During my last post I was horseback riding at Kualoa Ranch. Well, I'm back at Kualoa ranch for this post too! This blog has pictures from my tour of the Ka'a'awa side. This side of the Ranch is the popular filming location.
Kualoa Ranch is located on the windward side of the island, and has morphed into many different businesses/purposes over its long history: Texas Longhorn cattle ranching, sugarcane production, movie site filming, and even military batteries/bunkers/runways during WWII. Kualoa Ranch is beautiful, and most of the property is still pristine, native land. Movies and shows such as Jurassic Park, Lost, Magnum PI, Hawaii Five-O, Mighty Joe Young, Along Came Polly, Windtalkers, Tears of the Sun, Godzilla, Pearl Harbor, 50 First Dates, You Me and Dupree, etc... have all been partly filmed at this location. Basically, if a filmmaker wants to stay in the USA, but also wants a lush tropical paradise nestled between mountains then they come to Kualoa Ranch.
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| The tour busses. We took the one named 'Ehiku...whatever that means? |
The remnants of the old sugar mill are still on the property. The land was first purchased from one of Hawai'i's Kings in the very early 1900's to be used for sugar cane production, but only lasted as a functional mill for about 8 years. The land was too close to the ocean and too dry, so it wasn't a good location. There is actually a road about 20 feet past the far wall/chimney, which I drive to go to/from work most days of the week. You can see the electric lines in the background that follow the road. Then 40 feet past the road is the ocean.
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| Old Sugar Mill |
After the sugar mill failed, the owners used the land to raise cattle, primarily Texas Longhorns. It continues to be used to raise cattle, but only lightly since the Big Island is the primary site for cattle ranching in Hawai'i. The land is mostly used as a tourist attraction and film production now, so they just move the cattle around to where ever they're out of the way.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Military seized Kualoa Ranch. Since the Ranch owned a large portion of oceanfront mountain land, the military built tunnels, armories and batteries throughout the mountain portions. The military also constructed 47 smaller bunkers throughout the valley (13 bunker remnants remain) and even built a runway on the valley section (a picture of the runway is further down this blog). There is a large Marine Base nearby. Kualoa's military build up was meant to protect the base in case of future attacks (the Marine base was actually attacked first during the Pearl Harbor attacks as the Japanese made their way toward Pearl Harbor). A few years after the war ended the US government returned the land to the owners.
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| Bunker |
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| Bunker |
Here is a picture I took at an overlook of how it looks now. Unfortunately it
was cloudy and rainy so this pictures doesn't do it justice because this place is gorgeous.
Like I said above, the land is mostly used as a filming location in conjunction with tourist activities (and a little bit of cattle ranching). They try to leave some of the previous filming sets in place for the tourist activity. Being as I am a huge Lost fan I was really excited to see things like Lock's camp and Hurley's golf course, but these didn't show up well on pictures (ie. they just look like a grassy field). But below are a few pictures of recognizable film locations:
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| It's Godzilla's foot print. There are several of them around the property. They used to be 8 feet deep instead of their current 3 foot depth, but the cows kept falling in them at night and then they couldn't get back out. |
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| A cannon with sandbag walls from Windtalkers. Windtalkers actually rented the entire valley for 3 straight months since they did all their battlefield shooting here using live explosives...the movie had a budget to 100 million (and in my opinion could have picked someone else other than Nicholas Cage...) |
Jurassic Park was filmed almost entirely on the island of Kaua'i. Except for one scene. Jurassic Park filming was almost complete back in 1992 when Hurricane Iniki severely damaged Kaua'i, delaying production. One scene was then shot on O'ahu at Kualoa ranch since the land was relatively undamaged from the Hurricane. It's the scene where the actors are running away from the gallimimus stampede, and duck behind a dead tree while the dinosaurs jump over and around them. Then a moment later T-rex pops out from behind the trees and eats a gallimimus. The dead tree is still in the same spot as it was in 1992, so we got a picture with it. Just below my picture is a film still of just before the actor hides behind the tree (and you can see the beautiful valley behind him...the only computer created images in the movie scene are the dinosaurs). It makes me want to read the book and watch the movie again...
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| Just a natural formation in hills...looks like a Gorilla looking at a baboon! |
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| A view of rainbow beach. If you follow that road for another 5 minutes then you get to one of my offices. |
As mentioned earlier, Kualoa has a rich military history. The largest battery, Cooper Battery, is still open. It now functions as a museum, and houses a lot of movie memorabilia and pictures from the ranch's rich history. Construction was started shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack and then the military abandoned it right after they finished building it (before the war even ended) since they knew Japan was highly unlikely to attack. The war in the Pacific was pushed so far west by then.
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| One of two large entrances to Cooper Battery. In front of each entrance was a gun with a 5 inch cannon. |
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| Cooper's Blueprints |
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| The makeshift airfield that was built during WWII on Kualoa. |
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| I found the Lost submarine! John Lock did not blow it up! (Lost reference) |
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The latest movie shot at Kualoa... What are those things? Dragon Eggs? Really, Dwayne Johnson?
I seriously doubt the first Journey movie was good enough to require a sequel. |
Mahalo for visiting!
