Tom's Movie tour - Many photos!

So the last time we were here, Tom really really wanted to do the movie tour - where you see the sites where movies have been filmed on the island. Didnt get to then - had trouble deciding which tour to take this time. - but he finally decided on the 4x4 tour. And let me tell you - we spent a lot of time getting our gizzards rocked - or a full body massage as I called it!

Just before we left to drive to the tour company, we recieved a phone call from our son saying he had been awakened by the Reno Nevada Coroner asking him if he was related to.....my husband's brother. Our son is young enough he can barely remember ever meeting the man. Apparently he died Sat midnight and they were trying to track down family. We last saw hubby's brother about 25 years ago. Heard from him twice since then - once when we agreed to 'loan' him money and once when we didnt. But still, this is a difficult wake up call for anyone. His brother led a sad life. And he died alone, without family at his own choosing, at the age of 61.

These photos are not in order. You can see that we progressed from sun to pouring rain thru the day.

This is one of two pickups that are full of hunting dogs. Apparently that is how they hunt boar in Kauia. After all, the boars are smart enough to take off and hide when they hear cars and trucks so they have to send dogs after them. These hunters did not have a productive day - as you can see, there is nothing on top of the board over the dogs!

Trekking back to the 4x4 after NOT seeing the crater that was featured in the movie Dragonfly becuase the rain would not stop and the clouds would not lift. We had to skip over rocks to get down a small muddy path that turned into a stream....waited for awhile until we gave up. The guides said they had not seen rain like this since February - go figure - after all, we have a history of taking rain with us on vacations PLUS we rented a convertible!!!!!
Hubby standing at what was once the gates to Jurassic Park. This is State property and everything they put up or down (including the paved road) had to be taken out and returned to nature when they left....so the road was paved and torn up 3 times. And the gates are gone - and because they were made of balsa wood and styrofoam, they never would have survived the 1996 hurricane anyway! BTW, we were told that Jurassic Park #4 starts filming some time in the next month...
This poor guy is so screwed. First of all, he took a rental car off the paved roads which immediately negates the insurance and contracts you sign. And now he is liable for damages to it - if and when he can get it towed out of there! (When we passed himon the way up, he was stuck in a puddle of mud....now look at it!) Oh and another pearl of wisdom - if you go to buy a previous rental car -make sure it was not used in Hawaii. The natives will not buy the cars from the rental companies there (look at the photo again!) so the rental companies have to ship them to the mainland to sell them!
The historic Coco Palms. The site of many a celebrity - including Elvis and some of his movies. Devastated by the hurricane of 1996 and by the Japanese firm who owned it by then. They supposedly tried to cheat the insurance company - after they started losing business because of lack of upkeep - they say the chance to get the money to fix the place up again and factored in that money into their insurance claims. They lost. Big time. The insurance company refused to pay a cent. So they sold it for $13 million a few years ago. The owner is hoping to restore it. Right now it is a ghost town inhabited by many coconuts (the back acres are coconuts and no one is harvesting them) and one caretaker/guard. There has been looting - and jsut FYI if you come across a south seas clam shell billed as a bathroom sink from the Coco Palms, there is a reward offered....

Oh, one of the streams we forded on the way up to the Jurassic Park site.

Guess I thought you might want to see it twice?
Mushrooms apparently grow well int he rainforest!

This pier was used in one of hubby's (many) favorite movies - Donovan's Reef.
Look at the old fogies next to the waterfall. And look -we have sunglasses on, so this must have been earlier in the day!
This was the cottage Elvis always stayed in. And was used in one of his films. The owner at that time was not about to kick out one of her loyal customers, so they could not book more than one cottage. So in the film Blue Hawaii - this same cottage was used 4 different times with 4 different sets of furnishings!
The activity board still has announcements on it...
Nope, it is the world's largest fiberglass conch shell....