) and had to clean the entire house because the floors were so dirt-covered. There was a sign posted on the fridge stating that any dirt brought into the house was grounds for an extra cleaning fee, so we figured either the house hadn't been occupied in a while or the cleaning lady was not very good. The hot water I used to clean dishes was initially yellow, but cleared-up by the time bedtime came around (whew!). Bedtime was a disaster as Evie had to bathe in the sink and then sleep in a pack and play in an unfamiliar room. She threw up from crying and about an hour into bedtime, had to be bathed again and the sheets changed. This is when we noticed that the stuffed nose she had on the plane was turning into full-blown congestion. Great. We had to clean the barfy sheets, which is how we discovered that the washer was broken. We had to manually advance each cycle, and if we missed advancing the rinse cycle, water pooled on the floor (thank God for the drain in the room!). We finally got Evie to sleep and soon after put ourselves to bed as it was an exhausting first day.

Saturday we woke up to overcast skies, high winds, and a sick baby. The forecast called for 100% rain and 60 MPH wind gusts later that day, so we wanted to get out and see the island while we could. We decided to head to the Four Seasons at Manele Bay, as it was one of the places my book said to see. The hotel was beautiful and had great views of Manele Bay despite the poor weather.

Manele Bay

Lobby of Four Seasons

We looked around the hotel for a while and decided to head down to the beach. What is usually a serene, picturesque beach was windy with rough waters. The sand was stinging our legs, so we only walked around for a little while. By this point, we were getting hungry so we headed back into town for lunch. We stopped at the local diner, The Blue Ginger Cafe, and ordered some Loco Moco and shrimp stir fry. By the time the food came, Evie was throwing a tantrum so bad we had to pack up and head home for nap time. A nap which did not come easily and only lasted 45 minutes. By the time she woke up, the rains had started.

The rain quickly turned into torrential downpours with wind gusts that knocked out the cable and cell phone service. Evie woke up extremely congested, and with the rain and wind not letting up, we knew our Valentine's dinner plans would have to be cancelled. Our weekend got even better when we discovered two leaks in the house's roof, one in the bathroom and one in the living room. This was our breaking point and we decided between the bad weather, sick baby, and bad rental, we needed to head home early and salvage our weekend. After several poorly connected calls, we got through to the airline and changed our reservation to Sun afternoon. Evie woke up three times that night due to her cold as well as the cold temperatures. The rain brought with it cooler temps, and at an elevation of 1,600 feet with no heat, the house was quite cold that night.

Sunday morning we woke up in somewhat better spirits, knowing the torture was ending that day. It's too bad the weekend wasn't like Sunday, because we had a great day!

We checked out with the owner's of the house and car, who we kind enough to refund our money for the day. We drove around the mountains of the island while Evie took her morning nap. I read that the golf course at the Four Season's lodge was a world-class course where Bill Gates got married and that the views were amazing (which I later realized I confused this course with the one at Manele Bay). We had to get back-road directions to the course because it was closed and we soon found ourselves driving along the golf cart path and looking at a long-closed golf course that was overgrown with weeds. It would have been beautiful if it was up-kept, with views of the ocean and mountain valleys, but as of now the course is closed with rumors of it reopening in 2016/2017. We found ourselves on a back road that led down the mountain on the windward side. It was a hazy day due to vog, but you could make out Molokai to the right and Maui to the left (with the peak of Haleakale sticking out above the clouds). It was a beautiful site. We ended up turning around and heading back to the Four Season's Lodge and Lana'i City since driving around the island this way would have taken a long time.

We drove to Manele Bay and had lunch at the Four Season's oceanfront restaurant. The day was clear and calm with an unbeatable view and delicious food. It salvaged our weekend and helped us realize why people love coming to Lana'i.

Much better weather on Sunday!

Pepper look-a-like

After lunch, we had one more stop before going home: the famous Lana'i cat sanctuary! We knew this would be a hit with Evie as she loves cats. They foster 300-400 cats at a time, and we were surprised by how well-behaved and friendly they were! One in particular, Kelsey, would jump in my or Jay's lap every time we crouched down to pet her, and she let Jay hold her like a baby. So sweet! Evie couldn't get enough of the cats and although we left covered in dirty paw prints, it was probably the best part of our weekend.

After our fun Sunday in Lana'i, we labeled this trip a small success. We learned that Lana'i is a little too rural for us, that Evie has difficulty traveling right now, but that a small get-away is good for everyone. And: there's no place like home! We had a much better night once we were home (only one wake-up) and Evie's cold has been more manageable. Time to get back into our routine.